The Dyna-Glo DGB390SNP-D is a decent deal, costing just over $200 at the time of this writing. It has great quality construction for the price, produces a decent amount of heat and distributes it evenly over its cast iron grates. However, there have been reports about problems with longevity, rust and other factors that deprived it of our best value pick, which went to the Char-Broil Performance.
It took two members of our lab crew a couple of hours to assemble this grill, which is about what we expected. The instructions were easy to follow and yielded a stable grill that, from our experience, was quite reliable. It’s not a full-size model, but it’s sufficient for small family barbeques or somewhat larger Memorial Day cookouts.
This grill puts out an above average amount of heat. Its three burners use about 36,000 Btu. For comparison, the average among all the gas grills we reviewed is 32,000 Btu. It also has relatively good heat consistency. To test this, we measured the heat of each grill seven, 14 and 21 minutes after ignition. Only our Char-Broil Performance and Weber Spirit II performed better.
We were impressed by the cooking experience this grill provides. Its enamel-coated, cast-iron grill grates measure about 507 square inches. You can comfortably fit nine frozen burger patties on the main grilling area and three on the warming rack. We didn’t have any trouble flipping burger patties or chicken breasts during our testing period – the enamel coating did its job at keeping stickiness to a minimum.
The Dyna-Glo has three little metal notches on both side shelves. These are great for hanging utensils like spatulas and tongs. Other grills either had no side shelves or limited options to store peripheral grilling tools. However, it would be nice to see one of these shelves include a side burner for cooking side dishes or boiling vegetables like corn for a more complete grilling experience.
In the short time we had with this grill, it’s impossible to determine how long you can expect it to last. So, we surveyed the reviews on Amazon to get a feel for what you can expect. There were many complaints about how quickly parts wear or rust – or simply don’t work to begin with. This isn’t surprising to us because of its short one-year warranty period. In our experience, products with that short of a warranty can be expected to wear out quickly.
The Dyna-Glo DGB390SNP-D is a satisfactory choice for a gas grill. It’s made of relatively quality materials for its price, produces a good amount of heat and distributes it pretty evenly across its cast iron grill grates. You can expect a good grilling experience from this model, at least at first.
