The Best Weber Grills Of 2022

For “metal lid handle” The steel legs are held into the sockets with thumbscrews. From 1952 to 1978, Weber charcoal grills were not marked to indicate date of manufacture or model year. Age can be estimated by certain features and physical characteristics of the grill itself.

weber charcoal grill

With an extra-large 24” cooking area, Summit® Kamado is ready to handle any size feast. The Weber Go-Anywhere charcoal grill brings to the table the same durability and quality construction as the company’s other grill selections. But this offering comes in a compact, transportable package that can be easily set up on tables — or the ground — anywhere. If open weber genesis 2 pit-cooking over charcoal isn’t your thing, Weber offers essentially the same grill in a gas version. Both grills are outfitted with a built-in lid thermometer to help grillers keep an eye on the internal temperature as they cook. This is a benefit that many kettle-style grills lack, and it comes in especially handy during indirect cooking applications.

To use one, load up the space on the bottom with a piece of newspaper or two, pile coals in from the top, then light the newspaper. The fire and heat from the newspaper ignites the bottom coals, then the fire builds up. When the top coals are covered with gray ash, you’re ready to go. Recently, they changed the company name to SnS Grills and introduced their very own Slow ‘N Sear Kettle Grill. If you add the cost of a Slow ‘N Sear insert to a Weber Performer the Slow ‘N Sear Kettle is about the same price. This makes it a solid package deal that’s definitely worth the consideration of folks on the lookout for a new charcoal burner.

The Go-Anywhere offers a different layout from the clamshell shape of many charcoal grills. That classic design limits the size of the coal bed by concentrating them into a smaller area, simultaneously increasing heat output and insulation of the coals to help extend burn times. Alternatively, the Go-Anywhere is designed with a coal bed that exactly matches the size of the cooking surface area. Thanks to the inset depth of the bottom grate, this grill holds a deep, broad coal bed that is still capable of producing consistent temperatures over a long period of time. Building a list of the top Weber grills included looking at every model the company manufactures, including gas, charcoal, electric, and pellet grills. In addition to considering their design and ease of use, we also took size into account, including the size of the cooking surface.

After the grill has heated up for 10 minutes, the steaks are ready to hit the grill grate. In our medium, indirect-heat chicken tests, the Nexgrill delivered flavorful, weber charcoal grill 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.

In cooking performance, the Weber was the best and most hassle-free grill in our tests. For the indirect-cooking test, we cooked a whole chicken at as close to 500 °F as we could get (emulating Barbara Kafka’s famous oven-roasting method). We moved the remaining coals to one side of the coal grate and added half a chimney’s worth of freshly lit coals. In effect we were testing whether the grills could function as ovens—a really nice feature in the hot summer months, when you may not want to warm up your kitchen. But what really sets the Premium version apart from the standard 22-inch kettleis the enclosed ash catcher, which makes cleanup easy and eliminates concerns about stray embers. Assembly is dead simple, and the construction and materials are sturdy.

To keep the One-Touch cleaning system operating at its peak, make sure to clean the bowl of the kettle grill regularly. If small pieces of charcoal fall through the grate, they can jam up the system, causing the blades to curl upward when you apply pressure to the handle. For the charcoal grates, Weber offers a heavy-gauge steel construction for both the 22- and 26-inch Premium units.