No matter who you are or where or what you’re grilling, this is the best grill you can get. We were testing it side by side with other grills for reference and this was by far the easiest to move across both grass and concrete. Not only did these weber bbq taste great, but just look at the real estate left over on that grill. I tested a couple of burgers and eight sausages and there’s acres left over. You could easily turn out ten burgers and 20 sausages, which is more than enough to feed a crowd.
This model’s core design components—firebox, burners, control panel—are all the same as those of the Genesis II E-310, which we tested in 2017 and 2018. Knowing this, we’re confident that the new Genesis will perform at least as well as its predecessors. “I emailed the photos on Thursday, and on Saturday an incident rep called me. I got a gentle lecture on cleaning and safety, but then he said they’d be sending me a whole-new cookbox (the main bottom half of the grill)—no charge, no shipping fees.
Stainless-steel grates are inexpensive and lightweight, but you’ll need to clean them with a great grill brush after every session. Porcelain-coated grates can last a long time if taken care of properly. Don’t use metal tools or weber portable grill brushes on them to avoid the coating chipping off. Uncoated cast-iron grates will need to be maintain like cast-iron cookware. In return, they will stay heat up enough to help cook your food and give you picturesque grill marks.
And this model’s bizarre design, with a fixed panel running across the front of the grill, means you have to sneak around the back of the thing to replace the tank. The Spirit II E-310 also exhibited the most consistent heat across the entire cooking surface in the 2018 test, just as the original Spirit had done in 2017. Among the competition in our 2017 test, the Napoleon model in particular had noticeable cool spots toward the front of its grates. To a degree, all grills suffer from this problem, because the burners don’t extend all the way to the front of the firebox. But the Spirit II E-310 offered the most consistent heating across the entire grate surface. After 10 minutes, the burgers at the rear (the hottest part of the grill) were medium-well, and those at the front were medium-rare to medium (if your diners have various preferences, this difference might even be handy).
If you own a grill, you’ll have to perform these tasks at least a few times a year, so a grill that makes them a little easier is a welcome thing. Finally, we restricted our search to grills that burn propane from refillable tanks, the most common fuel by far. But you should note that there are versions of all of our picks that work with natural gas. Just keep in mind that if you don’t already have the proper hookups, installing a natural-gas outlet isn’t cheap or simple.
A small barbecue such as the portable charcoal barbecue from the Smokey Joe series is the perfect size for any beginner. Small enough to be easily controlled, but still large enough to cook several things at once, this small design is also easy to clean and store. The porcelain coating prevents food from sticking, so the grates don’t need seasoning. Only very old models of Weber grills would require seasoning, and because they are very old, that surely happened a long time ago. If you purchase a new Weber grill, you don’t need to worry about seasoning it.
The grill has 529 square inches of cooking space across its enameled cast iron cooking grates, providing plenty of room for all your burgers, steaks, and veggies—we found it ample enough for a family of five. The Weber Spirit II E-310 provides the unrivaled combination of top-notch grilling performance, a versatile three-burner design, durability, and a relatively affordable price. It excelled at every test, producing the best sear on our burgers of any grill, and equaling or outdoing the others in our tests involving barbecue chicken and whole roasted chickens.