Equipped with a Tuck-Away™ lid holder for convenient lid placement, taller legs, and Char-Basket™ fuel holders. The oval shape of the grill made it easy to cook multiple types of food, from skewers to roasted corn. After she was done testing, cleanup was a breeze, whether using a grill brush or removing the grate to clean in the kitchen sink.
Certain models double as smokers or have integrated thermometers. Others have side tables or are designed to be especially easy to clean. It’s your grill and your food, so decide what’s most important to you. Grilling cooks food quickly using high heat, while smoking uses indirect heat and lower temperatures to cook food slowly.
To dial in my target cooking temperatures accurately, I use multi-channel digital thermometers with temperature probes clipped to the cooking surface. Charcoal grills usually don’t have as many bells and whistles as gassers, but I assess whatever goodies are included, particularly ash removal systems. They’re easy to start up and you can start cooking on them in minutes with little effort. Although cooking on charcoal requires a little more skill and labor, you don’t need a PhD to start the fire. Yes, you do have to remove ash but, unlike with gas grills, most of the grease that drips off food will burn up on the hot coals, rather than collect at the bottom. 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.
This results in you getting upset – or in my case mad – inevitably scratching the legs slightly near their base . However, one of the blades on the one-touch cleaning system broke and rather than replacing it, I opted to buy a new one. Shop your favorite products and we’ll find the best deal with a single click. Ribs cooked on the Nexgrill had lots of bark but were juicy and tender inside.
Based on our conversations with Joe Salvaggio of Big Apple BBQ and the many manufacturers at the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Expo, we eliminated kamados and pellet griller-smokers for this guide. Those designs offer attractive versatility, but they’re also expensive—$350 at minimum, and the most popular and best-regarded styles run twice that or more. And Salvaggio noted that wood pellets simply don’t produce the searing heat you need to make perfect burgers or steaks. In 2004 the family decided to create a home heating oil division to help offset the stagnant winter sales of outdoor products. They began to provide heating oil at fair prices to the entire Lehigh Valley.
The Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22″ is our pick as the best charcoal grill for most people. In our tests it outperformed the other grills in cooking, ease of assembly, and user-friendly details. We got good results in one or another respect with the other models, but they didn’t perform consistently great on everything the way the Weber did. It’s compact yet big enough to cook an entire elaborate meal for a family, a simple spread for a party, or even a whole Thanksgiving turkey.
Charcoal grills also tend to be less expensive than gas or pellet grills, so you can cook outdoors, even if you’re on a budget. It’s a three-probe temperature tracker and ventilation control system that feeds all the grilling data you could want to your phone. If your fire is gaining too much heat on a low-and-slow pork shoulder, the Tempmaster will cut back airflow to cut the heat down.
The pan is not as deep as the Weber Premium’s pan, so it requires more frequent cleaning, which can only be done when the grill is entirely cooled off. The lid sets this grill apart from a traditional Weber kettle, which features an unattached kettle top. We enjoyed the ease of being able to hinge open the lid on the Blackjack for a quick flip of our meat during our tests.
For over 60 years, Weber has been a leader in the BBQ industry, and for good reason. weber genesis 2s are tough, built to withstand years of outdoor cooking. The original circular design of the Weber Kettle Grill has been adopted by many other charcoal grill brands due to its superior heating ability. When it comes to charcoal grills, Weber offers a cooking experience that is unmatched by any other brand. For more than 50 years, Weber charcoal grills have been one of the top sellers in the BBQ industry.