Award-Winning Steaks, Burgers & BBQ

The weber genesis 2 has been around for nearly 70 years and, while the design of the kettle has barely changed, it’s easy to see why. This article was updated by Camryn Rabideau, a freelance writer and product tester for The Spruce Eats. She’s written close to a dozen pieces on all styles of grills and done firsthand testing of smokers and grills featured in her articles.

weber charcoal grill

This is a straight-up charcoal grill that would be right at home in a Norman Rockwell painting. Broadrick says that consistency has elevated the charcoal grill into something more. “At this point, the Weber Kettle is more of a platform than a stand-alone product,” he says. Out of dozens of community-driven updates and upgrades, these are the best Weber Kettle add-ons that money can buy. We believe that everyone should have access to high-quality grills at an affordable price, which is why we purchase grills by the truckload and pass the savings on to you!

If you’re someone who doesn’t smoke meat and has no interest in doing so, I wouldn’t even consider buying the SNS Kettle. The enamel is baked on at 1,500F – which is enough to hold up to any heat you throw at the grill as well as potential rust and burn through problems. Typically, prices drop in the Winter months when demand is low and increases in portable bbq the Summer when demand is high – If you’re in the market for a new grill, always wait till Winter. The only thing extra that you need for assembly is a mallet or hammer to tap the wheel hub caps on. Everything else that you need to assemble the grill comes packaged. The Weber kettle was the first grill I ever learned on and is perfect for beginners.

It’s about waist level in height for almost everyone, so it’s quite comfortable to cook on. The 363-square-inch cooking area can easily handle a pair of whole chickens or about 10 to 13 burgers, depending on how large you make your patties. Any more than that and the grill can get overloaded, making it difficult to cook everything evenly and weber genesis 2 to flip the patties. The Cuisinart Black Kettle Grill is one of the smallest we tested with its 18-inch kettle. It’s similar in size to the Weber Original Kettle Charcoal Grill, though unlike that grill, it comes with an ash pan and a thermometer. However, a major downside to this grill was that the built-in thermometer barely worked.

If you prefer meat that’s more well done, you can extend the cooking time, or sear and finish cooking in an oven. They’re bulkier, the assembly is more involved and you’ll likely need more fuel to keep the larger space at a high temperature. Our results, however, were almost as good as with the kettle-style Weber, so if you’re interested in a cart-style charcoal BBQ, this is your best bet. In our medium, indirect-heat chicken tests, the Nexgrill delivered flavorful, juicy meat as a close second to the Weber. And this updated model, when we used the charcoal snake method, demonstrated temperature control almost as good as the Weber.