I have a $4,000- Vielux grill. They stopped making them a couple of yesrs ago. I love the grill but I also have some regrets. On the love side: This thing COOKS! After we bought it, we went over a friends house and they just bought a grill that looked as good as mine for a fraction of the cost. I tried to make a recipe that I made on my grill. I cut fresh peaches in half, dipped the open part in sugar and carmelized the sugar, face down on the grill. (I can post the whole recipe if anyone is interested). It didn't work. The peaches got mushy, and the sugar didn't get carmelized. It didn't have the power. The differece on meats is even more dramatic. It also take less time to cook on high heat. Even heat is important too. That requires cleaning the parts where the gas comes out. I recomend finding out how hard it is to clean those parts before you make a decision. The apect that I'm unhappy about is that the cavity is so large that if I want to make 2 lamb chops, I have to turn on at least half the grill, what a waste of gas! I asked the salesman when I bought it "what if I want to make one or two lambchops?" He said that's easy, you just turn on one or two rows of heat. The problem is that one row of heat barely get the it warm, it can't char meat. Don't let them tell that it will be different with an other grill, it won't. I wish I had a grill with two cavities, like my parents had.

I've been grill shopping too. I narrowed my choices down to Lynx, Fire Magic, Twine Eagles and Alfresco. I saw all of these grills at local dealers. I did not consider Kalamazoo because of the high price, but I did research it on the Internet. All these brands have the reputation of being very fine grills (which should be the case in this price range) so it comes down more to a matter of personal preference rather than quality, build or performance issues, IMHO. Here are my impressions of each brand: Lynx -- I was very impressed when I saw this grill in person; its design is streamlined and elegant and certainly would win first prize for sheer beauty. It also has a nice set of features -- lots of BTUs/sq in of grilling surface, a multiposition, 3-speed rotis, an interior halogen light for night grilling, a spring-actuated lid assist, a smoker box (no smoker burner though) and the cast-brass main burners you mentioned. The pricing is right in line for this class of gas grills. It wound up being my second choice. Twin Eagles -- the Lynx dealer also carried Twin Eagles so I saw them side by side. Very similar features as Lynx, but not quite as pretty, not quite as many BTUs, and not quite as expensive. Like the Lynx, it's American-made of 304 SS, and the fit and finish appeared excellant. That's true of all the four brands I saw, and, I'm sure, also of the Kalamazoo, except that it's in a category by itself in terms of build and materials, as you would expect for the price. Fire Magic -- this is a very old company with an excellant reputation for selling very high quality grills. However, for the price, I think you could do better. IMHO, Fire Magic is lacking innovation in both the appearance of the grill, which I would rank at the bottom of this group and especially that tall, tear-drop shaped lid, and also in the ommission of such a desirable feature as an interior light. They sell a clip-on, but who wants that? All that, combined with distinctly higher pricing than the others (except for Kalamazoo) means you really have to want the special features they do offer--such as the ability to do charcoal grilling in the main burner compartments--to choose this grill. Alfresco (even though you didn't ask) -- this wound up being my first choice. I ordered an 30" LX2 cart model (the LX2 is the higher-end of their two grill lines) with one infrared sear burner, which was shipped today. I saw the Alfresco at the same store as the Fire Magic and there was no question in my mind. Alfresco was the winner. Why? The pricing is similar to my second-choice Lynx, but Alfresco has one feature that really iced it for me. The rotis motor is built into the grill and you can leave the rotis rod right in place while you're grilling other things. In all the other grills I saw, you have to store the motor and rod when not in use. With these others, the motor, when in use, hangs outside the grill and the rod penetrates through openings in the lid. With Alfresco, the integrity of the lid is not compromised in this manner, and you don't have to trouble yourself with storage or with installing the components when you start rotissing. It also makes for a much sleeker appearance. The warming rack has four positions, one of which swings it completely out of the way when you're rotissing so that you also don't have to worry about removing the rack. Also, unlike the Lynx (and like the Fire Magic), the Alfresco has a dedicated smoke burner right below its smoke box, another feature that's important to me. Plus, the Alresco is almost as nice looking as the Lynx. Still, if money were no object, I'd be mighty tempted by a Kalamazoo. Judging by the pix on the Net, they're built like a tank and those "dragon burners" sound like they'd survive more than a season or two in Hell itself. Not that you'd be using it there.

I've done my homework and am very bummed out. I have learned ALL windows made today for replacement or tear out, no matter the maker or price, have limited life spans and begin to ROT after 10 to 15 years. I'd post a couple links but don't have current access. If you want, Google the brand you are considering and "Complaint" or "Review." If still in doubt, let me know and I'll try to post links asap. The people who aren't after money, i.e., not some people on this very link trolling for customers, will advise you to do whatever you can to save your existing windows, IF you live in a home built in 1970 or earlier that has original wood windows. If not, they will advise you to get the cheapest windows you can find with the longest warranty. Semco looked kind of good, but, sadly, I've also seen many complaints with those. I found 100s of complaints re. Marvin line, especialy the Ultimate, but the complaints (general and court filings) run rampant throughout the industry. I know Pella is or was the subject of a class action, and even the very high end Rohl and Rohl has had rot complaints. The Integrity has reportedly been designed 3 times, not the best advert for a quality product. I have yet to see before and after photos of any replacements that don't reflect perceptibly smaller window openings. Aside from asthetic issues and loss of size and light with the replacements, the apparent problem is poor quality of wood used in construction. No manufacturer has access to old wood from which windows were once made to last a lifetime. I am not happy to post any of this. We wanted new windows. Now, we hope to find a window refurbisher and pay whatever we need to preserve and protect what we have. Unfortunately for us, most cos. that do this work are located in North East states.

What we learned is that there is a lot of art and science to good pizza and bread ovens and it's easy to get wrong. A good pellet grill like Twin Eagles or MAK (stay away from Memphis Grills as their quality has tanked over the past couple of years) do a quite good job w/ pizza. Get a good thick pizza stone, heat the grill and stone to 600-800°f and let it settle there for 15 minutes before cooking, and you'll get some great pizza's. Like others we've found Pecan pellets to be really good but other woods work well too. Getting better than this from a food/taste quality standpoint requires a large oven with very accurate proportions. Many of the kits are too small or not proportioned correctly and the results are not as good as on the pellet grills. Sad and unromantic but it is what it is. There was one kit that people found worked well but I can't remember which one. Custom works well if the person building it knows what they're doing and gets the proportions correct. If there's a good wood or coal fired pizza place near you then find out who built theirs and use THAT EXACT SAME PERSON for yours. Someone else can do the decorative stuff on the outside but the oven, access and chimney are not easy to get right. Please post your outcome!