With room for up to 18 four-ounce burgers, the Weber Genesis II E-210, $500, is in our small-grill category. This two-burner grill was slower to preheat than the top grills in our tests and might need more than 10 minutes to reach the grilling temperature you want. Once it does, our tests show that the temperature remains constant across the grates.
If you need a cheap grill, spend the extra $20 for the Dyna-Glo. All of the grills in the Genesis II E series have an open cart, a porcelain-enameled lid, and porcelain-coated cast-iron grates. Each has an electronic igniter, a fuel guage, a side table, and a 10-year burner warranty. We think a three-burner grill is large enough for most needs, with plenty of space to cook for a family or a backyard BBQ. Grills with more burners are usually overkill, while two-burner grills can feel cramped. Weber’s other new addition to the Spirit line, the $700 Spirit SP-335, is basically the S-315 with a built-in side burner and a dedicated high-heat searing area on the grill.
Enjoying cooking outside and not having to heat up my kitchen. Really great to see temperature with the guage on the outside of grill. Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter. Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart. She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. Finally, be aware that a few parts of a grill are consumables, so you will need to replace them occasionally.
Even though it’s stainless steel, this grill should still be easy to clean (though you’ll need a stainless-steel cleaner for best results!). The weber spirit is lightweight for a barbecue grill – I’d estimate around 60 or 70 pounds including all accessories. The weber spirit comes with two flavorizer bars – these are located on the very top, under the lid. I went through the progression of cheap bbq grills every 5-6yrs when they start falling apart and tossing them. I finally decided that this being like any other appliance in the house needs to be of quality and it was time to spend a little more to get it… I have had the Genesis series for some 10yrs outside with no cover still starts with original igniter – only replaced battery once.
We slow-grilled cut-up chickens to see if the grills could hold a low temperature evenly across the whole grate. And we roasted whole chickens indirectly on both low and high heat to see if the grills could create browned skin and perfectly cook meat without charring. Sam Sifton, editor of the Cooking section of The New York Times joined us for these portable bbq tests. In 2018 we repeated these tests, pitting the new Weber Spirit II E-310 against our upgrade pick, the Weber Genesis II E-310. The Genesis II Special Edition is powered by stainless steel burners that get more narrow towards the back of the grill. This shape reduces heat in the back, producing more consistent heat across the cooking surface.