Which barbecue to buy

They come in lots of shapes and sizes, including the original Weber Kettle that introduced the charcoal grill design so widely recognized today. Charcoal grills have their quirks though, so you'll need to be prepared to put in some work if you go this route.

Charcoal grills burn using charcoal briquettes or lumps of charcoal. That's where the smoky flavor comes from. You'll need to spend a little more time lighting the briquettes and preheating the grill than you will with a gas grill. You'll also need to clean the grill and dispose of the charcoal ash when you're done grilling.

Charcoal grills might not be as precise or customizable as a gas grill when it comes to cooking, but they have a distinct flavor and are the most affordable option.

Pellet grills, like the Traeger Timberline , burn wood pellets and have an onboard computer to heat up to your desired temperature and add smoky, wood-fired flavor to your food. Pellet grills yield tasty meat, especially when slow cooked, but the pellets can be expensive and harder to find than propane or charcoal. Be prepared to call around or order online. Pellet grills use a hopper on the side to hold the food-grade wood pellets.

Once you've ignited the grill with a switch and set the temperature, those pellets are moved into a burn pot by a rotating auger connected to the hopper. Once you've decided what fuel type is right for you, think about the size grill you need.

Most small to medium charcoal grills and two-burner gas grills will do just fine if you're cooking for four people or fewer on an occasional basis. The Weber Spirit E is a good example of a two-burner grill with plenty space. Grills are often measured in square inches. Grills in the square inch range are large enough for most people. If you're the center of the neighborhood barbecue scene or have a large household, consider a larger model with four, five or even more burners.

If you're dead set on having a gas grill, but also want to cook meats like whole chickens or racks of ribs with indirect heat , you'll want at least a three-burner model.

Get smart home reviews and ratings, video reviews, buying guides, prices and comparisons from CNET. Simply load one or both crescent-shaped charcoal baskets and place them on either side of the bowl. Now drop your food onto the ample 57cm plated steel grate — which has enough space for about six placements — put the lid on and go chat to your guests. Webers are renowned for their durability, and you can safely expect this one to last many winters.

That said, a cover is always advisable to keep out the elements. Okay, time for something a little different. The Char-Broil Gas2Coal is a hybrid BBQ, which means you can choose to cook on gas, for convenience and speed, or on coals, for taste and the authentic barbecue experience. It gets even better than that, because you can use the gas to light the coals, meaning there are no awkward moments where you fail to light a fire and have to resort to the oven.

This makes it one of the best versatile and reliable barbecues around, offering the perfect mix between gas and charcoal.

The cooking capacity is great, and I like that I have the option to customise it with optional accessories. The only disappointment is that the coal tray can be difficult to clean, but really, what BBQ is easy to clean? The Char-Broil Gas2Coal comes in three sizes, with two, three of four burners.

It is also compatible with a number of optional accessories, which lets you customise your grill to your perfect setup. After using this we're certain that it's the future of BBQ, as it's just so adaptable. Want the world's most essential tech and lifestyle upgrade advice delivered right to you?

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It's the perfect gift, whether that's for someone else or just for yourself… choose digital, print, or get both in one bargain bundle! What really impresses here is the raft of clever design flourishes. Take a look at the handle on the right. Wind it clockwise and the charcoal section moves up to within 6cm 2.

Wind it down and it stops at 22cm 8. This is a great innovation that makes grilling a breeze. The main grate, meanwhile, measures 54cm x 42cm — enough meal estate for a party of eight and perhaps even ten. Like the Weber Master Touch, the grate also features a removable centre section that can be replaced with a host of optional cooking accessories, including a cast iron wok, a pizza stone and a cast iron Dutch oven.

Oh, and for those who enjoy a beer while at the coalface, it also comes with an integral bottle opener. For most users — especially beginners — the Toronto Click passes a great deal of muster and cooks food expertly well. Do your neighbours hate you because of the plumes of smoke created every time you have a barbecue? You need a near-smokeless charcoal model, guvnor, like this snazzy spherical offering from LotusGrill.

Even during the cooking process this thing creates less smoke than other models and it does so by dint of a rather unique but slightly convoluted charcoal loading method and a huge 57cm grill with integrated steel shield to stop fats from dripping directly on to the coals below.

The upside is rapid heating and almost smokeless cooking, and that makes this BBQ the most considerate option for balconies and urban patios. Available in six sunny colours. Although the Campingaz is better known for its huge array of excellent camping equipment, the company also excels in the arena of large gas barbecues.

Take this brand new and highly innovative three-burner model for instance. Instead, the main grilling grate is designed with several solid sections that are placed directly above each burner. These solid sections protect the burners from dripping fats while allowing naked flames to kiss the food for authentic charcoal-style flavour and texture.

Aside from the removable dishwasher-safe backplates, a water tray beneath the barbecue catches all the fats which basically float on the water. All you do is remove the tray and pour away the fatty water. Simple, effective. This excellent two-burner stainless-steel model also comes with a side searer for perfect steaks. This stainless steel-clad, two-burner gas model is an absolute cracker.

The Professional Pro S2 comes with a chunky Amazingly, it also comes with a side steak searer which, in our test, produced a fillet with a superb caramelised crust and succulent pink centre. For added ambience, this model also features illuminated dials in bright red for night-time use. Alternatively, those with more mouths to feed might prefer this barbecue's bigger stablemate, the equally competent Char-Broil Professional Pro S3 , which comes with three main burners and the same great steak sear burner on the side.

This is a brilliant system for novice chefs and for those who would rather entertain guests than be chained to a grill. To some degree it behaves like a pellet smoker to make grilling as hassle free as possible with real-time Bluetooth and WiFi monitoring via the built in thermometer, included food probe there are ports for two and the Weber Connect app.

The Genesis II is equipped with three main gas burners, a Sear Station burner sandwiched between the two right-hand burners for higher steak-searing temperatures, and a side burner for pot and pan-based cooking. For night-time use, the Genesis II comes with bright red back-lit burner knobs and a clever clip-on LED grill lamp that automatically switches on when you raise the lid.

If you have many mouths to feed and hate being manacled to the grill while everyone else is having a good time, then consider this reliable and unequivocally dapper model. Just be aware that it arrives on a palette and takes over three hours to assemble. It also boasts the most accurate gas controllers in the business.

Build quality is exemplary. This fine slab of artistic minimalism comes with four heavy-duty legs, tough wheels, a rust-free aluminium frame and a thick aluminium hood that ensures the food is cooked evenly with very little intervention from the apron-clad man or woman in charge. Stylish, compact and highly versatile, the Char-Broil All-Star is a great small form factor barbecue. As we conclude in our Char Broil All-Star review , this compact single-burner gas grill is a cracker.

Its 46cm circular cast iron grate is similar to that of a standard Weber kettle and we love the way it sits flush with the surface of the main body. It also has an excellent heat-retaining hinged lid, possibly made from aluminium. The two fold-out shelves, meanwhile, provide plenty of space for holding raw ingredients while you slap them on, and it fires up instantly with one touch of its battery-powered igniter.

Char-Broil recommends cleaning the infrared sheet after every barbecue session and the best way to do this is to leave the gas on high for about ten minutes to carbonise the grease and other detritus. Then, simply brush off the powdered remains or use the provided cleaning tool.

The top half of this barbecue comes with its own separate set of sturdy legs so it can be lifted off the main stand and placed on a table or transported in a caravan or RV. Placing it on a table at home seems a bit pointless since the main stand is already perfectly functional and, besides, it has a handy space round the back to hide the gas bottle.

The All-Star arrived in a large box on a palette and it took longer to build than other models. Despite following assembly instructions to the letter, we had trouble fitting the top half of the unit into the main stand and now find it difficult to remove it because its four sturdy rubberised feet refuse to budge.

Well worth a gander. If you love hosting al fresco bashes but wish you were a better barbecue chef, this is the grill for you. Many American barbecue aficionados swear by pellet grilling because it infuses food with a truly authentic wood smoke flavour that is difficult to attain using charcoal, let alone gas. Like all pellet grills, compressed wood pellets are transported from a large hopper in this case 9kgs via an electrically-powered auger basically a large corkscrew to a small furnace pot beneath the main grill grate.

This heavyweight model features wi-fi connectivity and comes with a square inch main grill enough space for eight chickens of five rib racks and a removable square inch warming grill above. Even assembling it was a joy because every box and every item was clearly labelled — the main box itself even turns into a mini house for the kids. It is, for many reasons, our second best choice for doddlesome barbecuing on a grand scale, just a smidge behind the Broil King Regal , reviewed at the top of this page.

The SmokeFire is a heavyweight pellet-burning beast that arrived in a box big enough to live in. A stainless steel shelf on the side provides space for ingredients, etc.

The whole shebang is controlled using a simple push-button LCD display replete with four meat probe ports the unit comes with one probe. Simply select the required temperature in Fahrenheit , push the big button, and wait about 10 to 25 minutes for the grill to reach optimum cooking temperature. Now slap on the food, close the lid and go chat to your mates.

You can also connect this grill to your phone via Bluetooth or wi-fi and control the whole process from a deck chair using the Weber Connect app. Now, it has to be said that the earliest run of SmokeFires did have some teething problems, namely a poorly designed pellet hopper slide, but this has since been redesigned. Highly recommended.

Read our full Weber Smokefire EX4 review for more details. As we note in our Traeger Pro review this is more like an outdoor oven than a barbecue. Like all pellet grills, it uses little wood pellets, an electrically-powered auger to deliver them to a fire pot, a temperature probe and advanced computer technology to make cooking much easier for everyone from newbies to pros. Purists can call that cheating all they like but I haven't burned a single thing on the Traeger to date and I'm more than happy with that.

A superbly designed iOS and Android app adds a multitude of hints and tips, and hundreds of exotic barbecue recipes for beef, poultry, pork, fish. Traeger also produces a wide range of different wood pellets and some of the best dry-rub seasonings in the business. The Traeger Pro is excellent at smoking and slow cooking, and it's highly reliable for conventional grilling, too. A distinctly Big Green Egg-style, Japanese 'komado' BBQ, the Kamander from US barbecue king Char-Broil comes with a porcelain-coated inch cast iron grill, a raised, swing-out inch warming rack and a stainless steel fold-out shelf.

It also features an excellent, easy-to-use air intake system that incorporates a steel pipe that runs from the bottom of the unit to a waist-height dial with big numbers on it. This means you can adjust the air coming in below without having to fumble about in a crouched position. The similarly large numbered dial on the top is used for controlling the amount of heat and smoke leaving the barbecue.

A top choice for fairly flushed alfresco fiends. This prestigious brand has become the first choice of many chefs, both pros and keen amateurs. It grills, bakes, smokes and seers and stays hot for up to 10 hours on a single load of lumpwood charcoal. As the 'MiniMax' part of its name suggests, this heavyweight 40kg grill is not even the Biggest in the Green Egg range its grill measures 33cm in diameter , but it's still sufficient to cook for up to four Americans at a time.

Like the Weber and Napoleon, the MiniMax is designed to be used with the lid on so that the food is cooked indirectly; the lid also prevents unexpected flare-ups and scorching. Right now there probably isn't a better, more forgiving barbecue on the planet.

However, its premium price range is a genuine obstacle to all but the most discerning grill masters. Today's Top Stories. The Rise of the Cleanfluencer. Here are the basics on each: Gas grills are the most common type. They're great because they offer excellent control over cooking temperature the ability to adjust the burner knobs makes it less likely that you'll end up with burnt brisket!

It's the go-to option for no-fuss grillers who plan to barbecue frequently. Just keep in mind that you'll need fuel from a propane tank or natural gas line on your property. Charcoal grills style require briquettes or lump charcoal to ignite. Charcoal is more hands-on and takes time to heat up and cool down, but it imparts a better, more barbecue flavor than gas because it often gets hotter. It's really for grilling purists willing to work for it. Kamado grills use charcoal to heat but have thicker walls than charcoal grills that are often made of ceramic.

They can reach very hot temperatures, like a pizza oven and they retain heat well for low and slow smokes. Electric grills plug in and can't be beat for ease-of-use or convenience — especially the grills that can be used indoors or at apartment complexes that don't allow grills —just don't expect steaks or burgers "browned" on an electric grill to taste like the ones from a real BBQ.

Pellet grills are a growing category that use electricity and hardwood pellets made out of wood scraps to heat. Pellets provide a delicious, authentic hardwood flavor to food but are costly. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Weber homedepot. Heats evenly Includes many features like built-in temperature probes, various lights for grilling in the dark and plenty of storage room.

Though chicken was still tender and juicy, fatty thighs caused small flare-ups. Nexgrill homedepot. Minimal flare-ups Budget-friendly. Gets hot quickly; monitor food during cooking. Weber amazon. Produces great results Minimal flare-ups.

Took a long time to assemble. Char-Broil lowes. Easy to start Created no flare ups. Tru-Infrared technology doesn't allow flames to touch food; some users may miss the charred taste. Large, comfortable stay cool handle Sturdy. Minimal under-grill storage. Large temperature range can smoke and sear Sensors monitor cooking process and temperature every 30 seconds Solid build.

Pricey compared to most gas and charcoal grills.