Revisiting The Classic Weber Kettle Grill

The Weber Charcoal Kettle has been the king of the backyard BBQ since the 1950s. A few improvements have been made over the years, but the grill has always stayed true to its roots. The Weber parts listed here are Genuine Weber Parts sourced directly from the manufacturer. We strive for the perfect balance of workplace and community to create a fun, enjoyable environment for all of our employees. BBQGuys does more than test and sell grills — we show you how to use them, too. Our experts provide the recipes and skills you need to be a grill master.

During our chicken cooking tests, however, this portable grill held its temperature better than any other charcoal grill we’ve tested. The resulting chicken was tasty, and the grill features really well-made cast-iron grates across its 365 square inches of cooking area. The lid houses a temperature gauge and a handy hinge that makes it easy to add charcoal.

There’s nothing as relaxing as time in the yard casually tending burgers and veggies while loved ones talk, laugh and hang. Don’t doubt this premium grill’s ability to live up to the price tag until you’ve tried it. “As the story goes,” Kempster says, “he took it home, he fired it up with charcoal, and it didn’t work. The fire went out.” One of his neighbors was watching the spectacle and chimed in saying, “George, you gotta let some air in that thing,” according to Kempster. So the pair grabbed a pick from his tools and punched some holes in the lid. The Weber One-Touch Gold 22.5-Inch Charcoal Grill is our favorite kettle grill, but it has a flaw…

weber charcoal grill

You can easily set up either Weber grill by yourself and it only requires you to use a hammer or screwdriver for attaching the handle and wheels. The rest ranged in setup time from 27 minutes to over an hour, with varying levels of difficulty and number of persons needed to complete the task. The Cuisinart Kettle Grill boasts on its box that it only takes 15 minutes to set up; it actually took us 27 minutes to complete the task. Both the Char-Griller Kettle and the Oklahoma Joe’s Kettle Grill took us 45 minutes to set up. The Everdure grill by Heston Blumenthal is a great tagalong for the beach, lake or picnic, Shoults explained. “The small, 17-inch ‘Cube’ is lightweight and offers a ton of grilling possibilities,” he said.

The Weber Summit is widely considered to be the best charcoal grill Weber has ever produced. With nine collections of charcoal grills, there’s a Weber to meet your needs. This grill ran red-hot and was nearly impossible to slow down the temperature on no matter what we did to make airflow adjustments. The Char-Griller has a noticeably deeper kettle — the deepest of the entire pool we tested. Despite the distance from the heat, meat still seared well on this grill because it ran so hot.

We backed this reporting up with comprehensive research—the in-depth, professional reviews at AmazingRibs.com being a standout source—and hands-on time with grills at the big hardware chains. Once the weber charcoal grill grates were hot, we put two steaks on each grill. Is a lighter, a bag of charcoal and your favorite ingredients. In no time you’ll be reaping the rewards of an easy meal with true smoky flavor.

The Napoleon Freestanding Charcoal Kettle Grill took the longest to set up, clocking in at an hour and five minutes of build time. While this grill does come with an included cart, which added to setup time, we also found the instructions hard to follow, and the amount of hardware included felt a bit overwhelming. If you’re going to purchase this grill, then we’d advise looking into having your local hardware store build and deliver it to you. We measured the temperature of the grill surface, as well as the internal temperature of the chicken, with an external thermometer to ensure that any built-in temperate gauges were accurate.

He often worked on fabricating and selling innovative products, including mailboxes and fireplace equipment. Weber has engineered the Weber Performer charcoal grill to use a disposable propane tank to ignite weber q the charcoal and help bring it up to cooking temperature quickly. I’ll continue to use my gas grill for weeknight dinners, but turn to the Weber when hosting things that I want to feel more like an event.

When you think about the ash catcher’s job—to capture hot ashes and embers—the tiny screws don’t inspire much confidence. For the same reason, don’t let your charcoal grill sit out in the rain, as the resulting lye will quickly corrode any metal it touches. Instead, bring your grill into a garage, put it under an awning, or tent it with a grill cover . Clean the grates before or after each use by brushing them free of cooked-on gunk and wiping them with a wet rag. Oil the grates after heating them, before you cook anything—it’ll help keep food from sticking. Throughout, we also tested our “necessities”—accessories such as spatulas, tongs, grill brushes, and sheet pans.