It does not include a lid hook or thermometer, and the ash catcher is not enclosed. That said, this Weber takes under 10 minutes to set up and requires no hardware. Like the Weber Original Premium grill, hamburgers tested on this grill cooked up to a perfect medium rare. The chicken we grilled took four minutes of sear time and 25 additional minutes on indirect heat to come up to a safe internal temperature. If you’re looking for the best affordable charcoal grill under $100 that will cook your meat to a perfect temperature, then this Weber is for you. 18 inches in diameter, it’s larger than the Smokey Joe, but smaller than the classic Weber 22-inch kettles.
We preferred the Weber and Napoleon designs, which each have a pair of hinged sections, on opposite edges of the grate, that let you directly access the entire bed of charcoal below. We noticed no performance differences, and all worked well, with no notable sticking of the items weber genesis 2 we cooked. Because of its dominance, the Weber kettle has spawned a lot of copycats. In our research, most proved to be cheap knockoffs that weren’t worth the minor savings. We resolved instead to find a kettle that could compete with the Weber on performance, price, and value.
To see how differences in cooking temperature would play out in the real world, we seared 1½-inch-thick sirloin steaks on both grills over 3 pounds of coal. As you would expect given the laws of physics, both fires burned at similar temperatures and produced similar steaks. When we filled the Egg to its capacity, however, things looked a little different.
The Cuisinart Black Kettle Grill is one of the smallest we tested with its 18-inch kettle. It’s similar in size to the Weber Original Kettle Charcoal Grill, though unlike that grill, it comes with an ash pan and a thermometer. However, a major downside to this grill was that the built-in thermometer barely worked. The Cuisinart was also weber genesis 2 the only grill with which we experienced grease flare-ups when cooking. Though you only have to endure setup one time, build time is definitely relevant if you’re picking up a charcoal grill for a last-minute barbecue. The Weber Original Premium Grill took 15 minutes to assemble, while the Weber Original Grill took only 10 minutes.
The Egg has inspired a cultlike following and many copycat cookers. Our highly trained team is always prepared to help you with any questions you may have about grills and accessories. There’s a hook inside weber charcoal grill the lid for hanging on the bowl which helps prevent damage to it, and a special handle just for rolling the grill around. From an aesthetic standpoint, it’s hard not to like this classic-looking grill.
It felt like an important, manly task because in my home, like I’m sure in many homes across America, my dad was in charge of it. Then he’d empty out the old ashes into a brown paper sack and hand me the cooking grate to go clean in the laundry room. When I got back, he’d pour a big pile of charcoal portable bbq into the Weber’s shiny black bowl. Then came a spray with some lighter fluid, and the strike and toss of a match. We tested six kettle-style charcoal grills because when it comes to grilling, simpler is just better. After a handful of cookouts over the last few weeks, there were two clear winners.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good gas grill—in fact, you can read about my favorite gas grills right here—but I’ll take cleaning a charcoal grill over a gasser any day of the week. For a long while, charcoal grills were the primary tool of backyard grillers. Hasty-Bake introduced its wonderful cooker with a crank that raises and lowers the charcoal rack in 1948, and it remains one of our favorite brands to this day.