The 7 Best Portable Grills on the Market for 2022

Lining up grills side-by-side to test the backyard ultra-classics, hamburgers and portabella-burgers. Beneath those head-sized ribeyes you can see the glowing orange Solaire heating element. weber q It depends on whether you have a small cylinder (typically 1-pound) or a 20-pound tank, which are the type that you can find at home improvement or convenience stores for swap-out.

We’ve also tested camping stoves for car camping and lightweight, packable backpacking stoves for getting off the beaten path. We wouldn’t recommend using this as a combination smoker-grill due to its size, but it is excellent for direct or offset grilling for meats, vegetables, sausages, and the like. The small footprint and weight make the Smokey Joe easy to pack and carry wherever you might need to use it at a fraction of the price of the larger models. Ask anyone to think of spring or summer, and many will turn to memories of cookouts. The smell of meat, sausages, vegetables, or fish charring on the grill goes right with warm weather.

Finally, we assessed the grill’s portability by physically carrying each grill to our vehicle and attempting to place it in the trunk. The Cuisinart uses a kettle style that’s notably shallower than other kettle-style grills. On the plus side, the shallow kettle required just 12 briquettes to heat the entire 14-inch cooking surface. The Green Mountain Grills Davy Crockett Pellet Grill differentiates itself from standard portable grills with its ability to smoke as well as barbecue, making it the most versatile grill we tested. Like its little brother, the Jumbo Joe heats evenly and can reach temperatures well above what’s needed for searing.

portable bbq

If you’ve decided you want a portable charcoal grill, there is nothing like the Nomad—it’s expensive but worth it. Not only is it easy to pack and carry, it excelled at every cooking task I gave it. If you prefer a portable propane grill, Weber’s Traveler combines the quality Weber grills are generally known for with a smart design that is ready to take on the road. In a world where the Nomad didn’t exist, the Oklahoma Joe’s Rambler would be the top charcoal choice here. This grill feels like Oklahoma Joe’s just hit one of their full-size grills with a shrink ray.

Both Weber gas grills I tested were effective and easy to cook on, but the nod goes to the Traveler here for its passionate embrace of portability. When folded up, the legs become a handle that you can pull behind you as if you’re walking with a nice roller bag. The legs on one side of the grill become a sort of handle when the grill is folded up; you can walk with it, kind of as if you’re pulling a nice roller bag. It has some other nice design touches, like the ability to transition the grill from folded to cook-ready with one hand, and a lid that locks automatically for transport and storage. The Weber Traveler heated up quickly, and I met no resistance when turning food on the porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates. Of all the grills I tested, the Traveler was the easiest to set up and use.