A great portable grill offers consistent heat, minimal flare-ups, a generous cooking area, and an easily totable design. We think the ideal capacity on a portable grill is enough to accommodate a full meal for two or a main course for a small crowd. Grills that evenly distribute the heat across the entire grate cook food more consistently. Extreme hotspots cause patchy charring and require you to babysit your dinner, and flare-ups are annoying and can make food taste like burnt oil. The Performance burner grill works on liquid propane and has a cabinet for its tank.
E tested three top-rated gas grills and chose Char-Broil – Performance as the best gas grill for the price. The five-burner Char-Broil performed identically to the excellent Weber Spirit II – E-310, which is twice as expensive. The Char-Broil gave us perfectly seared and evenly cooked steaks and juicy burgers and chicken. But if you want to upgrade, then the Weber’s superb build quality and impressive ignition and grease-management technology are worth the increased cost.
The 4 burner char broil gas grill is a well-built gas grill with four stainless steel burners that deliver 36,000 BTUs of heating power. From there, twin knobs let you control flame height to give you access to precise char broil performance temperature control. Cooking Hamburgers, ribs, hot dogs, or even fish (if you’re into that) should be easy on this model. Although, for more even cooking, check out our review of the Camp Chef flat-top grill.
Though cast iron adds an extra 5 to 10 pounds to the total weight of a grill, we think the flavorful dark crust on burgers and steaks makes it worthwhile. We also prefer an open grate design that allows ambient heat from the firebox to brown the areas in between the grill marks. We found that stainless steel solid grates with small perforations don’t let enough ambient heat through to brown the food properly. Summers are meant for grilling, but you may not have the space or budget for a full-size grill.
Before or after each use, crank it up to high for five or 10 minutes to incinerate all the drippings and stuck-on food. Scrape the hot grates with a grill brush, wipe them with a wet rag to remove the soot, and brush them with vegetable oil. Of all the portable propane grills we tested, the Weber Q 1200 grilled foods the most consistently. Portable grills aren’t just for camping, picnicking, and tailgating; they’re also great for city and apartment dwellers with limited outdoor space.
The Char-Broil Performance Series 4-Burner Gas Grill is versatile, reliable, and equipped with everything you need to get the good times going. Of total cooking weber spirit 2 space, you’ll have plenty of room to grill a variety of food. The side shelves integrate with Gear Trax accessories for a more organized workspace.
You can simply turn on the gas and fire up the grill, thanks to the electronic ignition system, which is easy to light and requires the simple push of a button. The back of the grill was much hotter than the front, so we continually re-positioned the food to prevent it from overcooking. Overall, grilling on the Dyna-Glo was more hands-on and a less pleasant experience than it was with the Char-Broil and Weber. If you’re looking for an inexpensive grill, we recommend the far superior Char-Broil – Performance instead. There was almost no difference between the Spirit and the Char-Broil in cooking results.
He created About.com’s Meat and Wild Game Cooking website and published hundreds of recipes, interviews, cookbook reviews and blog posts about food trends. Gene is also a professional magician, and when he’s not writing for Your Best Digs, he’s performing at the World Famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. At half the price of the Weber we tested, the Char-Broil – Performance is a fantastic value for this well-made and sturdy grill that we believe will last you several grilling seasons. A couple of minor design flaws — a misplaced temperature gauge, for one — aren’t deal-breakers. The Char-Broil – Performance seared steak and burgers to perfection and slow-cooked chicken so it had juicy meat and crispy skin.