Weber Performer Charcoal Grill

Your mileage may vary, but with proper care and maintenance you can expect your Weber grill to last for many years. Easy to Clean- With the patented One-Touch Cleaning System in Weber Grills, charcoal ash can be removed quickly with one hand. The porcelain-enamel blast-fired coating allows for effortless removal of soot with just some soapy water. Beginners will quickly be able to learn the correct damper positions in order to achieve a consistent temperature, as we did.

weber charcoal grill

It’s the most-automated path to low-heat smoking possible while remaining perfectly capable of high-heat grilling. Functionally, it’s a turbo-charged hair dryer that speeds up lighting time significantly. It’ll get your fire going in just 10 minutes, and you weber q can use it in a charcoal chimney, too. Once you factor in price, performance, and design, the Weber is the heavy hitter in the arena of charcoal grills. The lid sets this grill apart from a traditional Weber kettle, which features an unattached kettle top.

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. The simple, circular shape naturally gathers charcoal evenly in the basin and makes for even heat distribution. Weber makes charcoal grills for every budget, ranging from around $50 to over $2,000.

That happened to us twice before we figured out what was going on. If it had been full of hot ash, we would have had a real problem. For one, the screws are not much bigger than those that hold eyeglass frames together. When you think about the ash catcher’s job—to capture weber genesis 2 hot ashes and embers—the tiny screws don’t inspire much confidence. Also, the instructions are faulty, suggesting that you need to insert the screws yourself—after fruitlessly searching for them in the parts bags—when in fact they’re preinstalled on the vent assembly.

Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). 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.

We carry the best brands at the best price, including Traeger Wood Pellet Grills, Weber Grills, Big Green Egg, Blaze, Napoleon, RCS, and many more. While the Weber is a very basic cooker, it does have a few helpful features. There’s the elevated ash catcher, which makes dumping the remnants easier than with the original model (see the Ease of Cleaning section). The lightweight construction and wheels on two of the three legs made the Weber reasonably easy to move or reposition on pavement.

We then oiled the grates and distributed 10 to 12 six-ounce patties across the whole cooking surface (depending on the grill). While the burgers cooked we kept an eye out for undesirable flare-ups, which can char the meat and create acrid smoke, and examined the evenness of cooking on the different areas of the grates. After about 10 minutes of cooking (five minutes per side, lid open), we compared how well each grill had seared the burgers, looking for any patties that were charred or unacceptably raw, and took a taste.