The Q 1400 is the electric cousin of the gas-fueled Q 1200 and is a good fit for balcony cooking where gas or charcoal are prohibited. The grill temperature on the high setting maxed out our thermometer at 610°F after five minutes. It’s easy to clean, there’s little setup, and it’s lighter than its gas counterparts. Weber pellet grills and gas grills have a variety of advantages.
The gas ignition makes lighting coal as easy as pushing a button. The biggest piece of meat that people will smoke is a brisket and the 22″ kettle can fit a lb brisket no problem. The hinged grates also make adding charcoal or wood chunks much easier.
Conversely, if you cook hamburgers and hotdogs for one or two people while you’re camping, a large gas or kettle grill will prove burdensome and probably be “too much grill” for that purpose. If you’re somewhere in the middle, a kettle or pellet grill may be a good choice for you. The Performer also has Original’s weber bbq top and bottom damper arrangement, which allows high-heat cooking and serves as an excellent smoker in low-heat applications. Its temperature fluctuated no more than 20 degrees over six and a half hours of smoking. The hinged sides and pop-out center of the grate are nice for adding charcoal while cooking.
We liked the original version of the PK Grill & Smoker that we tested. The thick cast-aluminum body holds and reflects heat efficiently, and it’s extremely sturdy and inherently rustproof. The shallow rectangular shape keeps the coals close to the grates, and its flat base works better for indirect grilling than sloped, round grills. It also has weber charcoal grill two vents each on both the top and bottom, allowing for better control over heat output. It was also impressively easy to assemble, and the built-in cart and shelves (there’s no cartless option) would be welcome on a patio that doesn’t have a worktable of its own. No matter what you slap on it, the Weber can cook it—hot and fast or low and slow.
How to cook large cuts of meat with falling-off-the-bone tenderness? Royal Gourmet® CC1830M Barrel Charcoal Grill with Offset Smoker helps realize smoking weber charcoal grill aficionados’ dreams on the grill. You may take some more hands-on time and temperature monitoring than gas grills, but the results are quite satisfying.
Flat Rate shipping applies to standard locations within the contiguous 48 states. Our highly trained team is always prepared to help you with any questions you may have about grills and accessories. For over 15+ years I simply used the minion method or the charcoal snake to smoke (pictured below) with and that still works perfectly fine. However, if you’re someone who is interested in smoking meat, it’s definitely worthy of consideration. Due to the issue above, one of the only modifications I’d make is adding a second thermometer to the lid at grate-level.
It performed on par with competitors when it came to smoke flavor in our long-smoke tests, and it left a nice char and browning in our short-smoke experiments. It didn’t fare as well in our searing tests, however, leaving burgers looking more pan-seared than grilled. We’d also like to be able to see if the ash bin requires emptying.