Portable grills are grouped together regardless of cooking area, though typically these are small grills. Located on the propane tank or the grill itself, this reveals at a glance how much propane remains in the tank. Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter. Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart. She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. Of all the fuels mentioned here, charcoal emits the most carbon into the atmosphere.
This difference is insignificant and does not affect the performance of both grills though. Available in both gas and charcoal options, this is the premium line of offering. This three burner grill has a spacious grilling area and convenient side tables for placing serving trays, and tool hooks for hanging your tongs and spatula. With the powerful GS4 grilling system and iGrill capability, you’re already set up for BBQ success.
Those are parts that should be easy to find and can be purchased for a reasonable price—preferably from the company that made the grill. Any solid grill maker will have those available for purchase, even if your grill is 15-plus years old. On the positive side, it has welded steel pieces and provides a sturdy base for the grill.
That’s not necessarily a problem in itself, because you can oil iron grates and season them as you would a cast-iron skillet. But if they were originally porcelain-coated char broil performance , you may end up with chips of porcelain in your food, and that’s not a good thing. Again, you can replace grates with factory parts or third-party alternatives.
The Spirit II E-310’s overall compact size (helped by a fold-down side table) suits almost any patio or deck. And yet its grilling surface is big enough to cook a complete meal for a family or a dozen burgers for a party. With a thick cast-aluminum firebox, this model will last for years. (Weber’s warranty covers all parts for a full decade—among the best coverage in the industry.) For decades, the company has refined the Spirit’s design, too.
And this type of tank also frees up the area under the grill for storage of tools and other items. With the Genesis II E-310, we didn’t notice a significant upgrade in performance over that of the Spirit II E-310. In fact, the Genesis II E-310 didn’t sear our burgers as darkly as the Spirit II E-310 did. That’s okay, though—this grill is an exceptional performer, period. The cast iron cooking grates are good for maintaining heat, allowing the food to cook more evenly.
Such a feature allows you to stick to your preferred timing. For instance, you can create a high sear zone on one end and a low temperature, finishing zone on the other. Or, you can create areas of direct and indirect heat with each side burner, which is gives you more cooking options such as when dealing Blackstone Adventure with ribs and roasts. I have to say that the open cart design is a plus in this case. I don’t enjoy opening and closing doors while trying to keep an eye on the grill. The multiple tool hooks are certainly a great option and isn’t something that you always find with grills, even on high end ones.
While it may not be on the same level as high end or newer models, the Weber Spirit II E 310 has plenty to offer in terms of both power as well as grilling opportunities. This gives you a lot of different options when cooking and grilling. The other element that I like is the high performance burners. These reach higher temperatures more quickly and maintain even heating quite well. Well, this amounts to about 15 burgers, a couple of racks of ribs, and about three whole chickens, depending on the size of the birds. The first is that it allows me to easily transfer food from platters onto the grill with minimal hassle.
With its excellent GS4 grilling system, tech-friendly twist better warranty options and compact footprint, grilling becomes a lot more versatile. Having said that, regardless of which model you choose, with Weber you can expect nothing less than the best grilling experience. If you’re interested in the Weber Spirits it is probably worth checking out the differences of the Spirit to the Genesis series as well. Spaced over 2 burners, this grill caters for about 3-4 people.