We strive for the perfect balance of workplace and community to create a fun, enjoyable environment for all of our employees. Our outdoor kitchen design experts have helped thousands of customers transform their backyards at no extra cost. The lifespan of any grill is affected by several factors including cleaning frequency, maintenance, amount of use, weather, and the overall environment where the grill is located. There is an abundance of Weber owners who have been using the same grill for decades. Your mileage may vary, but with proper care and maintenance you can expect your Weber grill to last for many years. Highly rated by consumers, the Vortex also has a following among barbecue experts, too.
A water pan helps smooth out temperature swings while apple smoke wood adds extra flavor. A wax fire starter works well for this, but you can also use a few lit briquettes. The charcoal snake method is a very effective way to cook low and slow on your Weber Kettle. Place the probe clip right on the grill at food level, on the opposite side of the fire. And remember that the affordable backyard cooker has been around for decades, which means you can find plenty of useful aftermarket accessories for it.
Barrel-style charcoal grills, while larger, can be more difficult to manage and harder to clean. There are cheaper versions of the kettle out there, but the Weber’s quality construction makes it a valuable purchase that should last you a long time. The only real learning curve to cooking on a charcoal grill is fire management, but the built-in thermometer makes that easier.
On balance, gas is probably the better choice if you favor no-fuss cooking or grill often . If you’re an occasional griller or you enjoy getting hands-on with your cooking, charcoal is an economical choice that, with a bit of practice, produces superb results. Nothing beats the smoky barbecue flavor that can only be created on a charcoal grill. While the Weber is a very basic cooker, it does have a few helpful features.
We were underwhelmed with the performance of the Napoleon 22-inch grill, which is most likely a result of the grill needing more briquettes to really work well. The kettle on this model is pretty deep and you can adjust the cooking grate to two different levels. We wouldn’t advise cooking with the grate at the highest level if you’re looking for a nice sear since it’s too far off the heat. 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 the other grills.
No matter your grilling experience, use this convenient charcoal grill buying guide to select the charcoal barbecue grill that’s right for you. The Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22″ is our pick as the best charcoal grill for most people. In our tests it outperformed the other grills in cooking, ease of assembly, and user-friendly details. We got good results in one or another respect with the other models, but they didn’t perform consistently great on everything the way the Weber did.
Stack your charcoal briquettes in two rows of two deep along the inner wall of the grill. In no time you’ll be reaping the rewards of an easy meal with true smoky flavor. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions.
Before the cooking tests, we spent a day assembling the three grills. Overall, the cooking tests were far more important to us; you typically only assemble a grill once. But poor instructions can make assembly slow, frustrating, and full of retraced steps. And a simply bad design can make assembly needlessly weber genesis 2 difficult. Plus, poorly finished parts can have dangerously sharp edges—sometimes sharp enough to cause a nasty cut. Based on our conversations with Joe Salvaggio of Big Apple BBQ and the many manufacturers at the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Expo, we eliminated kamados and pellet griller-smokers for this guide.