If you’re wanting to expand your outdoor kitchen, side burners and power burners are a great option. You’ll have more options of what to cook and how to cook them, plus you’ll get the heat and mess out of your kitchen. Let’s take a look at the difference between side burners and power burners so you can determine what’s best for your outdoor kitchen.

What is great about Side Burners?

A side burner is similar to a stovetop burner, just designed for outdoor kitchens instead of indoor kitchens. When using the side burners, you can cook anything you’d normally cook on your indoor stovetop. With  Side Burners, you can take any recipe outdoors – plus you’ll keep the smoke out of your house.

There are two different side burners offered by Blaze: 

Blaze Drop-In Single Side Burner

SHOP HERE

Blaze Built-In LTE Double Side Burner with Lights.

SHOP HERE

Both models are made with stainless steel and come with Blaze’s unbeatable Lifetime Warranty on the burner, burner grate, body, lid and control valve.

Why should you invest in a Power Burner?

Power burners are more comparable to a high pressure burner, which is great for smaller boiling and steam pots. You’ll be cooking with more heat and power when using a power burner over a side burner: The Blaze Power Burners each have a total of 60,000 BTUS, while the Blaze Drop-In Single Side Burner has only 12,000 BTUs.

Blaze Power Burners are also great for cooking with a wok – you can remove the center part of the burner to perfectly fit your wok.

Which burner is right for your outdoor kitchen?

There is no right or wrong answer – it all depends on what you want to cook and how you plan to cook.

“Depending on what the customer actually wants to accomplish will determine which is better for them. They each have their own function and will be used totally differently,” said Paige Rivet, office specialist at Blaze Outdoor Products.

In many cases, if you are looking for a complete outdoor kitchen, the best answer is to simply get both! There are certain things you can cook on the power burner that you can’t cook on the side burner, and vice versa. With both a power burner and a side burner, you’ll have all recipes covered.

How will the burners fit in your design?

When you decide to bring a side burner into your outdoor kitchen, you’ll want to keep the burner flush with the grill top. However, when you bring a power burner into your outdoor kitchen, you’ll want to create a cut-out where you can set the power burner lower than the rest of the countertops. Why? For two reasons:

1. When you set your power burner lower than the rest of the countertops, it will allow you to cook with things like large boiling pots without having to stretch – or need a step stool!
2. When you put the power burner in a lower cut-out, the walls surrounding it provide protection form wind and other natural elements that could cause the burner to go out or not work properly.