The Crown is Broil King’s entry gas line. The Baron sits above it, and the Regal and Imperial above that. So the useful question about the Crown S 490 is what got left out.
Put it beside the Baron 490 Pro Shadow on Broil King’s own spec pages. Same burner count, same output, same grate area, same cookbox. The Crown actually wears more stainless steel on the outside. One thing genuinely changes, and it is the part your food touches.
One detail to settle first. This listing is the natural gas grill, model 865387, and it needs a plumbed line. The propane version of the same grill is model 865384.
40,000 BTUMain burner output
460 sq inPrimary cooking area
87 BTU/sq inMain output across the primary grate
865387Natural gas model; propane is 865384
First Impressions of the Broil King Crown S 490
Assembly is a Saturday morning job rather than an afternoon one. Broil King publishes a separate assembly manual for the natural gas build. Follow its order rather than your instincts. At 152 lbs finished, this is a two-person job at the cabinet stage.
Standing up, it reads as a bigger grill than its rung suggests. The cabinet carries stainless steel doors and a stainless lid. Painted steel shelves hinge down on either side when space runs short. Four locking casters sit under the cart, in the 3-in size.
One thing is worth confirming with your dealer before you pay. Broil King’s page describes the Crown 400 series with black shelves and a black base. The specification table for this model says stainless steel doors and lid. Both sit on the same page, and the page does not reconcile them.
The first cook tells you what the cast iron is for. Four burners come up under heavy grids that sit on their heat instead of shedding it. Steaks land and stay put, and the marks come out dark and even. Chicken thighs drip onto the Flav-R-Wave and come back as smoke.
Key Features of the Broil King Crown S 490
Most of what this grill is made of is shared with grills that cost more. The list below is what you get, and where the Crown makes its own choices.
- Four Dual-Tube burners: Stainless steel, rated at 40,000 BTU across the main grate. Each burner gets its own valve. Four separate zones is real control on an entry-line cart.
- Cast-iron cooking grids: Heavy-duty cast iron, which is this line’s signature and its price. Mass holds sear heat when cold food lands on it. It also means oil after cleaning, and keeping rain off.
- Stainless steel: Count the stainless and you land on doors, lid and Flav-R-Wave. The cookbox underneath those is cast aluminum instead. Shelf tops are paint over steel.
- Flav-R-Wave cooking system: Angled stainless panels bridge the gap from burner tube to grid. Drippings hit them, flash off, and go back into the food as smoke. Fat that would otherwise land on a burner tube lands on steel.
- Side Burner: A 10,000 BTU cast iron burner sits beside the main cookbox. It is enough for a pan of sauce or a pot of corn. It is not a second grill, and it does not pretend to be.
- Rotisserie: A 15,000 BTU stainless rear burner, with the premium rotisserie kit in the box. Plenty of grills at this money sell that kit separately. It is the most under-sold line on the spec sheet.
- Electric Igniter: Sure-Lite electronic ignition fires the burners from the knob itself. Turn and push, and the burner catches. The igniter will eventually need replacing, as igniters always do.
- Linear-flow valves: The knobs sweep through 180 degrees of travel between off and full. A longer sweep makes the low settings easier to find. That matters more under cast iron than under thin rod.
- Cabinet tank drawer: The cabinet holds a sliding tank drawer, carried over from the propane build. On a natural gas grill there is no tank to slide. It becomes a deep storage tray instead.
Broil King rates the main grate at 460 square inches and 40,000 BTU. Do that division and the ratio sits near 87 BTU per square inch. Now run the same arithmetic on the Baron 490 Pro Shadow. The answer is identical, because Broil King gives both grills both numbers.
So heat is not where the extra money goes in this range. What cast iron adds is recovery rather than raw output. Heavy grids bank heat and hand it back when cold food lands. Nobody publishes a figure for that, and we have not measured it here.
The rear burner is the other half of the cooking story. A 15,000 BTU rotisserie burner works from behind the food instead of below it. A chicken turns and bastes itself, and nothing drips into open flame. The kit that makes that possible ships in the box.
Build, handling and durability
The cookbox is cast aluminum, exactly as on the Baron 490 Pro Shadow. Cast aluminum does not rust, and it holds heat better than folded sheet. The lid above it is double-walled, with cast aluminum end caps. Fasteners and cart hardware are zinc-coated steel.
The outside is where the Crown does something genuinely unexpected. This grill gets stainless steel doors and a stainless lid. The Baron 490 Pro Shadow gets black painted doors and an enameled lid. The cheaper grill is the more stainless one.
The fuel decides how this grill lives, not the wheels. Natural gas means a fixed line and a fixed spot on the patio. Four locking casters let you sweep behind it, and little else. At 152 lbs, against the Baron’s 157 lbs, nothing was going anywhere anyway.
Running costs, upkeep and value
Running on a house line changes the routine more than it changes the bill. There is no tank to swap and no drive to the exchange cage. What you pay instead is a single upfront cost, before any cooking. A licensed fitter has to bring a gas line to the patio.
That work is not in the sticker price, and it varies too much to guess. Get the quote before you buy rather than after. If your yard has no gas line, model 865384 is the propane answer. Upkeep after that is mostly about the grids.
Cast iron wants oil after cleaning and a cover when the grill sits idle. Neglect it through a wet winter and orange shows at the edges. Stainless grids on the Baron would forgive that treatment. These will not, and the grids are a consumable if you let them go.
On value the arithmetic is blunt. Broil King listed this natural gas build at $959.00. The Baron 490 Pro Shadow listed at $1,159.00, with the same burners and grate. The gap buys solid 8mm stainless grids and a different lid hinge.
Possible Broil King Crown S 490 Complaints
- The grids are the whole compromise, and they need you: Cast iron sears better than thin rod and rusts faster than stainless. The care is simple enough. Oil them after cleaning, and cover the grill when it is cold and wet. Owners who skip both will buy grids long before they buy burners.
- The warranty is not published where you can read it: Broil King serves the Crown warranty as an image rather than as text. Neither of its product pages states the terms in words. Make the dealer write down the current terms, and keep that paper.
