Stepping up to the Weber Genesis II E-410, $900, grill gives you four burners and a choice of four colors—crimson , copper, black, or smoke. The cooking surface can fit 28 burgers or more, putting it into our large grill group. Of all the E-series weber charcoal grill models we tested, the E-410 delivered the best heating evenness, which means no matter where you place the food, the cooking temperature is the same. That’s important if you want to grill a batch of burgers and serve them all at once.
Additional features include 12,000 BTU side burner and 9,000 BTU sear station. The enclosed cart is great for storage and has 2 large wheels and front casters. The Genesis grills are very efficient in design and hold on to heat very well, but withabout 75 BTUs per square inch of primary cooking surface, there are more powerful grills out there. Efficiency will only go so far and we have found that this model, like the previous 3-burner model, is a little slower to heat up and tends to not get as hot as some competing products. We have not, however, found this to be a serious issue with the performance.
Our R&D department develops high-quality, fairly priced grilling equipment. After weeks of research and two days of testing on burgers, barbecue, and whole chickens, the Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22″ is our pick as the best charcoal grill for most people. A good gas grill should last a decade or more, provided you clean it after every use and protect it from the elements. Weber, which makes both of the grills we currently recommend, guarantees all parts for 10 years, so we expect our picks to hold up for at least that long.
Stainless steel lid with thermometer retains heat and high quality construction protects the grill from the elements. 39,000 BTU per hour input main burners and 12,000 BTU per hour input side burner to simmer BBQ sauce or saute veggies. 9000 BTU sear station burner is ideal for adding sear marks to meat.
The other grills also have easy-access grease traps—not much to ask for, really. But we found the Napoleon model’s wavy grills hard to clean because we couldn’t run the grill brush in long strokes. This brings us to the LX grill with the largest cooking surface, the six-burner Weber Genesis II LX S-640. It costs $2,000 and scores almost as well as the four-burner model above, although its temperature range wasn’t as wide. The two-burner Weber Genesis II LX S-240 is a small grill, and at $1,000, it’s one of the most expensive small grill in our tests.
This design gives you wide, attractive sear marks on your food, and the narrow spaces between the bars decrease the chance of losing a thin burger between them. These cast-iron grates retain heat more efficiently and longer than a stainless steel grate, making this grill a better choice for slow cooking. While the Weber Genesis II E-310 only has three burners, the experience grilling on it is on par with top-rated gas grills that are much larger and more expensive. The Napoleon Rogue 425 ($750 at the time of this writing) is the Canadian company’s flagship in the $400 to $750 range. Like the other models we tested in that category, it has a cast-aluminum firebox, porcelain-coated cast-iron grates, and three burners. On paper, it has a lot going for it, but we were disappointed in its performance.