You may even find the grill handy if you’re in an apartment or are short on space. The Weber Smokey Joe Gold Grill is also a great starter grill for a home on a budget. It features the same no-rust aluminum vent and porcelain-enameled bowl and lid of any standard portable bbq.
They’re handy, no doubt, but if your patio or deck already has a table or countertop, you’re paying for something you don’t need and giving up valuable living space, too. On balance, gas is probably the better choice if you favor no-fuss cooking or grill often . If you’re an occasional griller or you enjoy getting hands-on with your cooking, charcoal is an economical choice that, with a bit of practice, produces superb results. Napoleon delivered excellent cooking results in our ribs test.
If napalm in the morning is the best smell in the world, burgers on the grill must be a close second. It doesn’t matter if the yard is covered in freshly cut grass or a foot of snow, sizzling meat over an open flame satisfies an almost primal hunger. We can debate the merits of grills that use charcoal, propane, or wood all day long, but they all make delicious food.
Cooking area, the aluminized-steel, One Touch™ cleaning system and a removable, high-capacity aluminum ash catcher for simple cleaning. This grill offers a rust-resistant aluminum damper and 2 glass-reinforced nylon handles with tool hooks. The premium version of the original kettle measures 22 inches wide and comes in three colors.
Weber even supplies a simple plastic tool to help you attach the thermometer without digging out a wrench. All you need is a Phillips screwdriver to attach the side handles, and something dense to tap the end caps of the wheel axle into place. One person can have the grill up and running within minutes of opening the box. Every grill we tested had a hinged grate, a nice feature that lets you add or adjust the coals without lifting the whole grate off. We preferred the Weber and Napoleon designs, which each have a pair of hinged sections, on opposite edges of the grate, that let you directly access the entire bed of charcoal below. We noticed no performance differences, and all worked well, with no notable sticking of the items we cooked.
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Because of its dominance, the Weber kettle has spawned a lot of copycats. In our research, most proved to be cheap knockoffs that weren’t worth the minor savings. We resolved instead to find a kettle that could compete with the Weber on performance, price, and value. But we also opened our search to include charcoal grills of different designs. The fact that the kettle shape dominates the charcoal-grilling field doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the ideal. Our last test is grilling barbecued ribs, specifically baby back pork ribs.
With little more than a metal container full of hot coals and a cooking grate, there’s not much that can go wrong. There are no gas valves to leak, no tanks to refill, and no wood pellets to soak up water and jam your smoker. All you need is a bag of charcoal and your favorite recipe.
In our high-heat searing tests, Weber delivered the best balance of seared exterior and medium-rare interior steak. The Weber kettle grill gave us tasty chicken too, with crispy chicken skin. The Weber can also smoke low and slow at a rock-steady cooking temperature.
There is a Weber grill or accessory for every type of griller. Whether you’re a backyard chef, griller-on-the-go, or just getting started, find the grill made specially for you in our showroom in San Marcos. To see how differences in cooking portable bbq temperature would play out in the real world, we seared 1½-inch-thick sirloin steaks on both grills over 3 pounds of coal. As you would expect given the laws of physics, both fires burned at similar temperatures and produced similar steaks.