The LotusGrill works by creating a bellows effect that forces cool air over the charcoal, turning it into a raging inferno, albeit a safe one. Available in a range of cheerful colours, the LotusGrill is ideal weber q for small patios, balconies, campsites, picnics and boats – its 12-inch grill is good for up to four hungry gannets. At just 4kgs, it’s also easy to carry a fair old distance without your arms falling off.
But no matter how you measure it, the Traveler’s 13,000-BTU burner gets plenty hot and really shines when searing. The 320-square-inch grilling surface is big enough to grill for a crowd. Coleman has accessories that let you use half the stove as a griddle or regular stove burner so you can simmer beans while you grill hot dogs.
It’s super easy to set up, and although the stainless steel grate was slightly uneven, it worked well enough for our liking. The frame was surprisingly sturdy and did a great job at high-heat cooking, but because there are no vents or lid, it didn’t do well on the chicken tests. There was no way to control the heat, so the chicken either burned over direct heat without cooking through inside or it was still undercooked after an hour over indirect heat.
The large surface of the Cuisinart All Foods Roll-Away gives the cook multiple heat zones to work with while grilling. The infrared burner of the Solaire Everywhere heats the entire grill surface to about the same temperature. This is good for cooking lots of one type of food, but not so good if you’re hoping to cook different foods at different rates.
If opening the lid while cooking, to reduce the risk of burns from hot air, steam, and flare-ups, open the lid carefully and slowly. Residue left on the grill surfaces will cause excessive amounts of smoke or may cause fire if not properly cleaned. Folds down to 17% of it’s volume, unfolds to become a complete grilling system WITH a lid. Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club.
In our tests, the Jumbo Joe produced the best seared burgers, barbecued chicken, and grilled bratwurst. The two adjustable vents, in the lid and firebox, allowed the quickest and easiest temperature control of all the grills we tested. Even after loading the Jumbo Joe with a full chimney starter’s worth of red-hot embers , we could still tamp down the temperature to medium heat. We couldn’t do that with the 14-inch Weber Smokey Joe, where the one vent and the lack of airflow caused the coals to extinguish while we were cooking. Of all the portable propane grills we tested, the Weber Q 1200 grilled foods the most consistently, with a cast-aluminum firebox that evenly held and reflected heat throughout. It had the fewest hotspots of all the grills we tried, due in large part to the U-shaped burner, which evenly heated the grate.
On the plus side, your asparagus won’t drop through into the coals. The Big Green Egg is a Kamado-style cooker (Kamado is a Japanese word that roughly means “stove”), which makes it much more than a grill. The ceramic construction retains heat and turns it into a portable oven as well. The MiniMax Big Green Egg is identical weber charcoal grill to its larger cousin in nearly every way, but smaller. It weighs 75 pounds, making it by the far the heaviest grill I tested, but the double-handle carrying system makes it easy for two people to carry it. The problem is that the 13-inch grilling surface of the MiniMax can only grill for about four people.
The Q 1200’s design caused the fewest flare-ups of any model we tried, thanks to porcelain-coated cast-iron grates with built-in channels that helped keep grease and drippings away from the flames. An electric push-button ignition and easy-to-read heat-control weber charcoal grill dial make the Q 1200 simple to start and adjust. Though the grill weighs a hefty 30 pounds, the comfortable side handles make it easy to carry. Portable grills are also great for smaller outdoor spaces that simply can’t fit normal grills.