Solaire
Infrared gas grills designed, engineered and built in Whittier, California.
🇺🇸 Made in USA
Our assessment
Company details
Where Solaire products are made
One Southern California facility handles design, engineering and manufacture. Solaire is unusual among grill brands in that the company began as an ironworks — the metalworking came first and the grills came out of it, rather than a brand commissioning a factory.
Solaire built its business on infrared burners, which cook by radiant heat rather than hot air. That is a fundamentally different burner design, and it is the sort of engineering a company keeps in-house when it is the reason customers choose it.
The Rasmussen family has owned and operated the business since 1907. Continuous family ownership through more than a century is what has kept a metal fabrication operation in Los Angeles County, one of the most expensive places in America to run one.
The 1907 founding, the Whittier, California location, the family ownership and the statement that every Solaire grill is manufactured in the company’s U.S. facility are all published by Solaire on solairegasgrills.com.
The story
Rasmus Rasmussen was a Danish immigrant and a blacksmith. In 1907 he founded an ironworks in Whittier, California — a town that was then largely citrus groves east of Los Angeles. That business is still running, still in Whittier, and still owned by his family.
Solaire is what the ironworks became known for. The company built its reputation on infrared gas grilling, where a ceramic burner produces radiant heat instead of the convected hot air of a conventional gas grill. It sears at temperatures a standard burner cannot reach, which is the entire argument for the product.
The Rasmussen name sits on several lines — gas logs, Chillbuster, Alterna, Fireglitter — but the through-line is metal and fire. Rett Rasmussen runs the company today, and every Solaire grill is designed, engineered and manufactured in the same American facility.
Why they matter
Grills are among the most import-dominated products in American retail, and premium stainless grills especially so. Solaire manufacturing in Southern California is a decision made against every cost pressure in the category — Los Angeles County is an expensive place to run a fabrication shop, and the alternative is a container from overseas.
The engineering explains why they can. Infrared burner design is not something you hand to a contract manufacturer and hope for; it is the product. A company whose advantage is a burner keeps the burner in-house.
And a business that has been in one American town since 1907 is a genuinely rare thing. Whittier has changed beyond recognition around it; the ironworks Rasmus Rasmussen started is still there, still in the family, still making things out of metal.
Shop Solaire products
Browse Solaire infrared gas grills stocked on the Buy American Campaign store.
Frequently asked questions
Are Solaire grills made in the USA?
Yes. Solaire states on its own website that every single Solaire infrared gas grill is designed, engineered and manufactured in the company’s U.S. facility.
Where is Solaire located?
Whittier, California, where Rasmus Rasmussen founded the ironworks in 1907.
Who owns Solaire?
The Rasmussen family, who have owned and operated the business since 1907. Rett Rasmussen is the current President.
What is an infrared gas grill?
A grill that cooks by radiant heat from a ceramic burner rather than by convected hot air. It reaches higher searing temperatures than a conventional gas burner, which is the basis of Solaire’s design.