Like the Traveler, the Weber Q2200 can also accommodate a full-size propane cylinder with an adapter. The push-button ignition is battery powered, which I actually found slightly easier to use. The Everdure Cube by Heston Blumenthal is a cute little charcoal grill that’s easy to carry and comes in a number of color options. It’s easy to handle the grill even when lit because of the cool-touch handles. Ultimately, I found food fell in between the bars of the grate too easily and the grill itself was too small to be useful. The temperature is easily controlled with the knob, which makes for more even cooking, and fewer headaches (and burned pizzas).
She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. While the high heat setting perfectly seared burgers without burning, the Q 1200 also outperformed the competition at steady medium-low heat for items such as bone-in chicken and sausage links. The Weber Q 1200 is flare-up resistant and excellent at maintaining consistent heat.
Often, we grill after hours on a Friday while we’re also trying to set up a tent, inflate a mattress, and wrangle hungry children. After cooking for a little more than an hour, I noticed fraying in the piece of fabric immediately below Expert Grill Combo Grills the charcoal basket where I had used a firestarter. If food drips on to the coals, causing a flare-up, I’d also expect some fraying. That will undoubtedly extend the life of the material, but is something to be aware of before use.
This smaller Weber kettle comes equipped with only one vent, located in the lid. The lack of airflow meant we couldn’t keep the coal bed lit throughout a single cook, leaving us with pale burgers and undercooked chicken. Even after loading the Jumbo Joe grill with a full chimney starter’s worth of red-hot embers (about 90 briquettes), we could still tamp down the temperature to medium heat. We couldn’t do that with the 14-inch Weber Smokey Joe Charcoal Grill, where the single vent and the lack of airflow caused the coals to extinguish while we were cooking.
Made of silicone-coated fiberglass fabric with a collapsible metal frame, it can withstand temperatures up to 2,200 degrees. We enjoyed the ease of setup, and once we were familiar with the grill, we could open it up in seconds. A flexible Flat Top Grills Gas Grills Pellet metal basket holds the charcoal, and we tested both with it full and with about 12 briquettes for a quick meal. Packed up, Cuisinart’s Venture resembles a picnic basket, making it about as portable as a table-top grill can get.
It’s constructed from quality materials, has some nice extra features, and is reasonably comfortable to carry (although heavy). Before testing, we pored over other professional reviews, such as those at Meathead’s AmazingRibs.com, and analyzed online customer reviews of dozens of models. This 20-pound propane grill folds up like a suitcase, and you can carry it with one hand. Though this 30-pound grill takes some strength to lift, its roomy handles make it comfortable for one person to carry. The Dyna-Glo scored highly for performance but was edged out for Best Value by its weight (40 pounds) and a more complicated assembly process that could require a second person to accomplish easily.
Despite being light and very portable, the Venture features a heavy-duty cast iron grilling surface that cooks evenly and sears well. In fact, I rarely turned this one up past medium, because it gets plenty hot on low. Conversely, don’t plan on cooking slow and low with this; it’s a “sear things and be done” sort of grill. Of all the charcoal grills I tested, the Weber Jumbo Joe strikes the best balance of affordability, features, and ease of use.
Obviously, you need to be able to carry the grill regardless of its size. You don’t want anything to be so heavy that carrying it is impossible even if it can fit into your arms. The grill is relatively portable with ringed handles that reach all around its egg shape. It’s relatively stable, but it is a little thin, so it isn’t suitable for uneven surfaces.
If you’re firmly on Team Charcoal, the good news is that there are lots of great charcoal grills out there today, including many portable options to take on the go. In our tests, the side shelf proved to be useful, as did the tool holders located on the front of the grill. Beneath the shelf, we found that the one-pound propane tank attached easily. Weber claims that the grill is designed to optimize gas usage, which we didn’t actively test but we did notice anecdotally that it lasted longer than the other portable grills we tested. In our tests, its built-in thermometer confirmed it reached 600ºF in less than 10 minutes. It made great steak quickly and nicely browned chicken thighs in under 20 minutes with no noticeable flareups.