But we can assure you that with practice, this portable grill can allow you to master the art of cooking over an open flame and produce delicious food in the process, even on the go. The Coleman Roadtrip 285 offers the cooking performance of your typical backyard grill in a portable package. There are three individual burners – a main burner that reaches across the entire grill from side to side, and two additional burners on each side.
We then put ourselves in your shoes and put each model through an array of creative real-life cooking scenarios. We cannot guarantee that the Go-Anywhere will boast the same heat output as its gas-powered competitors — that’s up to you and your coal-stoking abilities. There is certainly a learning curve to mastering different heat zones, but cooking over charcoal potentially offers an accuracy that cannot be matched when cooking with gas. The tightly fitting vents are tough to adjust without gloves, and it takes time to skillfully manage these adjustments for perfect airflow.
Finally — and this is the most significant issue — the low-heat performance is virtually nonexistent. The heat options are adjustable, but they would best be described as “High” to “Extremely High.” Further, the lid is only for portability; portable bbq you cannot close it while cooking. Steaks are prepared very, very nicely, but other foods are nearly impossible to cook well. Most grills performed about as well as advertised, with some topping out at as much as 100 F hotter than others.
The Everdure Cube by Heston Blumenthal is a cute little charcoal grill that’s easy to carry and comes in a number of color options. It’s easy to handle the grill even when lit because of the cool-touch handles. Ultimately, I found food fell in between the bars of the grate too easily and the grill itself was too small to be useful. We grilled bone-in chicken to test for flare-ups and how well both the gas and charcoal grills could sustain a medium-low cooking temperature over 45 minutes.
Food and char tended to get caught between the V’s on the grill grate and clog up holes. While the Grill2Go comes with a special scraper, it was still a chore to get the grate clean. Size and weight don’t necessarily correspond, either, so it may be possible to end up with a small, weber genesis 2 heavy grill or a large, lightweight one. Do your research and know your limits if you want to keep things comfortable for the long haul. Low-to-high temperature range provides the perfect heat to sear steaks, grill juicy chicken, and even make fluffy pancakes for breakfast.
With a bit of clever design, this model collapses to a size that can be wheeled around and transported into spaces that are a fraction of the size of where most pellet grills can fit. The controls for this grill are digital, allowing you to select the exact temperature you need for the cut you’re cooking. If the controls weren’t precise enough, there are two digital thermometer probes so that you know exactly when your meat’s internal temperature has reached the perfect point.
It has adapters based on your grill and offers one temp probe and three food probes. There’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support, so you can keep tabs on your cook from anywhere. No matter how you measure it, the Traveler’s 13,000-BTU burner gets plenty hot and really shines when searing.
We enlisted fresh bratwurst links to gauge each grill’s ability to handle a grate full of fatty meat. You have the added chore of snuffing out hot coals and emptying ashes after grilling. You need to return them to designated locations, such as big-box hardware stores, for disposal and recycling. Another excellent grill from Weber that will please both the veteran cooks and the novices with its top-notch performance. A grill should never be kept unattended, especially when there are kids or pets around. Do keep in mind that a grill remains hot for quite sometime after use.
It has some other nice design touches, like the ability to transition the grill from folded to cook-ready with one hand, and a lid that locks automatically for transport and storage. The Weber Traveler heated up quickly, and I met no resistance when turning food on the porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates. Of all the grills I tested, the Traveler was the easiest to set up and use.