The Skinny:
- 304-grade stainless steel construction utilized throughout the grill
- Effortless, robust ignition and overall solid cooking performance
- Excellent heat production, but low settings run a little too warm
- Admirable grilling results when cooking in windier conditions
- Full rotisserie kit and quality of life extras included
Coyote S-Series gas grill packs an unexpectedly superior build into a sensible Premium grill.
We’ve come to expect great things out of Coyote Outdoor Living, and they didn’t disappoint with their S-Series line. From its outstanding use of excellent steel to its thick components and surprisingly formidable burners, what we saw here was a grill that’s built like a heavyweight — and it hits like one, too. This BBQ grill packs a lot of what we expect from high-end, Luxury class grills into a package one level down. In layman’s terms? That buck gets you a whole lot of bang.
For this review, Chef Tony went hands-on with the Coyote S-Series Freestanding grill, putting it through a gauntlet of tests: XRF metal analysis, thermocouple heat inspection, and grill enough burgers to make you sick of them (well, maybe for a day or two). Though he clocked a couple of minor quibbles, he happily gave this grill his seal of approval based on its substantial quality, overall solid performance, and great features.
Quality:
Coyote S packs class-leading construction quality and great workmanship into a trustworthy design.
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For a Premium class grill, the Coyote S-Series gas grill came out swinging on build quality. We weren’t necessarily surprised to see 304-grade stainless steel utilized throughout the design; after all, that’s the cream of the crop. But as Chef Tony quickly realized… Coyote meant business. From the double-walled canopy and cooking grids down to even the control panel, every single major component upheld that golden standard. Sure, that’s one of our baseline expectations for a higher-end Luxury grill, but it’s uncommon for this class. That was a welcome surprise here.
Speaking of the cooking grids, a very pleased Chef Tony measured them at 8mm thick with — you might want to hold your breath for this one — 304-grade stainless steel. Of similar quality were the flame tamers: 19-gauge, 304-grade, and packed nice and tight with ceramic briquettes. Naturally, these briquettes are an excellent choice for absorbing, retaining, and slowly dispersing heat across the entire cooking area; even before fingertips touched a burner, we were excited to see how this machine performed.
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Our charismatic cook didn’t expect any further surprises, but by now he should’ve known better. Out of nowhere, Coyote S punched high above its weight class with its H-style, cast stainless steel Coyote Infinity Burners™ (for those of you who guessed “304-grade” again, now’s a great time to collect your winnings). Measuring the walls of the cast itself, he noticed a thickness of 3mm. Color him impressed.
Performance:
Coyote S reaches 460–670 degrees Fahrenheit, offering great heat retention with few reasonable compromises.
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With the lid closed, running all conventional burners on high for 20 minutes produced results at 660–670 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s rock-solid for the Premium class. However, the shallow end of the spectrum ran a little warmer than he hoped — with all conventional burners at their lowest for 30 minutes, he couldn’t get it to budge below 460–475 degrees. In our eyes, that’s simply a consideration, not a deal-breaker.
However, something else that caught his attention was the overall temperature evenness. During the thermocouple testing, the front-right quarter of the total cooking surface consistently ran about 15 degrees cooler than the under-the-hood average. For grills of this caliber, we’ve come to expect higher consistency. But we call that a lick, not a ring-out.
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With that said, only real-world cooking can deliver the full picture. To prepare, Chef Tony left those conventional Coyote Infinity Burners™ running on low and closed the lid for a 15-minute preheat. What better exercise than a burger test? Coyote S made a strong showing here. With the grilling grates loaded heavy from mouthwatering beef patties, the grill performed admirably — though, as suspected, the front-right corner lagged just a little behind. Was that a hurdle? Absolutely not. In fact, to some it might be an opportunity; we definitely think accounting for the lower cooking zone could be a boon to grilling multitaskers.
Features:
Coyote S offers bonuses including reliable ignition, a formidable ceramic infrared burner, and a full rotisserie kit.
Our surprise heavyweight here had a few more tricks up its sleeve. Coyote S boasts push and turn flamethrower-style ignition, which is a perk to us — they make up for the dependability shortcomings of piezo spark ignition, and replacing parts is gentler on the wallet. Lighting up this way is typically a first-try process; that means less aggravation and faster grilling.
Standard in the box are the H-style stainless steel Coyote Infinity Burners™, RapidSear™ infrared burner, ceramic rear infrared burner, stainless steel smoker box, grid lifting tool, and a full rotisserie kit complete with rod, spit, and forks (that was a nice touch, as we’ve grown used to providers supplying rotisserie kits a la carte). Furthermore, a handy build-in rack on the back of the grill stores rotisserie parts when out of use. Backlit LED bezels attractively illuminate the front knobs, while 2 interior halogen grill lights bathe the left and right sides for night grilling. If we gave our man a clipboard, he’d break a pencil checking boxes all the way down.
Ultimately, the features bring this all home into a solid cooking experience. After some deliberation, Chef Tony appointed Coyote S with a category rating of “Better” — it’s a solid design that fires up on a dime, operates smoother than expected in brisk, breezy conditions, and works very well overall. With a little forethought to the single lagging temperature zone, we find that a grill of this pedigree and superior construction makes for quite a strong Premium-class contender. Simply put, leave the Coyote S-Series grill in the hands of a capable grill master, and they’ll make any cookout a knockout.
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