There’s a red release lever that you have to pull to be able to unfold the legs. Also, a red plastic safety latch that has to be undone, otherwise pulling the release lever weber portable grill is useless. We had to travel about 50 yards in the unkempt grass to reach where we wanted to settle in and the huge plastic wheels made pulling the grill effortless.
First, assembly is a non-issue, as it consists of lining up the grates after taking the grill out of the box, and it took longer to unpack than to make it ready to cook. The cast aluminum body, top, and cast iron grates are built to last, and the included Flipkit turns the two-piece top and bottom into two hibachi grills that double your cooking area. The Q 1200’s design caused the fewest flare-ups of any model we tried, thanks to built-in channels in the porcelain-coated cast-iron grill grates.
Minor faults aside, this “exceedingly beginner friendly” is “cute, functional, and just a delight to hold.” It is a super option for the fair-weather griller, or first-timer concerned with aesthetics. It’s also undeniably great for camping, due to its efficient packability and included cutting board. Setup took less than 20 minutes, but instructions are very detailed and require close attention to succeed on the first try. The shelves provided the biggest challenge, with little clearance for your hands to attach them easily. The components fit snugly and stay put when transporting, and the grill is a good size for cooking for three or four people.
Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart. She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. This is not a comprehensive list of all the models we’ve considered. Finally, we enlisted fresh bratwurst links to gauge each grill’s ability to handle a grate full of fatty meat.
As a result, we had to manage moderate flare-ups while cooking burgers, chicken, and brats. This larger version of our pick offers more cooking area and higher heat output. At home, I cooked all kinds of meats, from chicken thighs and wings, to brats and salmon filets. Everything cooked in a reasonable time with that delicious, grilled flavor that Weber has built an empire with. My first experience with the Weber was to test it out at a family picnic in the park. Loading up the grill in my wife’s SUV (with the seat down) was effortless as you could slide one end of the grill head first and use the handle on the other end above the wheels to pick it off the ground.
A temperature dial lets you control the heat as easily and quickly as on a kitchen range. However, this 40-pound grill isn’t lightweight by any stretch of the imagination. And heating the larger grill surface will burn through propane faster. This propane grill is sturdy, easy weber charcoal grill to use, and big enough to grill burgers for a small crowd. It’s on the heavy side, but it has comfortable handles for transport. Those items included the main body of the grill, 2 cooking racks, 2 wheels with installation hardware, and a grease pan with an aluminum liner.
It’s made for use with a small propane tank (and does not come with an adapter for larger tanks), which can be stored underneath the firebox when packed up. One tester noted that the cast iron grates produced enviably golden-brown sear on a steak, although the surface of the grill did not produce consistent heat, which resulted in burning in some places. If you’re not the camping, beachgoing, or apartment-dwelling type, you may see little value in a portable gas grill.
We rated the grills on ease of cleaning, including dumping any ash and unused charcoal for applicable models. After rating the grills’ overall performances in these areas, we looked at those scores and weighed them against their retail prices. Rating each area on a scale of one to five, we averaged the category weber portable grill scores to arrive at the final score for each grill. Porcelain-enameled, cast-iron cooking grates provide even heat distribution across the entire grilling surface and superior heat retention. Char-Broil covers the Grill2Go X200’s lid, firebox, and burner for five years and everything else for one year.
It’s not as good as our Weber picks at searing food, but it heats evenly and is easy to use. The cast-aluminum firebox evenly distributes heat across a grilling grate big enough to fit six large burgers or a whole cut-up chicken. The spacious dome lid has a built-in thermometer that lets you know when the grill is hot.