XO makes pro-style grills and outdoor kitchen products inspired by luxury brands, but at a fraction of the price.
I’ve had a chance to use my fair share of pro-style grills over the years, so in this article I’ll show you how the XO brand came to be, how well their products perform and stack up to the competition, and all the different grill options and accessories that they make to help you achieve a pro-style outdoor kitchen for less.
If you stick around until the end, we’ll show you how you can save thousands of dollars on a full outdoor kitchen with XO’s pre-fabricated Designer Islands.
Table of Contents
Who is XO?
So… who is XO and why have you never heard of them?
If you’re looking to compete with your friends and neighbors brand name luxury grills, XO might not be for you. We’ve actually heard customers say they prefer the XO, but end up buying something else just for the name badge.
However, if you are looking to elevate your outdoor cooking experience and you care more about results than vanity, XO should definitely be on your radar.
XO was created by the minds behind Eastern Marketing, a premium appliance distributor based in New Jersey.
After 25 plus years of being behind the scenes as the main distributor and servicer for other popular outdoor brands, Eastern Marketing decided to create their own brand XO.
The result is a product that gives you all the luxury features of more expensive brands, at a fraction of the cost.
With XO, the outdoor kitchen starts with the grill, but there’s so much more.
Cooking outdoors is something to look forward to, and if you’re in the Northeast like in New Jersey, you treasure the 5 to 6 months of warm weather that allows you to spend time outside cooking, eating and drinking with family and friends.
The heart of cooking outside is the grill. Grills are all about having fun, cooking with high heat and showing off your perfect grill marks.
But in order to truly keep the party going outside you need an outdoor kitchen. Great outdoor kitchens let you do everything you can do inside, outside, without having to run back and forth.
XO has affordable options for grills, outdoor storage and access doors, garbage, refrigerators, side burners and even a brand new wood burner pizza oven.
XO also offers prefabricated outdoor kitchen islands which we’ll cover later.
Reasons to Consider XO Grills
But first, the grill is the heart of outdoor cooking, so why should you consider an XO grill?
To make it easy, we’ve broken this down into 5 the main reasons you should consider an XO grill.
1. For starters, an XO should be the last grill you’ll ever need to buy.
An XO grill is professional grade, and will hopefully be the last grill you ever have to buy.
The body is sturdy and made with long lasting heavy duty 304 grade stainless steel with a double walled hood for extra heat retention.
Even though the grill hood is extremely heavy you can lift it with a pinky thanks to balanced springs on each side.
The cooking grates are also thick stainless steel and the knobs are heavy with a nice textured feel. Independently controlled interior and exterior lighting make it easy to see the grilling surface and control knobs, even at night.
Using a XO grill is a tactile experience that makes grilling a joy. XO definitely looks and feels like a luxury grill.
2. XO grills are the perfect choice for replacing older built-in grill heads.
When Eastern Marketing created the XO brand they knew exactly what sizes to target.
The most popular built-in grill sizes that were installed over the last 10-20 years were 30″, 36″ and 42″.
If you have a built-in grill that needs to be replaced, you might have sticker shock when you see the prices. This is especially the case if you bought your house second hand and had no idea what it costs to buy a built-in grill.
Many 36” grills for example can cost over $5,000 for just the grill head, and then there’s the cost for installation which tacks on another few hundred dollars. XO is about 40% less expensive than many of its competitors, and fills that gap of being an affordable option to replace your existing built-in grill.
This highlights the importance of buying a standard size grill head when building an outdoor kitchen. Some brands like Cal-Flame and TEC offer odd sizes like 44” and 40”. If they ever break you’ll be limited in your options trying to find the right size as a replacement.
3. XO grills give you serious professional grade high heat output and precise low temperature control XO grills get much hotter and retain heat better than the grills you’ll find at a big box hardware store.
The extremely high heat output let’s you cook steakhouse quality steaks while the precise temperature controls let you dial back the heat for cooking more delicate items like flaky fish.
he XO grilling system has two types of burners, infrared, and cast stainless steel burners.
On my grill at home, I almost exclusively use my infrared burner. Infrared burners radiate heat directly towards the food above. If you’ve ever eaten at an outdoor restaurant in the cold, as most of us have this past year, you’ve likely felt the warmth of an infrared heater radiating towards you.
This penetrating heat helps to retain moisture in your food as opposed to the drying effects of traditional gas burners which evaporate the outer moisture layer from food. Also, infrared burners get extremely hot, extremely fast, going from 0 to 1,000 degrees in just about 1 minute.
This is what gives you that restaurant quality sear, with a nice crust on the outside, and a nice rare/medium rare finish on the inside. Without super high heat like this it’s hard to get this type of crust without overcooking the center, especially on thinner cuts of meat.
Typically for thinner steaks, I’ll just cook them directly over the infrared burner for about 3-4 minutes per side and they’ll achieve a perfect crust with a nice rare to medium rare center, and for larger cuts, i’ll sear for about the same, but them move the steak to a different zone for a few more minutes of lower temperature indirect cooking.
These burners aren’t just for high heat though, they’re variable temperature and can be turned down for more delicate cooking, for things like fish and vegetables. The only real drawback to infrared is you’ll need to closely watch what you are cooking.
This is a hands on method since infrared cooks so fast, so taking your eye off the food for just a few minutes can result in burnt food. Also, I wouldn’t recommend cooking meats marinated in sugary, sticky sauces over the infrared burner.
These sauces can burn quickly, and the dripping can clog up the ports of the infrared burner over time. This is where the cast stainless steel burners come into play. The cast burners are gonna be your more general purpose burners.
They’re still extremely powerful at 22,000 BTU per burner. To achieve a more even heat, they sit underneath a tray of ceramic briquettes. The briquettes serve a dual purpose.
First they help to evenly distribute heat, and second, they catch dripping from the food above. When drippings hit the briquettes, they release an aromatic smoke that is then reabsorbed into the food for a more flavorful result.
Other pro-grade grills have similar briquettes, but with XO, they have more rows of briquettes 4 wide by 8 deep, which gives you the best heat distribution. Also, and I can attest to this myself having owned one, with other competing grills that have briquette trays, the tabs that hold each briquette in place rust and break over time, leaving the bricket to just float around.
As the main servicer for high end grills, Eastern Marketing had the experience of fixing countless broken trays, so they designed XO to have a sturdier tray that won’t deteriorate over time.
Each XO grill comes with a mix of 1 infrared burner, and 1 or more cast stainless steel burners, which is nice since you might not be immediately comfortable with the direct heat of just infrared.
Each burner area is separated by these removable stainless steel heat dividers, so you don’t get as much heat spreading each grill zone.
What I really like about the XO is the ability to swap in more infrared burners. We hear this all the time when customers are shopping for other brands. They like the thought of having infrared but are hesitant to get a grill with all infrared burners.
The reality is once you get cooking on infrared, oftentimes you’ll want to graduate to more infrared burners, and XO is the only brand that allows you to do that after the fact.
This is again something that Eastern Marketing heard over and over again from customers, and took their real world experience into account to create a better, more flexible product.
Also since you can swap burners that also means you can swap burner locations. Let’s say you are left handed and prefer to be searing and flipping burgers on the left side of the grill. You can, no problem. Just swap the burner locations.
4. XO grills come fully loaded with luxury features.
All XO grills also have a motorized rotisserie with a dedicated infrared burner for cooking things like rotisserie chickens and large roasts of meat.
During the holidays I always like to use my grill to rotisserie a large prime rib roast while catching the drippings underneath with potatoes and peppers and mushrooms. It’s always a hit.
The rotisserie motor can support up to 25 lbs of meat, which isn’t the best on the market, but sufficient for what most people use it for.
Above the rotisserie burner you’ll see the secondary cooking surface where you can move food to to keep it warm when it’s done cooking. It conveniently tucks away when you want to use the rotisserie.
The one feature I think they missed out on here is how they placed this secondary cooking rack above the rotisserie burner.
Other brands like Hestan have the rotisserie burner pointed down so you can use the secondary rack as a broiler, or Alfresco which places their secondary rack in front of the rotisserie burner so you can actively keep things warm. This definitely isn’t a deal breaker though.
5. XO Grills carry a comprehensive warranty, are backed by a great service company, and are designed for longevity and easy maintenance.
Another area where Eastern Marketing brings their service experience to XO is with overall maintenance and reliability.
No matter how good of a grill you buy, if you go outside to show off your new expensive grill to your buddies, and it doesn’t light up, you won’t hear the end of it. Even on pro-style grills, we frequently have customers that call us to complain about certain nagging issues.
For starters, igniters are always something that goes bad. This is especially true after a grill has been sitting all winter. The igniters can corrode and no longer spark or glow, and need to be replaced.
After years of having to replace igniters, Eastern Marketing knew a reliable igniter was a must, so they use a mechanical flame thrower ignition system that works even when there is moisture present which just about eliminates the need to frequently replace your igniters.
Also, grease management is much better on XO than on competing grills. XO has a full width ball bearing tray that easily slides out and has a convenient screw cap that you release and grease drains into a bucket.
The warranty is great on XO grills, with a lifetime warranty on the stainless steel body, and a minimum of 2 year parts and labor warranty on the internal components including up to 5 years on the stainless steel burners.
Service on the east coast is amazing and now Eastern Marketing has even expanded the XO brand to Florida.
If you’re in California or Texas, a few months ago I would have said to steer clear of XO but they are quickly expanding out West and at the time we publish this they should have a pretty solid support network out your way if something should ever go wrong with your grill.
XO Model Overview
Now that you have a better understanding of what makes XO unique, let’s break down the different grill sizes and options that are available.
As we mentioned before, XO grills are available as either grill heads that can be built-in to a custom outdoor kitchen, or as freestanding grills on a cart with wheels. Both come in the popular widths of 30, 36, 42”.
The freestanding models are actually two parts, a grill head plus a grill cart. Normally when you buy a grill like this it’s one piece and you can’t remove the grill head from the cart.
In my case I have a freestanding grill that’s one piece… but now I’m building a patio and wish I could take the grill off the cart to use in a custom outdoor kitchen, but I can’t.
XO gives you that flexibility.
The cart itself is very nice. The doors are inset into the frame of the grill giving the cart a sleek appearance.
The side shelves are foldable and have tool hooks for hanging your cooking tools… which oddly is missing on most other luxury grills.
Inside there’s a convenient paper towel holder, a shelf, and a side door compartment for storage things like spices and rub.
The doors come with soft close hinges, but I was a little disappointed when I actually used them. We have soft close hinges in our cabinets at home and all around our showrooms, so I’m used to being able to slam doors and have them gracefully close.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t call these XO hinges soft close. The doors can still pretty easily slam shut giving you a metal on metal clang.
30”
The 30” grills starts at $2799 for the grill head and add $699 for the cart.
The main grilling surface on the 30” grill is about 600 sq in and it features 1 infrared burner and one cast stainless steel burner, for 2 separate grilling zones.
This size grill is fine if you are regularly just cooking for yourself or a small family, but if you’re frequently entertaining large crowds outdoors things get a little cramped.
This is just a little bit bigger than the standard Weber Genesis or similar type grill you’ll find at the Home Improvement stores, so we don’t think this size does this grill justice.
36”
We recommend stepping up at least to the 36” grill which starts at $3399 for the grill head and add $799 for the cart.
This grill has 660 sq in of primary grilling and at this size it now feels like a pro grade product.
It comes with 3 burners, 1 infrared burner & 2 cast stainless steel for 3 separate grilling zones. Each of the grilling zones is separated by removable stainless steel heat dividers, so if you’re cooking with the hood open, you can cook on low in one area of the grill without worrying about the high heat in another area spreading between zones.
42”
The 42” grill is the perfect size in my opinion, and starts at $3999 for the grill and $899 for the cart.
I currently have a 36” grill and I always wish I had just a little bit more space. The 42” grill really hits that sweet spot. Not only is this grill wider, but it’s also deeper than the previous two grills, giving you a total primary grilling surface of 869 sq in.
That’s big enough to comfortably cook for a large group. The only downside to a grill this big is if you’re doing a lot of indirect cooking, it can take longer to preheat and use a lot of gas to maintain temperature.
That isn’t a problem for direct cooking though because of the focused heat of the infrared burner. With an infrared burner, on a weekend night you can easily fire up the grill, be ready to cook in 1 minute, and be done cooking burners for a family of 4 in less than 10 minutes. Extremely convenient.
Most other 42” grills on the market still just have 3 burners like the 36” version but just give you more grilling surface.
XO actually gives you a 4th burner on their 42” for 4 separate grilling zones, with 1 infrared burner, and 3 cast stainless steel burners.
The extra burner is a welcome addition and is going to give you better heat distribution throughout the grill.
Because XO gives you the ability to swap in an additional infrared burner as an accessory (which goes for about $199), I think the perfect setup would be to swap in one more infrared, so you’d have 2 infrared and 2 cast stainless burners. This gives you the best of both worlds for all types of cooking.
Another nice benefit of having 4 zones, is there are 4 individual cooking grates. which is nice because they aren’t as heavy to remove and clean as other 42” grills that have just three huge grates.
How to Save Money on your Outdoor Kitchen
As we mentioned, an outdoor kitchen is more than just the grill To complement your outdoor space, XO offers a full lineup of outdoor refrigerators, outdoor ice makers, as well as side burners that can be attached to your freestanding grill cart or built into an outdoor island, and a newly released pizza oven.
They also offer a wide array of different sized access doors & drawers that can be built into your custom outdoor kitchen, including a pull-out garbage solution and convenient sinks and cocktail stations. So basically just about everything you need for an outdoor kitchen.
The only thing missing is an outdoor dishwasher, which if you’re looking for that we highly recommend this one from Asko.
At the beginning we said you could save thousands of dollars on an outdoor kitchen with XO designer islands.
If you were to have a custom outdoor kitchen created for you, the cost could easily add up to $15,000, and that’s before adding in a grill, side burner, and extra access doors and storage drawers.
In total, you could easily spend $20,000 for a professional quality outdoor kitchen. With XO, you can get this high quality pre-fabricated enclosure, complete with a 36” grill, refrigerator, convenience access doors for storage, and a pull out garbage and recycling center for just $12,000, complete with a carrera style quartz countertop.
All this without needing to engage with a constructor and countertop fabricator.