In return, they will stay heat up enough to help cook your food and give you picturesque grill marks. Another great component is the hinged grate’s circular insert where you can quickly add charcoals while cooking. You do have to take the whole grate off to re-adjust your fuel though, one of the few downsides. When grilling time is over, this again has an advantage over older kettle grills. The ash is swept into the bottom catcher for easy disposal once it’s cooled, while everything else only needs a quick wipe-down. To help find the right Weber grill for you, we tested popular models for weeks and rated each one on setup, heat retention, heat control, size, versatility, and overall value.
Mom prefers having seafood cooked outside “so it doesn’t stink up the kitchen,” so Dad and my sister used the side burner to boil lobsters one night and steam clams another. Having that burner there was great for steaming corn on the cob while grilling weber charcoal grill something else. It being summer, I appreciated more ability to cook outside instead of making an already-sweltering kitchen even hotter. Look for grills in the $400 to $900 range with a cast-aluminum firebox, which holds heat well and won’t rust.
The porcelain coating prevents food from sticking, so the grates don’t need seasoning. Only very old models of Weber grills would require seasoning, and because they are very old, that surely happened a long time ago. If you purchase a new Weber grill, you don’t need to worry about seasoning it. Weber’s Genesis line offers high-quality grills without super-premium prices, and its EX-325S is designed for easy grilling so you can enjoy each and every party.
The Weber Spirit SX-315 Smart Grill is the smart version of our top pick, the Weber Spirit II E-310. The two models have the same bones—the weber charcoal grill same burners, side tables, and overall dimensions. The Spirit SX-315 connects to Wi-Fi and lets you monitor the meat probe through an app.
If you’re cooking for large groups frequently, you’ll need a grill with a large primary cooking surface, a warming rack and a side burner. Some of you might also have strong feelings about the cooking grates — you need stainless steel, cast-iron grates, porcelain-coated grates or even porcelain-coated cast iron. The Spirit II E-210 is good for grilling foods that are best suited to intense direct heat, such as steaks, chops, and burgers—we don’t recommend it for indirectly cooking bigger items like whole chickens. The E-210 is a great first gas grill purchase, and it’s a good option for folks who have limited outdoor space. The 22-inch diameter gives 363 square inches of cooking space within the porcelain-enameled lid and base.
Once the last burger in the basket reaches 145 degrees Fahrenheit, the batch is finished. A good burger in this test is one that has both a nice outside char and a slightly pink center. Grilled chicken should have a crispy skin and meat that is cooked through fully but not dry. We perform this test in three rounds, giving us a solid average cooking time for each grill. Whole chickens are cooked on indirect, medium heat until both breasts reach 165 degrees F. That’s an aesthetically pleasing compromise, but reaching through the side bars and around the panel to open and close the tank was frustratingly difficult.