We looked for charcoal grills with good heat retention, but that also allowed for easy airflow adjustments through dampers and vents or other functions like an adjustable charcoal tray. We assembled each grill according to the manufacturer’s instructions. I timed each build and noted any confusing directions or hard-to-finagle parts.
The ritual of charcoal grilling meets the convenient features and the wow factor of the Master-Touch®. Equipped with a hinged Gourmet BBQ System cooking grate, you’re also able to purchase additional inserts, like the wok or griddle, to cook smoky chili or breakfast weber genesis 2 outside on the grill. Equipped with a Tuck-Away™ lid holder for convenient lid placement, taller legs, and Char-Basket™ fuel holders. From here, you’ll want to clean and oil your cooking grates and preheat them for several minutes before placing food on the grill.
It felt like an important, manly task because in my home, like I’m sure in many homes across America, my dad was in charge of it. Then he’d empty out the old ashes into a brown paper sack and hand me the cooking grate to go clean in the laundry room. When I got back, he’d pour a big pile of charcoal into the Weber’s shiny black bowl. Then came a spray with some lighter fluid, and the strike and toss of a match. We tested six kettle-style charcoal grills because when it comes to grilling, simpler is just better. After a handful of cookouts over the last few weeks, there were two clear winners.
Cart-style grills have a handle and wheels that make them easy to move around, and the Char-Griller Patio Pro BBQ Grill is a compact and budget-friendly option for your deck or patio. It features a modest 250 square inches of cooking space, but it has all the features you need to whip up a delicious meal. This portable charcoal grill can hold up to five hamburgers at a time, and the lid’s glass-reinforced nylon handle stays cool during use. Reviewers say this product is an unbeatable value, as it’s easy to tote around to various events and delivers the same caliber of high-quality food as full-size Weber grills.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good gas grill—in fact, you can read about my favorite gas grills right here—but I’ll take cleaning a charcoal grill over a gasser any day of the week. For a long while, charcoal grills were the primary tool of backyard grillers. Hasty-Bake introduced its wonderful cooker with a crank that raises and lowers the charcoal rack in 1948, and it remains one of our favorite brands to this day.
We preferred the Weber and Napoleon designs, which each have a pair of hinged sections, on opposite edges of the grate, that let you directly access the entire bed of charcoal below. We noticed no performance differences, and all worked well, with no notable sticking of the items we cooked. Because of its dominance, the Weber kettle has spawned a lot of copycats. In our research, most proved to be cheap knockoffs that weren’t worth the minor savings. We resolved instead to find a kettle that could compete with the Weber on performance, price, and value.
Under the lid it looks more like a gas grill than a charcoal grill thanks to 549 square inches of porcelain-coated cast-iron grates plus a secondary steel rack for warming or indirect cooking. This grill has enough room for a three-zone charcoal fire—and a handful of beer-can chickens, multiple racks of ribs, or 20 burgers. It’s also a great grill for slow cooking a whole pork shoulder and then some with or without Char-Griller’s optional side fire box.
In our chicken test it held a high temperature for longer than any other grill in the lineup. But the biggest problem is that the instructions completely portable bbq overlook what we found to be a potentially dangerous design flaw. The Napoleon’s vent assembly consists of two metal collars, one inside the other.