The Hyperlogos

This beautifully-named grille is a ~48,000 BTU, four-burner unit, with a 13,000 BTU side-burner. The lid, doors, and fascias are stainless steel, while all the other parts are painted. The chome-finish plastic knobs are big and cheery and the ignitor is a centrally-mounted electronic type that ignites both the grill and the side burner. It comes with a griddle for the side-burner, and has an upper swing-away grill for toasting and roasting.

As usual, we elected to do our own assembly, which is pretty much the case any time we're not buying a floor model. Everything is packed very nicely, minimizing the space it takes up and protecting it quite well, but none of the boxes are labeleled and the sheer amount of cardboard, styrofoam, and plastic bag involved means that just getting rid of the packaging involves filling up my blue recycling can twice as well as half-filling the trash can once.

While pulling the materials out of the packaging, a few things jump out pretty quickly. Firstly, none of the non-stainless metal parts seem to be very well-stamped. They depend pretty heavily on one another for alignment, support, and so on. The casters are quite small, which is sensible for a grill with a footprint of this size but still not very exciting. The cooking grids are a very pleasant size, and unlike many cast iron grids are not so large and heavy that they cannot conveniently be moved with tongs while the grill is in use, a feature which can come in very handy for fishing escaping asparagus or pepper strips out of the lower grill area.

In addition, a lot of the metal edges are quite sharp - they actually go so far as to warn you about this in the manual, and suggest that you wear gloves, although I suspect you'd have a hard time handling most of the hardware in work gloves, not to mention that some of the screws are difficult to reach already, even with the thin-handled screwdriver included in the package. I didn't wear gloves, and I only scraped my fingers (no blood) but I am a highly experienced knuckle-banger. I suggest you wear some.

When I got to the rolled side panel, I made a saddening discovery; the metal is not actually rolled, just bent into shape and then tacked with some marginal welds. These welds were incomplete on the right side panel. It looks like the stamping/punching process left the metal bent outwards near the so-called weld, which further stressed it and likely resulted in the complete failure of both attempts at a tack. Replacement of a faulty part is not a complicated process, and I was able to assemble and use the grill in spite of this (after a bit of manual bending work involving a conveniently-sized "C" clamp) but it does point to a basically flawed design which I would expect to eventually fail on the other side as well. I understand the idea of cost-cutting, but this seems a bit ridiculous on a grill of this price.

Replacement was easy enough, registration over the phone required only the serial number etc. Calling them is a bit annoying as you cannot skip the introductory message about model and serial number etc, which also suggests you visit their website in the usual patronizing manner. Once I actually got a human on the phone, however, the experience was quite pleasant. The same person I spoke to about my faulty part was able to talk to me about the cover and the rotisserie, although if you actually want to order a cover you most likely have to go measure your grill because they don't have information on dimensions available. I'd have hoped the software would just spit out the number of the cover that fits each grill - especially since grills typically come in series, with the same design implemented in a variety of materials. I got the part in just a couple of days, and maybe someday I'll install it. Check all your parts before you begin assembly.

Aside from dealing with bending the faulty side panel into a working shape (I was in a hurry to cook some cedar-plank salmon, which I topped with butter and a light glaze of maple syrup) assembly was not too painful. The kit includes a bad wrench and a mediocre screwdriver, which I actuall yused. There are absolutely no spare parts in the hardware kit (which is nicely if excessively blister-packaged) but provided you don't lose anything, the only thing you need to put the thing together is a knife of some sort, mostly for getting into the box and opening the various bits of packaging.

The electronic ignitor unit is accessible from the front panel - it unscrews and you can slip the battery in easily. Unfortunately, it's not at all waterproof, which to me raises questions about what else might end up inside of it (like, say, some BBQ sauce or marinade?) I'm waiting now to see if it will dry out. The switch is very simple (it's basically a spring and a rubber hat, and a pointy contact) so I expect that part at least to hold up well - usually the switch is the first thing to go. It's also usually pretty cheap, so I'll be disappointed to say the least if the ignitor dies before it does.

The unit's side-shelves (including the burner) are tilted down a bit, but not enough to make things roll off them too easily. These shelves only officially support ten pounds each, which is really not very much at all. A five gallon pot of corn, for example, would probably weigh at least 25 pounds with the water in it. The shelves themselves are painted metal, although their front fascias are stainless steel. Aside from the shelves, the exterior parts of the grill are all stainless. Unfortunately, that's all, so the stainless content only means that it is likely to continue to look excellent long after it has started falling apart. There is a metal flex line between the side burner and the main unit, which I would expect to be about the first thing to go.

The cooking grids on our model are coated cast iron, but you can probably get just about anything for it from the BBQ parts website of your choice. There's three grids, with a fairly typical triangular design. The side burner has a big square lid that covers over the included aluminum griddle. One side is ribbed and bare, and the other side is smooth and teflon-coated. Aluminum is actually a pretty horrible thing to use for cookware or dishes, but the teflon-coated griddle side looks like it would be a nice place to cook pancakes, eggs, et cetera. There's a narrowish stainless steel swing-away shelf installed above the grill, which is unsurprisingly much more convenient than the kind that doesn't move. Installing it without scratching the grill requires a fair bit of effort.

The burners are tube log types running front to back, with a roof-shaped spreader/grease shield on top of each. Grease itself runs to the center and into a small cup (of about 1 cup capacity) which hangs below it on a wire hook. This cup could easily be sized up - replace it with anything at least as sturdy, around the same diameter or a bit larger, and made of metal. The unit has room enough only for a typical 5 gallon LPG tank, and comes with a wire basket shelf to attempt to prevent you from lying a larger one down inside of it, although of course you could always run the regulator off to the side.

Fit and finish, which admittedly is partly my responsibility, is not excellent. While some monkeying around and/or replacement of the damaged part (which I will undertake when it arrives) may fix this, the lid does not lie flush down on the body of the BBQ, which came preassembled. I would also prefer to have more depth between grill and burners, to leave room for future replacement of the flame spreaders with a grill and stones, which provides superior heat distribution.

All in all, had we spent the asked retail price of $399 instead of the sale price of $199, we'd have been sadly disappointed in the fit and finish of this grill, and the basic failings in the design. But otherwise, the unit is fairly solid and definitely had no problem cooking up my maple-glazed, cedar-smoked salmon. In the month and change we've had it put together I've used it to cook all kinds of things, including actually doing some light baking on the upper rack when our oven was out of commission due to a bad igniter. So far it has done a fine job of making cold food hot and putting little lines on it.

Floor price at Friedman Bros.: $399
We Paid: $199

Pros: Attractive, large cooking surface, simple design, few parts
Cons: Poor fit/finish, small grease cup, weak side shelves