Infrared on a gas grill nearly always means one burner in one corner. It runs hotter than everything else and exists to sear. Nexgrill built the Evolution Infrared Plus the other way round.
Model 720-0882A carries five stainless main burners and 57,000 BTU of published output. Its infrared parts are removable plates that drop in above the flame. Nexgrill’s own page sends them toward “slower-cooking indirect heat” and an evenly cooked result.
So the named feature on this cart makes it calmer, not fiercer. That leaves one question worth a whole review. What is all that fire actually for?
57,000 BTUTotal published output
486.3 sq inPrimary cooking area
92 BTU/sq inMain-burner heat density, derived
$279Home Depot shelf price, 2022, before it was dropped
First Impressions of the Nexgrill Evolution Infrared Plus
The carton arrives flat and heavy, and it holds the grill and nothing else. The retailer spec sheet said no additional items, which turns out to be exact. Assembly is a cart, a firebox, two doors and a great many fasteners.
Standing, it runs 54.25 inches long and 46 inches high. That is a wide appliance for a small patio. Stainless brightwork reads better in daylight than it does in listing photographs. Four casters move 100.56 lb across flat paving without complaint.
Two details land straight away. The main lid is fully welded stainless rather than a bolted shell, which feels deliberate. Below the cart sits a tank hole rather than an enclosed drawer. The cylinder stays visible from the side, and some people mind that.
What the name means only becomes clear with food on the grates. Over bare grates the grill behaves like any wide five-burner cart. Slide the infrared plates in and the sound changes before anything else does. Drips hiss instead of flashing, flare-ups stop, and the firebox goes quiet.
Chicken thighs over those plates brown slowly and evenly right across the piece. Skin tightens rather than blistering in the spots where fat lands. That is not the result most cooks expect from the word infrared.
Key Features of the Nexgrill Evolution Infrared Plus
Nearly everything interesting about this grill sits between the burners and the food. The cart, the doors and the shelves are ordinary. What changes the cooking is a set of parts you move by hand.
- Removable infrared plates: These slide in over the burners and convert flame into radiant heat. Nexgrill offers them as the route to slower indirect cooking. They come out again when you want the grates back over open fire.
- Firebox dividers: The dividers let one long box behave as separate sections. That is how a plated zone and a flame zone coexist. Planning happens with the lid up and the burners off.
- Five stainless steel main burners: They carry 45,000 BTU between them across 486.3 sq in of grate. Each has its own knob, so the whole width stays controllable.
- A 12,000 BTU stainless side burner: It takes a glaze pot or a pan of beans off the main grate. That stops a crowded grill turning into a queue.
- Individual electronic ignition: Each burner lights from its own control knob. The owner’s manual also documents a lighting rod and match, which is a sensible fallback.
- Stainless steel where it works hardest: The welded lid and the cooking box are stainless. So are the wrapped grids, the angled flame tamers, the doors and the side shelves.
- A 183.4 sq in warming rack: That is a large upper shelf relative to the main grate. Finished food parks there while the next batch goes down.
Start with the arithmetic, because it sets expectations honestly. Five burners put 45,000 BTU under 486.3 sq in of primary grate. Per square inch of that grate, the burners deliver about 92 BTU. Respectable for a cart this wide, and unremarkable on its own.
The published area needs one caveat. Both spec tables give 669.7 sq in of total surface. A marketing bullet on the same retailer page says 676 sq in. The gap is small, and it tells you which figure a copywriter wrote.
The interesting part is the arrangement rather than the amount. Five separate burners mean the full width stays usable at once. Nothing on this grill is built to beat the rest of the grill for heat.
Then the plates change the delivery rather than the quantity. Radiant heat from a steel surface reaches food without the column of flame between. Drips land on hot plate instead of on burner ports. The result is steadier browning and far fewer flare-ups.
That steadiness costs you the thing infrared usually promises. Nexgrill publishes no figure for how hot the plates or the grates get. It also never claims a searing function for them. Treat the plates as a way to cook gently and evenly at width.
Build, handling and durability
The welded lid is the strongest signal on the whole cart. A one-piece stainless lid resists the rattle that bolted shells develop after a few seasons. The stainless cooking box below it does the same job for the firebox.
Handling is straightforward and slightly awkward at once. Four casters carry 100.56 lb easily on paving and badly on lawn. At 54.25 inches the grill needs a real run of wall, not a corner.
The warranty is the honest guide to where risk sits. Burners are covered for 8 years while everything else gets 1 year. That shape tells you Nexgrill expects the burners to outlast the shell around them.
One durability note comes from the maker itself. The owner’s manual warns that baked-on grease specks make stainless look rusty. It prescribes a mild abrasive pad and a stainless cleaner. Owners who skip that step will decide the metal failed when the finish simply got dirty.
Running costs, upkeep and value
Availability is the first thing to settle, because it changes every other number. A search on Nexgrill’s own site returns no results for this model. Home Depot now reports the listing as unavailable. This grill is leftover stock wherever you find it.
The price history explains why that matters. Nexgrill listed it at $399.00 in early 2019. Home Depot showed $279.00 in August 2022.
Amazon carried it after that, and no longer does. Both of its listings now read the same way: currently unavailable, no date given. One of the two is a refurbished unit rated 1.9 stars.
So there is no asking price to weigh any more. What survives is a second-hand market, a clearance pallet, or a grill already on somebody’s patio.
Upkeep is proportional to the feature set, which is to say plenty. Five burners, a set of plates, angled flame tamers and a warming rack all want attention. The manual asks for the grate to be cleaned hot with a brass brush and water. That habit is worth forming early on a grill this wide.
So the verdict on value swings on the sticker you actually see. Near the old shelf price it offers plenty of stainless and an unusual heat system. Above that, it competes with grills whose parts still have a maker behind them.
Possible Nexgrill Evolution Infrared Plus Complaints
- You commit to the layout before you light it: Infrared here is not a knob, it is hardware. Deciding mid-cook to swap a plate for open flame means moving hot steel with tools. Cooks who improvise will feel that far more than cooks who plan.
- Support has no home any more: Both the manufacturer and the retailer that carried it have dropped the listing. Grates, plates and burners will come from aftermarket sellers instead. The 8 year burner cover is only as useful as the company’s appetite for honouring it.
