If those cons have you second-guessing yourself, you may want to look at our best portable pellet grill for another option. When shopping for a new grill I usually recommend people consider the same 5 or 6 factors. You can find out more about this in our guide to the best charcoal grills. It’s a decent pick if you like Kamado style grills, but with a weight of nearly 70 pounds it’s not the most portable of the grills we’ve looked at.
We conducted two sets of tests for scoring, depending on whether the grill was gas-fueled or charcoal. The first step for each was to assemble the grill, rating it on the clarity of instructions and how easy it was to accomplish the task. Next, we judged the grills’ portability, such as how easy they were to move and if lids or grates fell off easily.
The stand is easy to operate, with clear indicators for raising and lowering it. Since the base is included, you won’t need to hunt for a safe cooking surface or crouch down to flip burgers, but it requires a little more storage space and room in your trunk. Like the Q above, Weber’s Traveler uses a single burner Expert Grill Combo Grills that wraps around the entire bottom of the grill. That’s covered by a two-piece cast iron grill grate that’s solid where it runs over the burner, which acts as a heat diffuser and keeps the burner from getting covered in grease. Speaking of grease, it has a slide-out grease trap that’s easy to empty.
If you’re looking to cook a whole lot of food at once, you can’t top the Camp Chef Portable Pellet. Between the main grill and the upper shelf, this model offers 500 Flat Top Grills Gas Grills Pellet square inches of cooking space. If you like the idea of grilling large hunks of meat on one shelf while roasting veggies on the other, this is the grill for you.
The only downsides mentioned were the time it takes to cool down the cast iron top (which is to be expected), and the price. It’s quite an investment, but it’s totally worth it if you can catch it on sale. The Snow Peak Takibi base height is ideal for getting indirect heat for the perfect toasted marshmallow. The height of the Takibi grill is perfect for sitting around the fire in camping chairs. Here, we’re grilling sausages on sticks outside of Joshua Tree National Park in a dispersed camping area with no established fire pit. We highly recommend only using the minimum amount of charcoal inside the sleeve and never filling it up over half way.
All in all, the GoBQ really shined for something in such a small package. We tested the most comfortable sleeping pads to find the best mattresses for camping. From the best self-inflating to the best for couples, see our top picks. Feed pellets or twigs into the top of the stove (the metal lid with the upside down Biolite logo opens up). Looking for a camping grill that can be used inside on a chilly day, out in your camper, or at the next work function? We think an electric grill is the way to go for versatility and the Hamilton Beach Electric Searing Grill is our winner for best electric grill.
Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). Weber has a great reputation for reliability, and when we surveyed Wirecutter readers about their grills, Weber owners were overwhelmingly satisfied with their choice. As long as you clean your grill properly and shield it from the elements, it should last many years. Weber doesn’t make a grill cover for the Jumbo Joe, but a contractor garbage bag or a woven poly tarp should do the trick if you want an extra barrier from the elements. And since the spacious firebox fits a full chimney starter’s worth of coals, you can get two or three rounds of grilling per load.
Our Lab testers grilled and seared steak, salmon, onions, hamburgers, and hamburger buns on each model to thoroughly analyze the features and performance. Additionally, the grills were carried around our Birmingham, Alabama, campus to test portability. Our home reviewers spent weeks assessing how these grills stood up to everyday cooking and cleaning. They were also able to offer additional insights to using these during typical weather conditions.
The Green Mountain Trek Prime pellet grill is the new branding of a very popular grill, the Davy Crockett. If you’re looking for a mostly smokeless, apartment/condo-friendly porta indoor grill option that you can take car camping or use a a portable RV grill, this is a great one. Our testers loved the dishwasher-safe grill plate, the easy storage, and the flexibility of an indoor grill. This portable grill has the elegance of a more permanent grill, so it’s ideal if you want one grill to use at home and while camping. We set it up on a portable camping table on the porch at a garden level apartment in Boston, and it was almost indistinguishable from a permanent grill. Be warned—this combination is not light with the cast iron topper, which alone weighs about 20 pounds.