While some foods call for direct heat right over the coals, you can also position the fuel to the side to cook indirectly. You can even use the Weber to slowly smoke more traditional barbecue by adding a little wood to the fire. This grill’s open cart design provides additional storage space for your favorite tools, and it has integrated hooks on the side tables, as well.
And one of our guide writers, Lesley, owned the Spirit II E-210 for years before passing it off to a friend (to make room for long-term testing the Genesis II E-310). She recounts that the Spirit II E-210 held consistent temperature across the cooking grate, and flare-ups were never an issue. Among those experts, Joe Salvaggio of Big Apple BBQ spent two hours explaining the fundamentals of gas grill design, function, materials, and maintenance. Joe and his brother Tony have run Big Apple BBQ, one of the New York region’s leading grill shops, for over 30 years. Because Salvaggio is an independent retailer who carries grills from many manufacturers, he was able to speak freely about what he saw as the relative strengths and weaknesses of various designs.
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. The Weber Spirit II E-310 provides the unrivaled combination of top-notch grilling performance, a versatile three-burner design, durability, and a relatively affordable price. It excelled at every test, producing the best sear on our burgers of any grill, and equaling or outdoing the others in our tests involving barbecue chicken and whole roasted chickens.
The grill has three burners, as well as a special high-heat searing zone, and its primary cooking grate is 513 square inches, providing plenty of space for your food. This weber bbq led us to surmise that the smaller Spirit model concentrates the burners’ heat better. We had no issues with the meat sticking to the flat, porcelain-coated iron grates.
Grillers love the quality construction and ventilation available on the Jumbo Joe—though it’s small, it still has a top and bottom damper to adjust airflow. Though you have ample room to host a moveable feast, keep in mind is that there is not as much clearance under the lid to cook bone-in turkey breast or whole chickens. Chances are pretty good, though, that this portable grill is capable of handling anything you have in mind for a summertime park adventure or game day cookout.
Grills with more burners are usually overkill, and two-burner grills can feel cramped. Gas grills cook faster and are easier to use than charcoal grills because you can turn on the flame with the press of a button and control the heat with the turn of a knob. They don’t produce much smoke, and they’re simpler to clean than charcoal grills, since you don’t have to dump any ashes. Those are parts that should be easy to find and can be purchased for a reasonable price—preferably from the company that made the grill. Any solid grill maker will have those available for purchase, even if your grill is 15-plus years old.
The Nexgrill was fairly average in terms of its performance — it didn’t get quite as hot as some of the more expensive grills and had a few hot spots, but it still got the job done. It performs best on basics like hamburgers and hot dogs, and the grill responded quickly to any temperature changes during testing, making it easy to control. However, if you do opt for this budget-friendly grill, be warned that assembly is time-consuming and a bit complicated — of all the grills we tested, it took us the longest to put together due to its unclear instructions.
And the 240-square-inch surface area can grill 6-8 burgers on its plated steel grates. Large gas grills can have anywhere from two to six burners, but most people find that three or four burners is the sweet spot when cooking for multiple people. When your grill has multiple burners, you’re able to create different cooking zones across its grates. When burners are on, it creates a direct cooking zone with high heat, but when you leave certain burners off, you can have indirect cooking zones at the same time.