Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter. Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart. She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. Up top, the Weber model’s lid vent is a simple disc of aluminum; you just flick it left or right to open or close the vent holes.
With a Weber, though, you’re getting superior performance and durability. Charcoal grills are also often more affordable than their gas counterparts, making them a good option for tight budgets and beginner grillers. All you need for charcoal grilling is a lighter, a bag of charcoal and your favorite ingredients.
Under the lid it looks more like a gas grill than a charcoal grill thanks to 549 square inches of porcelain-coated cast-iron grates plus a secondary steel rack for warming or indirect cooking. This grill has enough room for a three-zone charcoal fire—and a handful of beer-can chickens, multiple racks of ribs, or (at least) 20 burgers. It’s also a great grill for slow cooking a whole pork shoulder and then some with or without Char-Griller’s optional side fire box. To do it, you have to open one trapdoor in the grill grate, then another in the heat diffuser plate below it which exposes the embers. Reaching through that opening to open the diffuser plate is not; a finger-sized opening in the latter is too tiny Weber tongs or the finger of a Weber grill glove into.
Our customer service reps are real people offering great service, backed by 8 weeks of hands-on training with all of our products. The lifespan of any grill is affected by several factors including cleaning frequency, maintenance, amount of use, weather, and the overall environment where the weber bbq grill is located. There is an abundance of Weber owners who have been using the same grill for decades. Your mileage may vary, but with proper care and maintenance you can expect your Weber grill to last for many years. Assembly is dead simple, and the construction and materials are sturdy.
Spark your passion for charcoal grilling with the Kettle that started it all. Whether the Weber Premium is the right grill for you depends on your grilling preferences and the size of your backyard barbecues. While it’s ideal for a family of four or small parties, its 363 square inches of cooking surface may not be enough for larger cookouts. The lack of a simple lid hook feels like a design oversight and removing and replacing the ash catcher isn’t as smooth as it should be because the damper handle gets caught on the legs. There’s no function for pushing the ashes into the catcher, either, so it has to be done manually with a grill brush or other tool.
The innovative design and unlimited potential of the Summit® Charcoal Grill lands it in a class of its own. Sear the perfect steak, grill a whole chicken, or transform your grill into a smoker, creating mouthwatering ribs. The gas ignition makes lighting coal as easy as pushing a button.
It’s a basic grill, as most charcoal barbecues are — no side burners, shelves, infrared, glowing temperature knobs, etc. By this time, I’d done some simple smoking and both direct and indirect grilling, but it was time to weber charcoal grill try some more involved recipes. I’d contacted grill guru Steven Raichlen, who recommended a few from his handsome new cookbook, “Project Smoke” and I started with a very forgiving six-to-eight hour pork shoulder recipe.