The open-cart design provides convenient access of grilling tools so that everything you need is within arm’s reach. And the Tuck-Away warming rack keeps food warm and folds for easy storage. The Weber Spirit II E-310, introduced in January 2018, replaced the original Spirit E-310 as our top pick for gas grills. Like its predecessor, it excelled at every test we put it through, producing the best hamburgers of any grill we tested, and outdoing or equaling the others on barbecue chicken and whole roasted chickens. Its overall compact size suits almost any patio or deck, but its grilling surface is big enough to cook a complete meal for a family, or a dozen burgers for a party.
This is the most expensive in this series, and yet the others in this group performed slightly better overall. So if you aren’t cooking for a baseball team, you might want to consider a smaller model. To get a Genesis 4-burner with a side burner means upgrading to the LX edition for about $650 USD more . For a list price of $1,049 USD (typically selling for $899 USD) this is a large, but simple gas grill. If you grill regularly or you enjoy grilling on weeknights, when time is at a premium, you should invest in a gas grill. A good one costs $400 to $700 but will serve you well for years.
The Genesis II’s most obvious design innovation—and our favorite by far—is the externally mounted propane tank. Instead of having to wrestle the tank into and out of a cramped cabinet beneath the grill, you hang it on easily accessed mounts on the left side of the grill’s support frame. Overall, the cooking tests were far more important to us; you assemble a grill only once. But poor instructions can make assembly slow, frustrating, and full of retraced steps. Same for assembly that requires lots of screws and bolts, or screws and bolts of multiple sizes.
The app also has recipes and a step-by-step feature that sends alerts to your phone when it’s time to tend to your food. All of these extra gadgets require power, and the Genesis Smart grill takes 10 batteries. The Wifi module alone uses six D batteries, although there is an option to power portable bbq that part with a power bank. We assume the four other batteries power the igniter, LED lights, and fuel gauge. We’re not big fans of smart cooking gear, there’s too many little things that can glitch out. It’s also nice to just put down the phone and engage in cooking time without screens.
About once a year , many grill enthusiasts do a deep clean of the whole grill, soaking the grates in hot soapy water and scrubbing them, and scrubbing down the firebox and rinsing it with a hose. Email updates from our community of grill masters, food enthusiasts, and lovers of outdoor cooking. This is essential if you plan to store your Weber Genesis II outdoors where it is subjected to the elements.
The burners are lit by a reliable push button infinity ignition and produce around 13,000 BTUs per burner on the 3 burner models, and are lit by a reliable electronic infinity ignition. The Spirit II E-310 also exhibited the most consistent heat across the entire cooking surface in the 2018 test, just as the original Spirit did in 2017. Among the competition in our 2017 test, the Napoleon model in particular had noticeable cool spots toward the front of its grates. To a degree, all grills suffer this problem, because the burners don’t extend all the way to the front of the firebox, but the Spirit offered the most consistent heating across the entire grate surface. After 10 minutes, the burgers at the rear were medium-well and those at the front were medium-rare to medium . On the Napoleon grill, on the other hand, some of the front burgers were nearly raw in the center, while the rear burgers were well-done.
Indirect cooking, where food is placed off a direct flame, was very good. This Special Edition Genesis offers upgraded 9mm Stainless Steel cooking grates and a grill light. The thicker 9mm grates will last longer and give you those perfect sear marks you get from a steak house. The included motion-activated grill light is great for those nighttime grilling sessions and to easily see the temperature gauge. The Spirit II incorporates two features of the Genesis II that helped make that model our upgrade pick in 2017. The gas tank mounts externally , instead of in a cabinet underneath the grill, as is typical (such as on the previous-generation Spirit).
We don’t recommend grills with side burners because we don’t think that extra feature is worth the $100-plus markup. As for the dedicated “searing zone,” we don’t think it’s necessary, since we’ve never had trouble grilling steaks and chops with dark brown crusts on either of our picks. We think you’re better off saving over $200 with the Spirit II E-310. But if you want to splurge on a grill with exceptional temperature control, go for our upgrade pick, the Weber Genesis II E-310. Our tests were designed and run by Wirecutter senior staff writer Lesley Stockton, who has a decade of experience in professional kitchens, much of it spent on the grill station.