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. However, it takes longer to heat up and is a different cooking experience from traditional charcoal grills. During our tests, we were only able to get our hamburgers to cook to rare, and our chicken did not sear and crisp up as well as it did on all weber charcoal grill the other grills. Because of this, the Napoleon is definitely not a grill for charcoal beginners. The Weber Original Kettle Charcoal Grill 22’’ features a plated steel cooking grate, a heavy-gauge steel charcoal grate, porcelain-enameled bowl and lid, and a bottom wire rack. It also has a lid handle with heat shield, aluminum ash catcher, aluminized steel one-touch cleaning system, and a spring clip-push pin leg assembly.
Meathead Goldwyn of AmazingRibs.com endorses the add-on and likes to add a drip pan filled with vegetables underneath the meat to catch some of the drippings. Made weber genesis 2 of anodized, rust-resistant aluminum, GrillGrates feel like a product Weber would offer themselves. Grates are elevated over a heavy base that’s lined with holes.
With 360 square inches of primary cooking surface, the grill box is larger than the 300 square-inch Classic model, but retains PK’s characteristic flat bottom and rectangular shape. There’s also a unique configuration of bottom left and right adjustable air intake dampers and corresponding top left and right exhaust dampers. The wide flat bottom makes it easy to push charcoal to one side and create two very distinct direct and indirect zones.
From burgers to chicken to slow-smoked ribs, this Weber model’s time-tested design produces great results—at a terrific price. I love cooking outdoors over live fire and smoke whatever the weather, using various grills, smokers, and wood-fired ovens to produce epic food. My goal with this site is to help as many people as possible enjoy and be good at doing the same. There’s nothing quite like the simple pleasure of cooking over charcoal on a nice grill like this. If you’ve never cooked with charcoal before, the Original Kettle is an excellent grill for discovering this style of barbecue. And, yes, I totally love those few features; not having to hand-scoop the ash is a blessing, and the lid hook will save you from dents and scratches.
Since it’s the same for both units, however, there’s no winner in this category. The 22-inch unit also offers a low and slow vent setting, so this unit can pull double duty as a smoker. It can be difficult for amateurs to get a grasp on how this system works at first. Nonetheless, it’s an impressive feature that gives the smaller Weber the top prize in this department. PKs are extremely high quality charcoal grills made of thick cast aluminum and will NEVER rust. The fan base for PK Grills is smaller than Weber but they are just as fanatical.