Blaze Traditional 25-Inch 3-Burner Built-In Natural Gas Grill - BLZ-3-NG

The Skinny:

• 304-grade stainless steel construction with outstanding metal thicknesses
• Brilliant all-around cooking performance with bulletproof ignition
• Dual-zone grilling so effortless, it feels like you’re cheating
• Thoughtful quality of life features for excellent value
• Backed by a best in class warranty

Simply put? The Blaze Gas Grill is the perfect example of a Premium grill.

Blaze Traditional grills offer Premium level quality at a great value. Between thoughtful construction and thick materials, the Blaze Traditional is frankly built to last. It’s also built to perform — the burners, flame tamers, cooking grids, and especially the heat zone separators fold together into a multi-faceted grill greater than the sum of its parts. Throw in flamethrower ignition (and an infallible backup), the finest warranty in the game, convenient cart features, and that eye-popping plug and play infrared burner, and you wind up with a guaranteed entertaining investment you’ll hand down to your kids.

For this review, our irreplaceable Chef Tony put the Blaze Traditional Freestanding model through its paces in rigorous testing — such as XRF metal analysis, thermocouple heat inspection, and round upon round of roasting and searing. In his words: “It checks all the boxes.” We’re talking high performance, solid construction, rock-solid features, serious longevity, and that generous Blaze lifetime warranty.

Quality:

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• First up, the Blaze Traditional is 304-grade stainless steel inside and out… minus a few key spots. The interior firebox, warming rack, drip pan, and inner panel of the double-walled lid are all 442-grade stainless steel. This is intentional. Such steel boasts higher titanium content than other grades, which means super strength under intense heat — leaving it less likely to crack, warp, or break welds under repeated extreme conditions.

  Not to mention the thickness of these pieces. Those 8mm thick cooking grids are solid stainless steel and wide enough to absorb and hold heat nicely (which means striking sear marks at high temperatures). Blaze Traditional grills also use a 14-gauge, full-width 304-grade perforated flame tamer system that carefully guards your burners from drippings, vaporizing them on contact. Across the entire length of your firebox, your sensitive burner ports will remain grease-free and safe to operate.

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Let’s talk more about those burners. Cast stainless steel burners are molded from molten steel and formed into shape, avoiding seams — they make a welcome touch for any grill in this class. Chef Tony measured 3mm thick walls on these hefty, nicely-built cast burners. That width not only backs up all claims of burner heat absorption and conductivity but promises endurance through repeated usage.

Performance:

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• After 20 minutes with all burners on high, Chef Tony clocked this Blaze gas grill at 670 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s plenty for the Premium class, and high enough to drop an amazing sear on the thickest steaks around. For the minimum heat test, 20 minutes with all burners on low produced 350 degrees; that’s about what we expected. This holds the door open for various cooking techniques such as baking and roasting, and the potential for low and slow smoking by utilizing fewer burners.

  Does “perforated full-width flame tamer system” ring a bell? They’re not just burner protection! When grease droplets splatter against the white-hot perforations, a subtle flame kiss sears your foods — much gentler than the charred beating of a fiery flare-up. Overall, this extinguishes flames and dissolves grease before they can cause you any headaches.

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Not impressed yet? Here’s the Blaze trump card that impressed Chef Tony: heat zone dividers. This multi-zone potential really pulls the Blaze Traditional series forward from other grills in this class. Between each burner rests a 304-grade stainless steel plate that halts the transfer of heat laterally across the grill. You probably won’t be ready to appreciate this genius feature until you need to grill at staggered temperatures. As soon as you do, you’ll find that heat zone dividers hold one portion of the grill at a much higher heat than the other. For inspiration, this grants you the power to simultaneously flip seared steaks and bake sides mere inches from one another.

Features:

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• Standing proud and dependable, the Blaze Traditional didn’t blow Chef Tony away with its feature list, but some convenient quality of life add-ons lifted an eyebrow. Blaze’s ignition system makes another solid appearance here — these flamethrower ignitions are far more dependable than piezo spark designs (and if you do have to replace them, they’re much cheaper). They’re also far simpler: a separator in the grill sends a small gas line through each igniter and, when used, the sparker igniter throws a small flame that can light the whole grill in one fell swoop. If any igniter fails, the crossover plates in the back step up for the assist; if the whole system goes, the secondary flash tube ignition comes to bat. Flash tubes can’t fail, period. If you can produce fire of any kind, and gas is trickling to that tube, the burners will light every time.

  Snap in and out infrared caught Chef's attention, however. Most high-end grills won’t let you purchase an aftermarket infrared accessory burner like this; Blaze offers it whenever you want, because all these burners are easily swappable. Pop off a regular burner and slip in the plug and play infrared burner — that’s it. It doesn’t get simpler.

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Other accessories include a branded grill cover, robust smoker box, and premium rotisserie kit (which happily works in tandem with the backburner for delicious roasted entrées). For freestanding Blaze Traditional models, the grill cart sneaks in a convenient paper towel rack holder against the double-walled doors, a propane tank holder with locking mechanism, swivel-locking casters, and removable side shelves for extra space and easier storage — naturally, the Blaze Traditional Built-In model doesn’t benefit from these niceties.

Chef Tony’s favorite feature? The warranty, hands down. Blaze guarantees this grill for the lifetime of the original purchaser. If that doesn’t qualify as customer service, we don’t know what does.