Gas Grill Heat Density Comparator

Last updated 2026-08-23

Gas grills are marketed on total main-burner BTU. That number climbs with the size of the grill's own grate, so it doesn't say how intensely a square inch of that grate actually gets heated. We fetched six brands' own current product pages directly and divided each one's own stated main burner BTU by its own stated primary cooking area — a figure both numbers were already sitting next to on the same spec page, just never divided.

Where the number comes from

Heat density here is just main burner BTU ÷ primary cooking area in square inches — no unit conversion, because both figures are already stated in the same units on each brand's own page. It is a plain average across the whole grate, not a measurement of any one burner or any one spot on it.

What this does not do

• It excludes side burners, infrared sear burners and rear rotisserie burners on every row — each brand states those as a separate BTU figure on its own page, not part of the main grate's own number, so mixing them in would inflate the density for grills that happen to have more accessory burners rather than a hotter main grate.
• It covers six models across three brands checked directly, not an exhaustive catalog — Napoleon's own domain returned an access error on every direct fetch attempt this session, and several other Char-Broil product pages 404'd, so neither appears here.
• A higher number is not unambiguously "better." Higher heat density means faster searing and a shorter time to hot, but it also means less room to hold a low, even temperature and a higher flare-up risk — none of that is scored here, only the density itself.
• It does not check burner layout, heat-distribution design (baffles, flame tamers, infrared emitters) or grate material, all of which affect how evenly a grill's own stated BTU actually reaches the food — density is one number about the whole surface, not a guarantee any single spot on it cooks the same.

Every figure, unfiltered

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. BTU shows up as the headline marketing number in another product category too, with the same gap between what's advertised and what's actually standardized — see the portable AC BTU coverage comparator.