Barrel-style charcoal grills, while larger, can be more difficult to manage and harder to clean. There are cheaper versions of the kettle out there, but the Weber’s quality construction makes it a valuable purchase that should last you a long time. The only real learning curve to cooking on a charcoal grill is fire management, but the built-in thermometer makes that easier.
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. The authenticity of charcoal grilling started with the Original Kettle® Series grills, invented by Weber? His idea was that the rounded cooking bowl with a lid was the key to success. The ultra-durable, porcelain-enameled lid and bowl are uniquely designed to retain the charcoal’s heat, while dampers are easily adjusted for precise temperature control.
Add its solid warranty and well-regarded customer service, and the Weber Kettle Premium Grill is the best value going. Weber makes charcoal grills for every budget, ranging from around $50 to over $2,000. The most popular Weber charcoal grill, the Original Kettle, can be found for between $100 and $450, with the differences coming in diameter, ash management, colors, and cooking grates. For more than 50 years, Weber charcoal grills have been one of the top sellers in the BBQ industry.
Cooking ribs low and slow on the Nexgrill required just 4 hours, 30 minutes. Its rack came out well too, though like the Napoleon, its bark was more pronounced than what the Weber produced. The difference between the two was largely in the crispiness of the skin, with the Weber producing the superior results.
The smoke is then drawn through the main chamber, cooking and submerging your food slowly and evenly. It also has an ash catcher built into the bottom of the Kettle’s drum, which collects ash as it cooks. No nasty build-up, and no stressful clean-up operation needed between uses. The Weber Kettle offers exactly this, with its hinged cooking grates. If your coals are on the verge of burning out, you can quickly and easily swap them out. Throughout the Weber’s 6-hour, 32-minute cook time, the grill’s internal heat levels never strayed beyond 25 degrees of our target, 225 degrees F.
Our customer service reps are real people offering great service, backed by 8 weeks of hands-on training with all of our products. Easy to Clean- With the patented One-Touch Cleaning weber charcoal grill 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.
On balance, gas is probably the better choice if you favor no-fuss cooking or grill often . If you’re an occasional griller or you enjoy getting hands-on with your cooking, charcoal is an economical choice that, with a bit of practice, produces superb results. Nothing beats the smoky barbecue flavor that can only be created on a charcoal grill. While the Weber is a very basic cooker, it does have a few helpful features.
No matter your grilling experience, use this convenient charcoal grill buying guide to select the charcoal barbecue grill that’s right for you. 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.
There are a few models under the Q line, but prices generally only climb with higher power levels and for options that come with fold-out side tables. It adds another four inches of grill space, which means eight burgers instead of five. The Ranch kettle comes in one size and it’s absolutely enormous. Easily the largest of Weber’s kettle-shaped grills, the Ranch is overkill for all but Weber brand loyalists that need to make more than 40 burgers at a time. Weber grills aren’t the cheapest grills, but they’re also not super expensive.
Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. Previously, he was an editor at the International Culinary Center in New York. He has worked in various facets weber charcoal grill of the food and restaurant industry for over a decade. Add the extra money you pay for the Napoleon grill over the Weber kettle that it emulates, and the Weber model’s superiority is even starker.