This Weber’s plated steel cooking grate is hinged so that it’s easier to load charcoal, even while cooking, onto the heavy-gauge steel grate below. With this method, the coals take about 10 minutes to light and another 10 for the grill to get hot. The weber q secret to heat control with this grill is the top and bottom dampers that form convection during cooking. That control and responsiveness, combined with its heat-retaining design, results in intense, high heat for searing or a low-and-slow smoke.
In the end, these issues were minor, as the E-325s topped our list of the best gas grills. Topping our list of best charcoal grills is none other than this classic Weber grill. Weber is one of the most trusted names in the grill industry, and its Original Kettle Charcoal Grill is a worthwhile investment. The circular grill has a convenient cleaning system that lets you sweep ash into the catcher below for easy disposal, and it features a heat shield that prevents the handle from getting too hot. There’s a large damper on the lid to control airflow, and the grill is mounted on two large wheels for increased portability. The premium model adds a couple of upgrades to the nearly 70-year-old design.
She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. Hinged sections on opposite sides of the grate let you access the entire charcoal bed below. The Napoleon grill we tested had hinges portable bbq on opposite sides of the grate, too. But the PK Grill had a hinge on only one side, which proved inconvenient. All the grills we tested featured simple, thin-wire grates that worked well, with no notable sticking.
It’s not just the nostalgia talking; for value and performance, the Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill really delivers in both areas. If you’re looking for a gas grill with fewer hands-on requirements, the Weber Genesis E-325s 3-Burner Gas Grill or its Smart counterpart are excellent choices, as well. It performed on par with competitors when it came to smoke flavor in our long-smoke tests, and it left a nice char and browning in our short-smoke experiments.
His written work appears in Food & Wine, Tasting Table, Food Republic, and other publications. The Go-Anywhere Charcoal follows suit with its gas counterpart; the uneven heat distribution from evenly-layered charcoal gave a mixed bag of results, from overdone to pale and unimpressive. weber charcoal grill Though the basic design has barely changed since 1952, Weber has added helpful details over the years, like hooks on the side handles for hanging your spatula, tongs, or other tools. BBQGuys does more than test and sell grills — we show you how to use them, too.
Tim Heffernan is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter and a former writer-editor for The Atlantic, Esquire, and others. He has anchored our unequaled coverage of air purifiers and water filters since 2015. In 2018, he established Wirecutter’s ongoing collaboration with The New York Times’s Smarter Living.
The Insert Ring allows you to place your fire pit into any stone surround for a finished look as a “built-in” fire pit. We purchased the Weber Original Kettle Premium 22-Inch Charcoal Grill so our reviewer could put it to the test. The Weber Original Kettle Premium 22-Inch Charcoal Grill is a classic backyard cooker that’s inexpensive, versatile, and nearly impossible to break. The Q 2400 showed cool spots around the edges and hot spots on the middle and left-hand side, which delivered mixed results from a full load of food.