Broil King Imperial XLS Gas Grill Review

The Broil King Imperial XLS is the biggest model in their top of the line Imperial Series. These premium category grills are packed with useful extras offering quality plus bells and whistles for a reasonable price. XLS features two completely separate cook boxes that may be used independently or together for small or large gatherings. The XLS has heavy cast stainless steel cooking grates. The grill heads are 430 stainless steel with cast aluminum hood end caps. An identical model called the Imperial XL is available in black powder coated steel with a stainless control panel. Six 10,000 BTU main burners, a 15,000 BTU stainless rear rotisserie tube burner and a 10,000 BTU side burner. Rotisserie kit is included.

Reversable cooking grates are heavy cast stainless steel, (see left). Flav-R-Wave heat tents blanket the bottom of the deep firebox, mitigating flare ups, sizzling drippings and radiating searing heat. The cook box is deep, the hood is high. Many believe this design enhances roasting. Certainly the headroom in the hood is great for rotisserie and large items like roasts and turkeys.

Substantial side shelves feature heavy cast aluminum condiment trays and built-in BBQ tool hooks. The large cart has one door and three drawers. Imperials may be ordered as LP or NG. LP models have a pull out propane tank drawer inside the single door. Built-in hood and control knob lights are a welcome feature. But why the single battery powered igniter for all four main burners? One could expect dedicated ignition at each control knob on a beautiful grill like this. Broil King explains that when dedicated control knob igniters fail, the entire mechanism must often be replaced, not just the one faulty igniter. So they chose to use a single igniter for simplicity.

Broil King claims their patented Dual Tube Burners produce more even heat and increase burner life.  Gas enters the burner first through a small, perforated tube within the large stainless steel burner tube.  The design is intended to create even gas pressure throughout the burner, resulting in even flame and evenly distributed heat stress on the burner.  After cooking extensively with dual tubes, we believe the heat is indeed even, but no more so than with similar quality grills.

Their Linear Flow control knobs, however, are a step above the competition. With very little play in the valve stems, movement is smooth and solid throughout the 180° arc from low to high, making minute adjustments easy.

Warranty on the dual tube burners is the same as Weber’s tube burners – ten years.