The difference between
gas
and
infra-red
grills is not a fuel difference - they both use gas for fuel. The difference
is in how the heat actually makes it to the cooking surface. In a
traditional
gas grill, a direct flame is used to heat the flame taming device and the
cooking surface. In
infra-red
grills, the burner assembly is made from a stainless steel housing with
a ceramic top. The ceramic top has thousands of tiny little prots in it, and
the burner itself is inside this assembly (but it is not visible without taking
the assembly apart). What happens is the burner heats up the ceramic plates,
which in turn radiate heat up to the cooking surface. As a general rule,
infrared
grills get really hot (but they don't do low temperatures), where
regular
grills give you a broader range of temps (but usually don't get as hot.
The exception is some of the
high
end grills reach
infra-red
grill temps but still back down to low temps as well).
