This grill is the holy grail of versatile camping firepits-turned-grills. Solo Stove’s portable Bonfire fire pit design boasts rave reviews about its lightweight, dynamic airflow design that keeps your fire burning in an easily-contained and maintained fashion. The Solo Stove Bonfire Cast Iron Grill takes this design and adds a classic cast iron grill reminiscent of cowboying out West. The modification of the grill hub adds enough height to keep your food from burning in the intense heat of the fire pit (as our testers found out very quickly, don’t forget that hub!).
The Weber Traveler heated up quickly, and I met no resistance when turning food on the porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates. Of all the grills I tested, the Traveler was the easiest to set up and use. Expert Grill Combo Grills Like most portable gas grills, it uses small propane canisters, but it can also use a full-size propane tank with an adapter, so it’s backyard ready if you want to use it as your primary grill.
You can easily move these regularly shaped pieces with a coal shovel to put the heat where you need it. Charcoal is dramatic and fun to work with; outdoor chefs generally like smoke and flames. Portable grills are fueled by lump and briquette charcoal or propane, each with its own advantages. Lump charcoal is easier to ignite and burns hotter than charcoal briquettes. Because it’s charred wood, it consists of irregularly shaped pieces, and so requires a bit of experience to correctly build a fuel bed. As for performance, this model knocked it out of the park, with some of the highest scores we collected for heat regulation and we observed no flare-ups due to rendered fat.
A basic, more affordable grill might get you through a backyard bash, but a more expensive product will tend to last longer, even under more rigorous or extensive use. Simple grilling, like burgers and dogs, can be done on any portable grill. But if you would like the option to sear a steak and slow-cook chicken on the same grate, you’ll likely only find such features on higher-quality models. Similarly, the least expensive grills don’t offer the maximum heat output nor the control to cook more complicated foods. In our tests, the well-placed vents in both the lid and the firebox provided precise temperature control that no other portable charcoal grill we tried—including two other Webers—could match.
The cast aluminum body, top, and cast iron grates are built to last, and the included Flipkit turns the two-piece top and bottom into two hibachi grills that double your cooking area. It’s also large and bulky (24 in. Height x 32 in. Width x 16in. Depth), even more so than the Solostove Bonfire, which would be the next biggest in size. With the pellet adapter option on the Solo Stove, we felt more confident in its versatility as a portable pellet grill option than we did the Green Mountain Trek Prime. As expected for something this light, t’s more challenging than other campfire-designed grills we tested to get the heat to the outer edges of the grill. The rectangular dimensions of this grill add to its portability—at under two feet long, just over a foot high, and a foot across, this is one of the most easily packable grills for car camping and barbecues.
In general, gas or propane grills make for the best portable grills since they’re clean, easy and fast to get fired up. Charcoal is a fine alternative but the charcoal is heavier and messier than a small propane tank and charcoal generally takes longer to light. Small electric grills are also an option and while they sound great, remember Flat Top Grills Gas Grills Pellet you might not always have access to power, especially if you’re camping or spending a day in the park. Plus, you won’t get any of that flame-grilled goodness since there’s no, well, flame. This sleek portable gas grill from Weber is superior in almost every category and was a fairly clear winner as the best portable grill overall.