Stein’s Charcoal Grills

What features should you look for amongst dozens of seemingly great grills online? What’s ideal for one grill master’s backyard might not be for another — especially given that grills come in several different styles, including pellet grills, charcoal grills and gas grills. With charcoal grills, I test for effective air control by smoking low and slow at 225°F, roasting in the mid-range around 350°F, and letting ‘er rip with a blazing, red hot fire. Leaky grills are harder to control and get rated accordingly.

Gravity grills have a side charcoal hopper, with a blower on the bottom to blow the fumes — and therefore heat — into your cook chamber, according to Horsman. Kamado grills, like the popular Big Green Egg, are a type of airtight charcoal grill, typically made of ceramic. Kamado grills are “the gold standard” of grills, according to Consumer Reports, and offer grillers precise temperature control. If the burners are deprived of oxygen, the flame goes out, but the gas fuel keeps coming, building up under the hood and creating a serious fire hazard.

Touch-N-Go electronic gas ignition system lights charcoal briquettes with the push of a button . Includes two charcoal fuel holders and a weather-protected charcoal storage container. weber genesis 2 Charcoal grill has a one-touch cleaning system with high-capacity, removable ash catcher. Storage includes a lower wire shelf and three hanging hooks for mitts and tools.

Add that to its solid warranty and well-regarded customer service, and it’s hard to see a better value. They carry regular charcoal grills, kamados (charcoal-burning griller-smokers, usually made of heavy ceramic, the most familiar being the Big Green Egg), and griller-smokers that burn wood pellets . Salvaggio spent an hour explaining the fundamentals of charcoal-grill design, function, materials, weber charcoal grill and maintenance to us. And because he’s an independent retailer, he was able to speak freely about what he sees as the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various designs. The innovative design and unlimited potential of the Summit® Charcoal Grill lands it in a class of its own. Sear the perfect steak, grill a whole chicken, or transform your grill into a smoker, creating mouthwatering ribs.

weber charcoal grill

It also includes a thermometer that measures the temperature inside the barrel and wheels for transport. Flimsy charcoal grills with loose, warped lids and rickety moving parts make temperature control a nightmare. Charcoal grills don’t need to be tanks made of heavy, quarter inch-thick steel, but they shouldn’t be tin cans that lack structural integrity. There’s portable bbq nothing quite like the smell and taste of a charcoal grill in the summer. Charcoal grilling takes a bit more time and attention to get things just right, so when you choose to use a charcoal grill for a barbecue, everyone knows you mean business. Due to their comparably simple construction, they tend to cost less than a similarly sized gas or pellet grill.

The resulting chicken was tasty, and the grill features really well-made cast-iron grates across its 365 square inches of cooking area. The lid houses a temperature gauge and a handy hinge that makes it easy to add charcoal. This grill can hold up to nine burgers on its plated steel cooking grate, and it features an enameled porcelain lid and bowl, lid hook, and easy-to-adjust dampers. It has durable wheels for easy transport, and you can clean up quickly using the one-touch cleaning system, which sweeps ash and debris into the rust-resistant ash catcher. In our testing, the Weber Premium was hands down the easiest grill to control temperature on, with the flames inside the kettle responding expertly to any tap of the vents.

This same desire for escapism led the growing Tiki culture—an adaptation of what was perceived as the tropical lifestyle. In the mid-1950s, his father told him that he had to make a choice, says Kempster, either he sells grills or he works at the metal company; he couldn’t do both. So without much financial backing, Stephen took a chance, struck out on his own and began to grow his burgeoning business. At the time, Weber Brothers Metal Works was filling orders for metal buoys for both the Coast Guard and the Chicago Yacht Club. So Stephen took two of the half spheres for the buoys and created a grill.