It’s not as good as our Weber picks at searing food, but it heats evenly and is easy to use. Weber’s warranty covers most of the hardware—including the lid, firebox, burners, cooking grates, and plastic components—for five years. Wirecutter staff who have used the Q 1200 at home have found it easy to clean both the grates and the grease tray under the grill.
Our experts test thousands of products each year using thoughtful test plans that bring out key performance differences between competing products. And, to assure complete independence, we buy all the products we test ourselves. If you like the idea of the portable cart add-on, the Traveler comes with weber q its own cart. It has one shelf instead of two, but it does come with built-in tool hooks. Even though these are smaller grills, Weber still made sure that there was some shelf space with two fold-out shelves on both grills. You can have a plate for burgers when they are done sitting on one shelf.
Both types of grills feature a burner that wraps around the underneath a set of heavy duty cast iron cooking grates. The highlight of the Q 1200 is its porcelain-enameled cast iron cooking grates. This is the same material that is known as the signature of top-quality cookware like Le Creuset.
If you want a lighter, more compact propane grill, the Char-Broil Grill2Go X200 Portable Gas Grill is designed for one-handed toting. It’s slightly larger than a briefcase and weighs 10 pounds less than our portable bbq top pick, but it holds the same amount of food—about six burgers. The cast-aluminum firebox evenly distributes heat across a grilling grate big enough to fit six large burgers or a whole cut-up chicken.
They have a tabletop model, the RoadTrip 225 Tabletop, that offers 225 square inches of cook space and up to 11,000 BTUs of heat across two burners. So, once again – if more portability and a lighter weight are top considerations for you, then the Q1200 would be the way to go. However, if you don’t mind the extra bulk and weight of a larger grill, then the Q2200 could be a viable option. It’s a great mid-range grill that’s great for home use but compact enough to take out about in certain circumstances.
This propane grill is sturdy, easy 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. Like the Q2200, the Traveler is designed to run off of disposable 1 pound propane bottles, but you can get an adapter to fire the grills from a 20 pound propane tank.
A single, U-shaped burner puts out 8,500 BTU to efficiently heat the porcelain-enameled, cast-iron grill surface. Although it tops our list of portable grills, the 31-pound, 3.2 cubic-foot frame of the Q 1200 is best suited to your tailgate, apartment patio, or as part of your RV setup. The Weber Q 1200 Gas Grill is the best of the portable propane models we’ve tested. It outperformed the competition at both high-heat searing and low-and-slow grilling, with the fewest flare-ups.
That being said, the folding tables and the hood thermometer are more than enough additions to this grill. Last, but certainly, not least there is the stainless steel burner that offers both quality as well as power. It doesn’t matter how many grills I have put together, it is not a process that I relish or look forward to.