The Skinny:
- Evenly heated cooking surface
- Virtually no flare-ups
- Heat zone separators for multiple cooking zones
- Built solid to last
- Control knob LED lighting
- Excellent customer service after the sale
Things We Love:
Saber is a brand known for its excellent value and amazing customer service after the sale. The Saber Elite is no exception, offering premium features that are a step up from other Saber grills, all 304 stainless steel construction, and of course Saber's patented infrared cooking system. This infrared cooking system reaches searing high temperatures, which is great for steakhouse quality sear marks on your food. The 304-grade stainless steel cooking grids feature air-channels on the bottom side, which trap hot air and create an excellent surface for nice sear marks, and offer quick heat recovery when its time to flip your food over. The cooking grids sit on top of 304-grade stainless steel emitter plates, which cover the entire surface of the grill, allowing heat to radiate evenly across the grilling surface. This also means that any food drippings that fall between the cooking grids, will be caught and vaporized back into your food in the form of delicious smoke. The emitter plates feature tiny air holes that line up directly under the cooking grids, which focuses the heat exactly where you want it, at the cooking surface. Because this design also restricts air flow, you'll find that grease drippings, which normally cause flare-ups, are transformed into rich smoke and makes this cooking system virtually free from any flare-ups.
Saber Elite offers 304-grade stainless steel burners, producing 8,000 BTUs each. The burners are ignited by a battery powered spark ignition. Sitting between each burner are heat zone separators, which allow you to cook with different temperature zones at once. This is great for searing steaks in one zone, while slow roasting veggies in another zone.
Saber also offers an innovative warming rack which allows you to adjust it to sit inches above the cooking surface as a roasting rack, giving you extra cooking versatility. However, if you're cooking ribs or another dish that stretches across the heat zones, be sure to remove the heat zone separators so your food cooks evenly.
The Elite also includes two interior halogen lights that light up the grilling surface when cooking in low-light settings, and white LED control knob lights allow you to easily see and adjust your control knobs at night, while also giving it an eye-catching appearance.
Saber grills also include a grate scraper tool and full width slide-out drip pan, making clean up of any grease that may fall into the firebox a breeze. It is worth noting that after multiple cooks on this grill, I could not find a single drop of grease that fell below the cooking system and into the drip pan. This is definitely a bonus if you're looking for a low maintenance grill.
While the Saber Elite includes a marine-grade cover to protect it against the outdoor elemetns, you may also be interested in some of the popular accessories that Saber offers for these grills, which includes a griddle, easy-read meat thermometer, and dual-use grill brush.
Things To Consider:
Like most infrared grills, don't expect to cook at low or warming temperatures. The lowest temperature we were able to achieve was 450 degrees.
Saber grills offer individual cooking zone thermometers that sit at grate level above each burner. However, like many gas grill thermometers, we found them to be inaccurate.
You'll Like This Grill If:
You want a solid cooking infrared grill that is built to last, from a brand with excellent customer service after the sale.