We are proud of the work we’ve done to hash out all the options and are honored to be a small part of your transient culinary journey. Some folks mentioned having trouble with assembly and misaligned parts in verified purchase reviews. I did not experience this, and the model came together in less than 30 minutes. It was not the easiest of them all to assemble but not so complicated as to dissuade you from buying it and, once assembled, felt compact and sturdy to the touch.
This model is really heavy compared to the others, and it has a short handle. You also have to lay it on its back to convert it from travel to cooking mode, which is not ideal. But if you want a pellet grill for tailgating weber q or base camping, this is still your best option. Once the grill is going, the Camp Chef Portable Pellet’s internal thermometer and the computer then take over to regulate the flow of pellets into the burner.
For more details on how we tested and what we looked for, scroll down to the bottom. The collapsible Weber Traveler is basically a full-size propane grill on wheels, making it a perfect choice for small patios and times when you need to bring a grill to a cookout or a party. It’s easy to set up – it pops up and collapses on hydraulics with the flip of a lever. Once erected, you have a large cooking space–320 square inches–and a prep table. It also features some nice bells and whistles, including a removable grease tray, built-in thermometer, and removable cooking grates, which were easy to clean between uses.
The Coleman Roadtrip 285 offers the cooking performance of your typical backyard grill in a portable package. There are three individual burners – a main burner that reaches across the entire grill from side to side, and two additional burners on each side. This configuration is specifically designed so that the heat zones overlap. The result is top-notch control coupled with incredibly even heat distribution. The Roadtrip 285’s instructions are clearly written and all tools required for assembly are included, making this model a breeze to put together.
It even comes with a preparation board and food storage tray, so you can prep, grill and serve from one device during all your spring adventures. Don’t let Eureka’s compact size fool you, there’s still more than enough room to grill your veggies, burgers and buns. Grate rest brackets keep the grilling grate in position within the base so it doesn’t slide around while you’re flipping burgers.
That said, the Camp Chef Portable Pellet’s price is fairly reasonable considering its top-notch performance. For smoking and other forms of low and slow barbecue, portable wood pellet grills give you more cooking surface area than portable gas or charcoal grills do. On a gas or charcoal grill, you’d need to set up a 2-zone cooking system with the heat on one side, and the food on the other. Preventing grease and fire contact is especially important since the cooking grates on portable gas grills sit very close to the heating element (usually a 1- to 1½-inch clearance). Steel inserts that sit over the flame ports can help, as can a cleverly designed grilling grate that channels grease away from the fire.
We tried this grill out along with the brand’s grilling kit (available for purchase separately), and found the accessories to be good quality and useful. We sent various portable gas grills to the homes of our expert reviewers in addition to testing in our Lab. Our Lab testers grilled and seared steak, salmon, onions, hamburgers, and hamburger buns on each model to thoroughly analyze the features and performance. Additionally, the grills were carried around our Birmingham, Alabama, campus to test portability. Our home reviewers spent weeks assessing how these grills stood up to everyday cooking and cleaning.
Seasoned backyard chefs can discern temperature by eyeball alone, but you don’t need sorcery to assess the heat. When you make rubs at home we recommend you add salt first then the herbs and spices because salt penetrates deep and the other stuff remains on the surface. We put salt in these bottled rubs because all commercial rubs have salt and consumers expect it. You can still use these as a dry brine, just sprinkle the rub on well in advance to give the salt time to penetrate. Salt appears first in the ingredients list because the law says the order is by weight, not volume, and salt is a heavy rock.