From burgers to chicken to slow-smoked ribs, this Weber model’s time-tested design produces great results—at a terrific price. After spending two days cooking 40 pounds of burgers, BBQ, and whole chickens, we recommend the Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22″. Thanks to more than seven decades of continuous refinement, it’s the most versatile, most user-friendly, and best-performing charcoal grill we’ve tested. In this setup, the lid thermometer is measuring the temperature of the hot zone (above the coals) rather than the cool zone (where the food is place).
With more time and family personnel available they gradually began increasing the length of their season and daily hours. As they became known throughout the Lehigh Valley and as business increased they made the decision to stop produce farming so they could better serve the growing demand for their products. Add-ons like the above quickly take the Weber Premium kettle to roughly the same price-point; At the time of Writing this article, the SNS Deluxe kettle is $379.99 on their website. Where-as with the Slow N’ Sear Kettle you essentially get everything you need to smoke with.
The grates are just 27 inches from the ground, nine inches shy of the standard kitchen-counter height. So cooking on it can be a literal pain in the butt (and lower back). The Napoleon grill, which we otherwise didn’t love, is a generous 34 inches in height at the grate, making it more comfortable to work on. Finally, after all our tests were done, we did routine maintenance—emptying the ash catchers, brushing the grates, and washing out the grills.
We only recommend products we genuinely like, and purchases made through our links support our mission and the free content we publish here on AoM. And, if you already know charcoal, but you’re looking for a better experience than what weber charcoal grill you’ve got now, you can’t go wrong with a Weber. What you will have to do after each use is remove unused charcoal and ash that falls to the bottom. That’s just one of the questions I’ll answer in this review of the OG of Weber grills.
And when dinner’s done, an improved ash catcher makes cleaning up the charcoal mess even easier. Read on to see how well the Weber Original Kettle Premium weber portable grill 22-Inch Charcoal Grill performed under fire. The Smokey Mountain Cooker™ smoker has two cooking grates to smoke two large items at once or plenty of ribs.
We also spoke with more than a dozen experts, backing up our reporting with comprehensive research and hands-on time with the grills. All of our tests were designed and ran by Wirecutter senior staff writer Lesley Stockton, who has over a decade of experience in professional kitchens, many of them spent on the grill station. Lesley conducted the testing with senior staff writer Tim Heffernan, one of the original writers of this guide, and Michael Sullivan, a senior staff writer on the kitchen team. Sam Sifton, founding editor of New York Times Cooking, joined us for testing.
Outstanding Customer Service- Weber is well known in the BBQ industry for having excellent customer service. They go the extra mile to ensure that every purchaser of a Weber charcoal grill finds a solution to any problem they encounter, and always feels satisfied with their grill. If you’re looking to turn your Kettle into a smart grill, this is the way. It’s a lot of functionality that takes some of the pressure off of you to be an infallible pitmaster.
I managed to get it all in the can every time—something I can’t say about the original plate-style catcher, with which I probably lost an average of about 40 percent of the ashes to the wind. Weber’s Original 22-inch grill has name recognition going for it, and it certainly delivers on the marketing lore. Our testers praised it for its versatility in both grilling and smoking, thanks to a highly adjustable damper and rotational lid.
In evaluating charcoal grills, we evaluated their performance with evenness of cooking, grill marks, caramelization and char, tenderness, and overall flavor. A high-performing grill should be able to reach a desired temperature and stay there steadily with monitoring. Some grills we tested had multiple damper adjustments to make this happen, while others relied primarily on the use of a lid or vent. Weber kettles combine traditional design with an innovative production. Made of steel and coated with porcelain enamel, the bowl and lid are formed exactly right to allow heat to circulate around the inside of the grill for even cooking.
Combustion by-products produced when using this product contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. Small buttons inside tubes create indentations in soft aluminum of legs as you insert them, ensuring tight fit. Twisting, rocking, or removing and reinserting can lead to too-wide grooves and loose legs. If you’re someone who doesn’t smoke meat and has no interest in doing so, I wouldn’t even consider buying the SNS Kettle.