And one of this guide’s writers, Lesley Stockton, owned the Spirit II E-210 for years; in her experience, it held a consistent temperature across the cooking grate, and flare-ups were never an issue. We had no issues with the meat sticking to the flat, porcelain-coated iron grates or problems with flare-ups, grease fires that produce charring and acrid smoke. We looked for flare-ups, excessive charring, or patties that were still unacceptably raw. A firebox—the lower half of the grill body, where the burners and grates are mounted—made from cast aluminum is rustproof and highly durable, likely to offer a decade or more of service. The Weber Genesis E-325s is a whole foot longer than the company’s Spirit II E-310, with 20% more cooking area.
Present him with a new Weber gas grill to help him step up his barbecue game. The grill has 529 square inches of cooking space across its enameled cast-iron cooking grates, providing plenty of room for all your burgers, steaks, and veggies—we found it ample enough for a family of five. We experienced even heating and few flare-ups during our testing, with our home tester weber charcoal grill claiming that it’s “worth the splurge.” With porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates, you’ll get excellent heat retention and easy cleanup, as we’ve seen during tests. The Weber Q 1400 is a great choice if you live in a condo or other small space where the use of gas and charcoal grills may be restricted or if you want an easy-to-use unit that only needs to be plugged in.
The Spruce Eats Editor Siobhan Wallace compiled testing data from our official Lab as well as insights from our home testers’ full product reviews to compile this roundup. Jason Horn, The Spruce Eats commerce writer, also contributed to this roundup. Raised in Chicago, he knows that hot dogs should never be topped with ketchup.
If time allows we continue cooking until the ribs are completely done and make note of the total cook time. 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.
The heat source is consistent, as well as simple to adjust and add to while cooking. We favor Weber grills for their efficiency in managing multi-zone cooking, and for their generous warranties that stand out from their competition. In fact, most of the grills below have warranties beginning at 10 years for the cook box (additional parts, like gas tubes and grates, have warranties ranging from three to 10 years). The Weber Q 2200 Propane Gas Grill is one of our top picks for portable grills by any brand. Though a bit of an investment, the gas grill pays off with its convenience. It’s easy to start, easy to use, and heats up quickly and powerfully, delivering 12,000 BTUs of heat per hour.
George Stephen, the founder of Weber®, invented the revolutionary kettle grill in 1952. To top it off, this grill has two side tables—both 23 inches wide, and they don’t fold down. So triple-check your space to make sure you have room for this 61-inch-long grill before you buy. In our test group, the Spirit II E-310 had the most well-thought-out instructions, with clearly labeled parts. Even if you lack much experience with this sort of work, you’re likely to assemble it easily. Among them was Joe Salvaggio, who has run Big Apple BBQ, one of New York’s leading grill shops, for over 30 years.
If you want your grill to last, don’t cheap out on a budget model. But also don’t overpay for extras you won’t use, such as a rotisserie or a side burner. Although this grill can still accommodate a cut-up whole chicken or six to eight burger patties at a time, cooking for a large crowd means standing at the grill for a few hours. We didn’t officially test the Spirit II E-210, but we did test its predecessor, the Weber Spirit E-210 (our former top pick).
Whether they were charcoal or propane, stationary or portable, all of our favorite Weber grills had some things in common. High-quality Weber grills are easy to assemble (although as with most other brands, the charcoal grills have fewer parts and are simpler to put together than gas models). The best grills are intuitive to use, without confusing bells and whistles.
One of them, the Spirit S-315, is similar to our top pick, the Spirit II E-310, but has a few cosmetic differences, such as a stainless steel lid and metal dials. In our eyes, the S-315 seemed likely to perform about the same as our pick—and did not seem worth the higher price. With only two burners on this model, cooking with indirect heat means the food gets heat from only one side while it sits over the other, inactive burner. So you have to maneuver and rotate your chicken or roast to make sure it cooks evenly throughout. If you think you’ll frequently use your grill as an outdoor oven to cook roasts and whole birds, we recommend choosing one of our other picks instead.
Since wood pellet grills work by indirect heat, you’ll be able to smoke food as well, without any accessories. You will need to make sure there’s an electric outlet nearby since most need to be plugged-in for the ignition and the auger. It’s an anecdotal round, so there isn’t a connected thermometer set or software capturing specific data. We preheat each grill on high for 10 minutes before turning it down to low, indirect heat.