I definitely recommend a sear burner. I've heard good things about the Napoleon. I also saw them on some HGTV grilling special and they looked really nice.

We just grilled on our built in Napoleon Prestige 650RBI for the first time the other day for a t-ball cookout. It was just hamburgers and hotdogs, so I really can't say much about how it really does yet. I liked it though. I didn't use the sear zone because I didn't want to try to use it for the first time with a bunch of people to cook for. I'd have probably burned everything up since it cooks burgers in like 5 minutes or something like that.

I looked at the Napoleon's but shied away because the sear burners are only about 14,000 btu's which seems really anemic for a sear burner. I know the IR will use the btu's better than a burner, but I don't think that well. I'd expect a sear burner to be more like 30,000 to 50,000.

To be truthful, a commercial salamander usually has a 15,000 btu overfired burner. The sear ability has more to do with the technology and not the power.

I received a Napoleon 450RBI for Father's Day. I am very pleased with this grill.

First test was hamburgers and hot dogs. Cooked efficiently and quicker than the old (14 years) Ducane. Next, I tried the IR burner on a couple of steaks. Since it's new to me, I followed the guidelines in the manual - 2 minutes on each side for rare. Worked pretty well. Steaks came out tasty!

Next step, spit a small roast - this weekend.

By the way, second son took the old Ducane to his apartment. It's still going strong!

Enjoy the journey.

eal51 in western CT

We've used our sear burner on our Napoleon 650RBI a few times now for steaks and burgers. I think it does a great job. I used to have to keep my old grill on the light setting to try and get it to sear steaks, and it still didn't really do it. It had a lot more than 14,000 BTU's, but couldn't do what the Napoleon does with the 14,000. The steaks now cook fast enough on the outside that you can cook them rare-medium with a nice sear on the outside and the juices still on the inside. And as for hamburgers, they are much juicier cooked on the sear zone.

I bought a Napoleon up405 grill recently and was not impressed. I bought it sight unseen from arizona grills. It came in a sealed box that showed no signs of being previusly opened. The top had a minor gouge in the finish, I might not have noticed this except they circled it with a white marker and marked it "MD" . One of the so called solid surface side shelves had a big chunk broken out of it. The way everything was packaged this had to have happened before it was placed in the outer box. Solid surface does not mean solid surface like your kitchen counter. It means an 1/8" thick hollow piece of molded plastic. Kind of cheesy looking.
The sear plates would not fit into the base without some serious force. I had to grind some notches to clear the ribs in the casting. The ignitor has a small blade type electrical connection, The wire from the grill end of the ignitor had a round connector. (Radio shack fixed that). The handle is held on with #10 carbon steel screws. The warming basket hangers were also #10 carbon steel as were some of the base mounting screws that projected into the firebox. I replaced all of these with 1/4" stainless. I would not expect any small carbon steel parts projecting into the firebox to last more than a year.
The plumbing included a 3/8" copper tube with 6 right angle bends. Copper gas lines are not allowed in many areas, 3/8" line is kind of small for 45,000 btu and all the bends just make it worse. I used 3" length of SS tube and crossed over to 1/2" SS flex line.
The frame that the firebox sits in is powder coated carbon steel. I have some doubts about how long that will last in the gulf coast climate.

The cooking grates are stamped stainless steel. Some people may like them. They seem to have more contact area with the food and are harder to clean than round rods.

The burners are heavy SS tube and work fine. The sear plates seem to cause more flareups than the ceramic bricks I used to have. The aluminum casings are flawless. hinge pins are SS shoulder bolts, very sturdy.

I E-mailed Napoleon with this list of gripes but didn't get a reply.

I expected better for the money. One of the problems with buying sight unseen over the internet.