Not Costco: This Consumer Reports' Recommended Gas Grill Is Sold At 2 Popular Stores

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Browse the range of outdoor kitchen sets at Costco and you're unlikely to be starved of options, especially when it comes to gas grills. However, it's far from the only place to shop for a decent backyard burner. Indeed, it might not actually be the best place to shop at all if you need to buy a gas grill. Really, it depends on which are the best grill brands for your budget, and which ones have the most favorable reviews from users. 

Of course, determining these things takes time — time that you may prefer to spend simply firing up your new grill. If that's the case, then you can always refer to Consumer Reports. This not-for-profit organization dedicates itself to discerning which consumer goods are most worth buying. It runs its own lab tests, conducts data-backed reports of consumer data, and even offers helpful advice for getting the lowest prices on home appliances. And if your goal is specifically grill-related, it has some curious insights that are likely to pique your interest. 

As an example, it recently highlighted Monument Grills' 77352 large Six-Burner Grill. It features LED controls, and comes complete with a side burner and rotisserie kit. It yields a significant amount of cooking space and versatility for backyard cooking, and according to Consumer Reports, it's among the most recommended gas grills for those in need of a larger unit. As for where to buy it, you guessed it: It's not available at Costco. That shouldn't matter, though; not if you happen to live within reasonable driving distance of a Lowe's or Home Depot. Whichever you prefer to shop at (or whichever lies closest), you can currently grab this grill for around $699.

Diving into the Consumer Reports findings, Monument Grills' 77352 model comes out as a solid large grill for the price. Admittedly, it earns only middling scores for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction. Nevertheless, it ranks among the best large grills in CR's ratings, performing admirably across all of its lab tests. It earned top scores across categories including evenness, preheat performance, and temperature range. It also earned a very high score for indirect cooking.

Those findings are reassuring, especially when you know that Consumer Reports operates independently and draws many of its findings from genuine user feedback. But if you've decided that now's the best time to buy a gas grill, you'll still want to see the proof for yourself. To help, we headed to the Home Depot website to do some digging, and found that, with more than 300 reviews, the grill scores 4.5 stars overall. In fact, 75% of users there rated it 5 stars, with many praising the value for what is a heavy-duty, well-built, stainless-steel grill. "Works better than any other grill I purchased," said one happy buyer, who also praised how evenly it cooks across all grates.

Over at Lowe's, 77% of more than 110 buyers gave it top marks, lending to a rating of 4.6. That slight score improvement could be because several Lowe's buyers were able to buy it pre-assembled, whereas some Home Depot buyers had trouble putting theirs together. What's for sure is that, like at Home Depot, most Lowe's customers concur with Consumer Reports' findings. As one shopper put it, "Great grill! I did grill design and planning for several years and this is as good if not the best cooking unit available and at a really good cost."