If you’re looking to cook a whole lot of food at once, you can’t top the Camp Chef Portable Pellet. Between the main grill and the upper shelf, this model offers 500 Expert Grill Combo Grills square inches of cooking space. If you like the idea of grilling large hunks of meat on one shelf while roasting veggies on the other, this is the grill for you.
The Green Mountain Trek Prime pellet grill is the new branding of a very popular grill, the Davy Crockett. If you’re looking for a mostly smokeless, apartment/condo-friendly porta indoor grill option that you can take car camping or use a a portable RV grill, this is a great one. Our testers loved the dishwasher-safe grill plate, the easy storage, and the flexibility of an indoor grill. Grills Portable Grills This portable grill has the elegance of a more permanent grill, so it’s ideal if you want one grill to use at home and while camping. We set it up on a portable camping table on the porch at a garden level apartment in Boston, and it was almost indistinguishable from a permanent grill. Be warned—this combination is not light with the cast iron topper, which alone weighs about 20 pounds.
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 Expert Grill Combo Grills to test portability. Our home reviewers spent weeks assessing how these grills stood up to everyday cooking and cleaning. They were also able to offer additional insights to using these during typical weather conditions.
As you might expect, portable grills have smaller capacities than their full-size counterparts, and it’s common to see cooking areas between 100 and 300 square inches. If you’re just cooking for one or two people, a 100- to 200-square-inch grill is generally large enough, but a larger model will allow you to cook for more people at once. Overall, we were impressed with this portable grill’s design, and the PKGO performed well during our testing, too. After just 10 minutes of preheating, the grill reached temperatures over 500 degrees, providing a nice hot cooking surface. The burgers and brats sizzled immediately when placed on the grill, and both items had beautiful grill marks when they were done cooking. However, because the grill is made from cast metal, the whole thing becomes very hot to the touch, so you’ll need to use the appropriate tools while cooking and keep children away from the grill.
The only downsides mentioned were the time it takes to cool down the cast iron top (which is to be expected), and the price. It’s quite an investment, but it’s totally worth it if you can catch it on sale. The Snow Peak Takibi base height is ideal for getting indirect heat for the perfect toasted marshmallow. The height of the Takibi grill is perfect for sitting around the fire in camping chairs. Here, we’re grilling sausages on sticks outside of Joshua Tree National Park in a dispersed camping area with no established fire pit. We highly recommend only using the minimum amount of charcoal inside the sleeve and never filling it up over half way.
Add to that the spacious cooktop area (320 square inches), and the Weber Traveler is a great grill, period. It’s definitely on the hefiter side—we wouldn’t recommend strapping it to your back for a mountainside hike—but that makes it ideal for new and sometimes-grillers who don’t want to invest upwards of $1,000. As one of the sturdier models we tested, one tested noted it was a good option for apartment dwellers and those looking to grill occasionally. It packs up efficiently, and when fully assembled has two wing-like side tables that are helpful for prep and tool storage. We particularly liked the nonstick coating inside the firebox, which made it easier to clean (a removable drip tray did, too). This grill is refreshingly easy to light, with an indicator button on the knob.