Meat from the Nexgrill was delicious, with just a bit more flavor than the Weber. Between them, I’d say it largely depends on your budget and what style of grill you prefer for other meats like burgers or steak. None of the hood thermometers built into these grills mirrored the temperatures recorded by our own thermocouples and data software.
The Weber grill has a smaller, triangular shelf, but it’s far less useful. Throughout, we also tested our “necessities”—accessories such as spatulas, tongs, grill brushes, weber charcoal grill and sheet pans. We learned a lot about them (and we have a guide to what we learned), but they also helped us identify a few design strengths and flaws of the grills.
Just to look at it is to conjure up memories of family cookouts and good times — even if you’ve never owned one. The Weber Original Kettle is no more difficult to use than any other charcoal grill. Temperature is controlled with vents at the bottom of the bowl, and one up top on the lid. If you’re looking to turn your Kettle into a smart grill, this is the way. It’s a lot of functionality that takes some of the pressure off of you to be an infallible pitmaster.
We were underwhelmed with the performance of the Napoleon 22-inch grill, which is most likely a result of the grill needing more briquettes to really work well. The kettle on this model is pretty deep and you can adjust the cooking grate to two different levels. We wouldn’t advise cooking with the grate at the highest level if you’re looking for a nice sear since it’s too far off the heat. The grill grate on a Napoleon is made of a thicker and flatter cast iron, which is an upgrade from the usual lightweight, stainless steel grates you see on most charcoal grills.
The fact that the kettle shape dominates the charcoal-grilling field doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the ideal. Before lighting a single briquet, we spoke with more than a dozen experts, including Joe Salvaggio of Big Apple BBQ. Joe and weber q his brother Tony have run Big Apple BBQ, one of the New York region’s leading grill shops, for over 30 years. Salvaggio spent an hour explaining the fundamentals of charcoal-grill design, function, materials, and maintenance to us.
The Weber Kettle is capable of searing steak, grilling hamburgers and hotdogs, vegetables, etc. It can also be easily transformed into a smoker through the strategic arrangement of charcoal. In the end, the Masterbuilt Series 1050 (as well as the smaller 560 and 800) is charcoal grilling with training wheels. If you like cooking with charcoal but would prefer to forgo the fuss and mess of tending a charcoal fire, this is the best option.