American Made Grills Review: Four Decisions Worth $14,000

Before anything else, a name problem worth clearing up.

American Made Grills is not American Outdoor Grill, which belongs to RH Peterson and makes the Fire Magic line. AMG was previously branded American Muscle Grill, and plenty of retailers still list it under Summerset. Same grills, three names floating around the search results. This American Made Grills review is about the Long Island manufacturer whose hybrid firebox burns gas, charcoal and wood in the same cook.

Their lineup at one large retailer spans $4,335 to $18,482. That's a $14,147 spread inside a single brand, and four choices decide where you land in it.

Decision One: Encore or Muscle?

Every dealer page treats these as two separate series, Muscle the bold one and Encore the refined one, each with its own photography and its own marketing copy. So we lined the prices up.

Four sizes, four exact matches, down to the cent. Same 110,000 BTU output, same 1,105 square inches, same four main burners plus an infrared sear, same 9-gauge reversible grates.

These are one grill with two faces, so pick whichever styling suits your island and ignore any comparison page that implies a performance gap between them, because on every specification the manufacturer publishes there isn't one.

Decision Two: Hybrid or Gas Only?

This is the decision that actually matters, and it's the reason the brand exists.

A 36-inch Estate, gas only, runs $8,335. The 36-inch hybrid runs $10,158.72. That's $1,824 apart, or about 22% more.

What the money buys is a set of 14-gauge fuel trays that sit between the burners and the grates. Load them with lump charcoal or hardwood, use the gas burners to light them, and you're at cooking temperature in three to five minutes with no chimney and no lighter fluid. You can also run gas and charcoal at the same time.

Weigh it honestly, though. A decent standalone kamado costs roughly what this premium costs, so there are no savings here, only one appliance instead of two, one cutout instead of two, and the option to switch fuel mid-cook.

If your island only has room for one grill, that's worth $1,824. If you've got space for a separate charcoal cooker sitting beside it, probably not.

Decision Three: Built-In or Freestanding?

Here's where the numbers get strange.

The Estate line charges a consistent 24% to 26% to put the grill on a cart. The hybrids charge 45% to 46% for the same thing. On a 36-inch hybrid that's $4,659, and on the 54-inch it's $5,722.

Nothing obvious explains why a stainless cart under a hybrid should carry roughly double the percentage markup of the same kind of cart under a gas grill from the same factory, sold through the same retailer, in the same week.

Whatever the reason, the advice is blunt. Buying a hybrid? Build it in. That $4,659 covers a serious amount of masonry, and you finish with a proper outdoor kitchen instead of a very expensive trolley.

Decision Four: Where You Click Buy

American Made Grills prices are not the same everywhere, and the direction surprised us.

The brand's own site lists the 36-inch Encore at $11,174.60. The same grill at BBQGuys is $10,158.72. Buying direct from the manufacturer costs $1,015.88 more, roughly 9%.

So check three dealers before ordering, because on a purchase this size that gap covers the rotisserie and the cover with change left over.

You can also read our Grilla Grills Primate review which is a wise choice to be considered!

The Part No Other AMG Grills Review Mentions

We went looking for owner feedback and came back nearly empty-handed.

1. Fifteen AMG models listed at BBQGuys
2. Thirteen of them carry zero customer reviews
3. The two that have any have exactly one review each

That's roughly 87% of the range with no published owner verdict at all, on grills reaching $18,482. Compare that to Blaze or Weber, where a popular model gathers hundreds of reviews and long-term faults surface within a season or two.

None of which means the grills are bad. A low-volume brand sold through specialty dealers will always gather fewer reviews than a big-box name, and the metalwork specs here are genuinely heavy: 14-gauge burners, 9-gauge grates, a 16-gauge double-lined hood. Most of the field runs lighter.

It does mean you're buying on specifications and warranty rather than on evidence, which is a different kind of purchase from picking a grill hundreds of people have already lived with for three summers. Plenty of buyers are fine with that. Just know you're doing it.

The Warranty, and One Thing to Confirm

The Gold Standard Warranty is strong, with replacement parts described as 100% non-prorated.

1. Lifetime: construction, stainless components, grates, burners, valves, flame tamers, gauges, hood springs
2. Three years: everything else, including electrical parts and LED bulbs
3. Labour: not included

One caution. The terms quoted across dealer pages and brand summaries don't fully agree with each other, particularly on how long valves and electrical parts stay covered, so get the current schedule in writing from whoever sells you the grill rather than trusting a spec sheet on a blog. Including this one.

Who Should Buy One

Buy it if multi-fuel cooking in one built-in firebox is the whole point, you're commissioning an island anyway, and you'd take heavy American steel over a familiar badge. Nothing else near this price runs gas, charcoal and wood in a single box without modifications.

Skip it if you only cook on gas. Skip the freestanding hybrids outright.

Final Verdict

The hybrid firebox is the real thing and the steel is heavier than most of what it competes with. What holds the score back is the near-total absence of independent owner feedback and a cart premium that no engineering explanation covers. Anyone reading an American Made Grills review should end up at the same place we did: buy the hybrid, build it in, and buy it from a dealer rather than the factory.

FAQs

Who makes American Made Grills?

An independently run manufacturer on Long Island, New York. The brand was formerly American Muscle Grill and some retailers still file it under Summerset.

Is American Made Grills the same as American Outdoor Grill?

No. American Outdoor Grill belongs to RH Peterson, the company behind Fire Magic. Different brands, similar names.

What is the difference between Encore and Muscle?

Styling only. The specifications and prices are identical across all four sizes.

How much do American Made Grills cost?

From $4,335 for the Atlas 36 to $18,482 for a freestanding 54-inch hybrid, based on one large retailer's current listings.

Can it really burn wood and charcoal?

Yes. Fuel trays sit under the grates and the gas burners light the solid fuel in three to five minutes. There's no pellet hopper or auger, though.

Which model is the best value?

The Atlas 36 at $4,335 works out cheapest per square inch by some distance, though it's gas only and drops the hybrid trays.

Pricing and specifications were accurate at the time of writing and are drawn from current retailer listings. Published figures vary between dealers, so confirm before ordering.