Tefal OptiGrill Elite XL

A contact grill for indoors

The Tefal OptiGrill Elite XL is an electric contact grill. One plate sits in the base and the other in the lid, and the food is cooked between them from both sides. Tefal itself calls it an indoor contact grill in XL format. In our electric grills category, it sits alongside the smaller OptiGrill Elite and the Landmann grill trolley, which according to its manual is intended for outdoor use.

We have not handled the appliance and have not grilled anything on it. The information comes from tefal.de (product, FAQ and accessories pages, retrieved on 14 October 2026), from the operating manual 2100116513 (German section, pages 48 to 69), from the safety sheet 2100128516 and from the Amazon catalogue. We flag whatever we calculate or assess ourselves.

It is not entirely clear which appliance exactly stands behind our Amazon listing. The catalogue lists the model GC7608 in black, and the product photo shows the same: a black appliance with a round, colour-rimmed display at the right end of the lid, a drip tray at the front, and four round pieces of food side by side on the lower plate. In Tefal’s own shop, by contrast, the silver GC760D (reference GC760D12) is listed. Tefal lists the black GC7608 only on a service and accessories page, without a price. The feature table gives the same values for both, and the manual is the same; whether the two are identical in construction, Tefal does not state explicitly anywhere. The figures below come from the GC760D table.

Our price box lists the grill at Amazon at approx. €225. In the Tefal shop, the GC760D stood at €189.99 on 14 October 2026, so below this guide price, with a struck-through RRP of €329.99 next to it. Prices change, so check the current amount before buying.

Plates, power and control panel

According to Tefal’s feature table, the housing is made of stainless steel and the handle of thermoplastic. According to Tefal’s accessories page, the plates are made of aluminium, and the manual refers to a non-stick coating. They measure 40 x 20 cm; Tefal also states 800 cm² of grilling surface. Plates and drip tray can be removed. According to Tefal, they are sloped so that excess fat runs off. The stated 44 percent less fat comes from an internal laboratory (March 2021) and compares a steak with 20 percent fat before and after preparation, depending on the type of meat and doneness; Tefal does not compare with a frying pan.

The power appears twice in the feature table, as 2,200 W and in a second row as 2,000 to 2,200 W, at 220 to 230 V and 50 to 60 Hz. The mains cable is 0.8 m long and not detachable. Dimensions of 44.4 x 34.3 x 18.0 cm and a weight of 5.2 kg are given only by the Amazon catalogue. It does not say whether it measures the appliance or the carton, and we do not calculate a grilling surface from it.

The control panel has capacitive buttons which, according to the manual, are only active when they are lit. There is an on/off button, a button for frozen food (snowflake), one for stronger sear marks (diagonal stripes), back, two arrow buttons and OK; only the OK button carries lettering. There is also a display, which Tefal describes as a screen with grill assistant and countdown, and a preheating and doneness indicator. Tefal enters “No” for the table grill function, and the manual forbids heating or cooking in the “grill open” position. So the grill only works closed.

In detail: how the grill determines the doneness level

Tefal sums up the principle in one sentence: the technology automatically adjusts grilling time and temperature based on the thickness and quantity of the food. The manual speaks of a cooking cycle of cooking time and temperature, which the appliance calculates from quantity and thickness. According to Tefal, it measures the food to the millimetre; it is advertised as patented. The word sensor appears only in the Tefal FAQ (cooking sensors); the product texts say “intelligent technology”.

Why thickness is the right measurement is explained by physics (our classification, not a Tefal statement). With pure heat conduction, the time until the centre is warm grows roughly with the square of the thickness. A piece 3 cm thick therefore needs more than twice as long as one 2 cm thick, not one and a half times as long. A fixed time per programme quickly misses the mark for pieces of different thickness. A measurement inside the meat does not appear in the documents; in our reading, the doneness level is a calculation. This fits with the fact that the manual makes the result dependent on the origin, cut and quality of the food; with meat, variations are normal. Which core temperature belongs to which doneness is in our core temperature chart.

The process according to the manual: you choose the programme, the grill preheats for 4 to 7 minutes, and a beep signals the end. Then you place the food on the grill and close the lid. The display changes colour with the doneness level, an arrow moves with the cooking progress, and each level reached comes with a beep. With the right arrow, you can see how long it is until the next level.

The grill does not stop at a doneness level. It keeps cooking up to the last level of the programme and only announces each level. You open it yourself when the piece has the desired level, take it out, close the lid and confirm with OK that everything has been removed; otherwise the cooking process continues. You can take out pieces that are done individually, and the rest keeps cooking.

How much you can choose depends on the programme. Tefal’s feature table lists 16 programmes: red meat, burger, poultry, pork, sausage, boiled sausage, bacon, fish, seafood, lamb, sandwich, veggie steak, potato, pepper, aubergine and tomato. A dedicated steak programme appears in none of the lists; we read beef or red meat as the programme for it. According to the programme table in the manual (page 68), which names some programmes differently, beef has four levels (blue, rare, medium, well done), minced steak three (rare, medium, well done), lamb as well as fish and seafood three each (medium, medium to well done, well done), pork two (medium to well done, well done). Chicken and sausages only have well done, pre-cooked sausages only soft. Bacon runs from medium to crispy, panini from lightly baked through toasted to crunchy, and pepper and tomato distinguish between crisp and soft.

Two buttons change the process. Tefal describes Grill Boost as a function for results that are juicy inside and crispy outside with sear marks, without stating temperature or duration; the manual calls the button “function for more intense sear marks” and recommends it for pork thicker than 20 mm. For more pronounced marks, it also advises turning the food before serving. The snowflake button is for frozen food. Both functions exist only in automatic mode, and both belong before preheating.

How thick can the food be?

At most 4 cm, says the manual. If a piece is thicker, the safety system prevents the start; you then press OK and continue cooking in manual mode, or you cut the food thinner and stay in automatic mode.

Food that is too thin is not detected, in which case you start the cooking process with OK. For very thin food such as bacon, the OK button lights up for this purpose.

Manual mode has four temperature levels: 120, 160, 200 and 240 °C. You select with the arrow buttons and confirm with OK, and you set the cooking time yourself. The timer starts after preheating with OK; the time can also be entered right at the start of preheating. According to the Tefal FAQ, the cooking sensors are off in this mode, and the frozen function cannot be used there.

Setup, power and safety according to the manual

From the safety section of the manual (pages 48 to 51) and the safety sheet, we reproduce what matters for the purchase. Both contain further instructions, and when in doubt their wording applies, not our summary.

The grill is intended for indoors. The safety sheet says “Do not use the appliance outdoors”, and it also prohibits charcoal or similar fuels. The manual permits household use only and lists as unintended places of use, which are also excluded from the warranty: staff kitchen areas in shops and offices and other commercial settings, farms, guest accommodation, and catering and hotel businesses, guest houses and private accommodation. The sheet does not explicitly mention balcony and terrace; by its wording, the grill does not belong there. What is possible on a balcony in general is covered in our guide grilling on a balcony; for this grill, Tefal’s statement takes precedence.

Instead of a distance in centimetres, the manual requires that the appliance stands freely during use and is not placed in corners or against a wall, to avoid overheating. It must not go under a wall-mounted piece of furniture or shelf, nor near blinds, curtains or wallpaper. The surface must not be a sensitive one (glass table, tablecloth, varnished furniture), not a plastic tablecloth, and not slippery or hot. The safety sheet adds that you should check that the appliance stands stably before use.

Electrically, the manual requires an earthed socket and an electrical installation that matches the power and voltage stated on the underside of the appliance. An extension cable needs at least the same cross-section and must be earthed; the cable, with or without extension, should not obstruct anyone at the table, and it must be fully unrolled. By calculation (our calculation), the grill draws around 10 A at 2,200 W and 220 to 230 V; whether a kettle can also run on the same circuit depends on the fuse protection, which only your installation knows. A damaged mains cable may only be replaced by Tefal, its customer service or a similarly qualified person. When the grill is not in use, according to the manual it should not stay connected to the mains.

Never leave the grill unattended during operation, and do not leave it open while you are heating food. Never heat it without both plates and never run it empty; to preserve the non-stick coating, do not leave it heating empty for too long either. Do not put aluminium foil between the plates and food or heating elements, never cook with foil, and do not flambé. No cooking utensils belong on the grilling surfaces, do not cut on the plates, and turn with plastic or wood. The fat drip tray stays in during cooking; if it is full, let the grill cool down first. According to the safety sheet, whole sausages, poultry and large pieces of meat can spit oil or liquid; Tefal recommends piercing them beforehand with a knife or fork.

To start, you remove packaging, stickers and accessories inside and outside, clean the plates with hot water and washing-up liquid, rinse and dry thoroughly. The drip tray goes at the front; a little oil on the plates is optional. On first switching on, it may smell slightly or smoke; the manual advises opening a window until nothing can be noticed any more. You select the language with the arrow buttons and OK; German is among the options. You can change it later by plugging in the grill, switching to ON and immediately pressing the frozen button while the display shows Bonjour (page 66).

Cleaning, spare parts and running costs

To clean, you unplug the grill and let it cool for at least 2 hours; the manual and the safety sheet agree on this. Then you release the plates so that the cooking surface is not damaged. Plates and drip tray may go in the dishwasher, the appliance and its cable never. By hand, according to the manual, you soak the plates for an hour in hot water with washing-up liquid, rinse thoroughly and dry them with kitchen paper. Only nylon or non-metallic sponges are allowed, no steel wool, no abrasive agents. The Tefal FAQ advises loosening coarse residues with a wooden or plastic spatula and then going over them with a cloth and hot water; agents containing alcohol or petrol harm the appliance. If the grill smokes during preheating, the same FAQ suspects plates that were not cleaned properly and advises about 30 minutes of soaking in hot water with degreasing washing-up liquid.

The lid is wiped with a sponge dampened in hot water and dried with a soft, dry cloth. The control panel only gets a soft, dry cloth, no damp sponge, and the housing never goes into water. On an accessories page, Tefal writes that wiping the plates with a sponge or cloth soaked in a little cooking oil improves the non-stick effect. You only put it away when everything is clean, cooled down and dry.

According to Tefal, the grill and a recipe booklet are included; further recipes are in the free My Tefal app. As an accessory, Tefal advertises the XL baking dish XA727810, which is meant to turn the grill into an oven, for €53.99 in the Tefal shop (RRP €84.99, as of 14 October 2026). According to the safety sheet, damaged plates may no longer be used, and according to the manual only parts supplied with the appliance or bought from an authorised customer service point come into question.

Tefal states that since 1 January 2022 it has extended the availability of spare parts at a fair price from 10 to 15 years; the product page carries the label “15 years of repairability”. According to tefal.de/garantie, the warranty period in Germany is 2 years for the entire product range. It applies only to domestic and private use; for commercial purposes it states 1 year there (the manual, by contrast, excludes commercial places of use from the warranty entirely), and anyone who repairs with spare parts themselves loses it. For electricity, 2,200 W under continuous load would work out at 2.2 kWh per hour (our calculation); because the heating regulates itself, the actual consumption is likely to be lower.

What Tefal leaves open

This information is missing from the Tefal pages, the manual and the safety sheet, as far as we have evaluated them:

• Plate temperature in automatic mode and with Grill Boost, duration of the boost
• Cooking times per programme and thickness in automatic mode, core temperature per doneness level
• Maximum plate temperature: the four manual levels on page 53 end at 240 °C, tables on pages 67 and 69 contain temperature and time figures that do not fit this; we do not reproduce them
• Design of the cooking sensors, type of non-stick coating (for example PTFE or ceramic), weight of the plates
• Appliance dimensions and weight (there are only the catalogue values above)
• Noise level, heat distribution across the plates, largest number of pieces that can be grilled at once
• Minimum distances in centimetres to walls and furniture
• Power consumption per grilling session, control behaviour of the heating
• Country of origin and market launch of the Elite XL (the Amazon date 06.08.2023 is only a catalogue date)
• Warranty conditions in detail: we read the page tefal.de/garantie, not the linked PDF
• Wireless connection between the grill and the My Tefal app
• Explicit confirmation that the GC7608 and GC760D are identical in construction

What else comes into question?

The prices are guide values from our price boxes, each as of the date of the box. The rating is our editorial assessment based on manufacturer data; the table says nothing about cooking results or browning. The information on the Tefal models comes from Tefal’s pages, and that on the Landmann from its manual. You can find more electric grills in the best electric grills list.

When the Elite XL suits you and when another one does

The surface decides first. The OptiGrill Elite GC750D16 has 600 cm² instead of 800 and costs €76 less than the Elite XL in our price box. For the extra price, according to the Tefal tables you get 200 cm² and 200 W more, plus four programmes: pork, boiled sausage, lamb and veggie steak appear only in the Elite XL’s list (our list comparison). How many people that serves, Tefal answers with 4, 6 or 8 depending on the page; for large groups, several batches remain, each with its own preheating.

The second point of contention is display versus colour indicator. The OptiGrill XL GC722D has the same surface and costs around €95 less in our price box. According to the Tefal data sheet, it has no display with countdown and no Grill Boost, but a round colour indicator; its 9 programmes include no vegetables, whereas the Elite XL lists potato, pepper, aubergine, tomato and a veggie steak (our list comparison). In our rating, the GC722D at 9.0 is even ahead of the Elite XL at 8.4. If you read the doneness level from a colour and do not want to grill vegetables by programme, you get off cheaper with the GC722D. Of the two, only the Elite XL has the countdown, boost and the vegetable programmes.

A piece over 4 cm thick switches the Elite XL to manual mode, that is, without the doneness automation it was built for. If you regularly grill such pieces, this appliance is the wrong one. A worktop under wall cupboards is ruled out as a location by the wording of the manual (our interpretation); that leaves a free table or a sideboard, each with a socket within reach of the short cable.

Outdoors, the Elite XL is ruled out. The Landmann EG-II-590 is intended for outdoor use according to its manual, but requires a socket for up to 3,200 W and costs €325 more in our price box. The grill finder helps narrow down which type of grill suits your everyday life.

If you want to check core temperatures to the degree, you additionally need a grill thermometer: a probe does not appear in Tefal’s documents.