I love it! Honestly, I think all of these things are good and usefull. It is just human nature to want to identify with a lifestyle that seems cool and exciting, but sometimes it just is not who we are and the outdoor kitchen, or the hot tub, or the fire pit, or the treadmill never really got used the way we had dreamed they wpould. BUT, some people actually live lifestyles where these things are used regularly. Some people, maybe only a few, will actually change their lifestyles because of these things. Our Deviant-deziner can be inspired by anything. Its all how you look at it. .... I just might be inspired to get me one of them portable fire pits now.

I have cooked on all three and the TEK IR is the only gas grill that cooks as well as charcoal. It's advantages over charcoal are that it is quick to set up, easy to clean up and does an excellent job of creating the charcoal taste. As many here know, the flavor is created by the smoke from the fat striking the hot surface be it charcoal or something else. The higher the IR energy (from gas or charcoal) and the less the flame, the more smoke generated rather than being turned into additional flame. The TEK creates a great deal of smoke because the IR glass sits between the flame and the dripping grease. On older style IR burners there is still an open flame to ignite the grease drippings reducing the amount of smoke to add flavor. With charcoal, once the embers are glowing red, it is emitting a lot of IR and much less to no flame and hence produces a lot of smoke and flavor. I have owned the FireMagic and I would not purchase another. The burners are cast SS but they still do rust over time and the flavor grills wear out too. They are very hard to clean and the heat was not anywhere near as good as the advertisements. If you are the type that never clean a grill and don't mind a gritty looking grill it may not matter. I am the type that wants it to look clean and inviting each time and the self cleaning feature along with the dishwasher removal panels makes the TEK a breeze to clean and keep looking nice. For me that was worth a lot. The more conventional grills like the Firemagic, even with their ceramic infrared burner are not even a close match.

Does anyone know of a good quality outdoor grill that won't cost as much as my indoor kitchen range top? I am trying to stay under $1000.00 for a drop in barbeque grill. Is there another forum for outdoor kitchen appliances?

We have a grill and a smoker, and both are away from the house. They are close, but the smoke doesn't get close to the house. At our other house, the kitchen was a built-in island, still away from the house. There was a bar and stools but nobody used them because the bar top in summer got too hot. The only cover was an umbrella. In the heat, being under a cover is great, but the smoke can be awful if it's drifting in the eyes of guests around a table. We keep the tables and seating in the shade, and the grills away and like it that way. As far as wind and rain, we have covers for both the grill and the smoker. Hubs secures them with bungie cords so the wind won't blow them off.