The 7 Best Weber Grills of 2023, Tested by Food & Wine

Whether you want a portable or more permanent fixture, gas or charcoal, Weber makes it.

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Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

I owned a Weber Original Kettle grill for about 10 years. I grilled steaks on it, smoked pork butts, and once packed it up to do an out-of-state celebrity chef oyster cook-off, and it served me well through all of this. But, I’ll admit that, like an absentee father from a movie, I neglected it until I needed it, and neglect got the better of it over time. Yes, it had a simple design and cost more than comparable grills, but the original kettle grill remains on the market for a reason: it’s reliable and versatile, justifying a few more dollars for the performance and, after 10 years, longevity.

Of course, Weber now manufactures more than kettle grills: gas grills, pellet grills, electric grills, and other takes on charcoal grills have become popular, too, among those who know and trust the brand. But which Weber grill is the best? We took 13 models to our testing lab to find the top performer in seven categories. Here are our results.

Amazon

The Genesis E-325s is easy to use, with excellent heat control and accuracy.

Despite clear instructions, assembly was a time-consuming process, taking about an hour.

The Genesis E-325s is a griller’s grill, capable of a full range of grilling tasks and techniques. It’s solidly built and has four wheels for easy rolling, with two wheels having locking mechanisms to hold it in place. We liked its sizable searing zone for high-heat cooking (it fits about 20 burgers) and how well it held low temperatures for slow-roasting foods. Its built-in thermometer provided accurate readings in our tests. We found a slight variation in heat between the center and outsides of the grill, though more noticeable with the lid open. We also needed to turn up the heat to produce a distinct char. In the end, these issues were minor, as the E-325s topped our list of the best gas grills.

Price at time of publish: $999

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Amazon

The Original Kettle’s temperature control and heat retention make it a very versatile grill.

We found the lid clumsy, and the dome thermometer isn’t as accurate as it could be.

The Original Kettle still holds a place of honor in the grill world. The secret to heat control with this grill is the top and bottom dampers that form convection during cooking. That control and responsiveness, combined with its heat-retaining design, results in intense, high heat for searing or a low-and-slow smoke. In our tests, this looked like caramelized steaks with light grill marks and tender ribs with a defined smoke ring beneath a dark bark.

The Original’s bottom damper also serves as part of the ash management system, scraping spent ash into a detachable unit at the bottom for easy disposal. That said, adjusting the dampers presented a learning curve. Other drawbacks were the grill’s clumsy lid and inaccurate temperatures on the dome thermometer.

Price at time of publish: $219

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Amazon

It excels in low-heat scenarios like smoking thanks to the damper system’s temperature control capabilities.

We had to be careful not to burn ourselves when arranging coals.

The Performer has the appearance of an upgraded Original Kettle. It includes a cart with a work table, a charcoal storage bin, and a sensible lid-holding rack. An ignition system replaces the need for a chimney starter. The grate has a removable center, meant for adding a pizza stone or other Weber cooking accessories. While beginners may look for a more basic model, we’d argue that the Performer’s features make it approachable for grillers of all levels.

The Performer also has Original’s 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 found it difficult, however, to use these to arrange or bank the coals without burning ourselves, as it required us to remove the entire grate for safety.

Price at time of publish: $549

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Amazon

The EX4 is a very good smoking grill that’s easy to assemble.

Like many pellet grills, it’s just average for searing.

Weber hasn’t slept on the app-controlled pellet grill game. The EX4 scored high in several areas of our testing. While the grill requires assembly, Weber “seemed to make assembly an enjoyable part of the overall experience rather than merely a task to [complete] as quickly as possible,” as one tester said. In terms of performance, it reached baking temperatures in just eight and a half minutes and took only slightly longer to reach searing temperatures. It retained heat well, dropping a maximum of 30 degrees after we opened it and recovering its temperature in one to two minutes.

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.

Price at time of publish: $1,099

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Amazon

It heats quickly and evenly with excellent recovery time.

It’s heavy and a bit awkward to carry for a portable grill.

The Weber Q 1200 is a long-time favorite. It’s a portable grill with full-size performance, thanks to its enamel cast iron grates and a single, circular burner that ensures even heating across the cooking area. It stood out in multiple rounds of tests for excellent heat retention and quick recovery time after we opened the lid. There were also minimal flare-ups and no excessive charring or undercooked spots during cooking tests.

With a cooking area of 189 square inches, the Q 1200 holds about four burgers. It’s small enough to pack and transport easily, and it was pretty easy to clean. Its biggest design flaw is its weight, coming in at 31 pounds. But the weight is also a product of the features that make it perform well, so we consider it a reasonable trade off.

Price at time of publish: $259

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Amazon

It gets hot quickly and stays hot, with even cooking across the grates.

It’s heavy for a portable grill, but the wheels make it easier to move.

The Traveler is a good portable grill with a pop-up stand that also functions as a wheeled cart for moving it around. It has a 13,000-BTU burner under the enamel-coated cast iron grates, which heat quickly and, importantly, retain that heat. The result: nice grill marks and caramelization on hamburgers and onions. The Traveler has more cooking space than the Q 1200, but the two are equally easy to use, having a single control knob to regulate the heat.

The pop-up stand takes little effort to operate, and the wheels make moving the grill from the car to the cooking spot a simple task. The Traveler requires assembly, a job that took us about 15 minutes, and given its heat retention, it cooled quickly, making it easier to pack after cooking. We suggest taking out the grill grates to scrub them, though, as cleaning them made the entire setup shake.

Price at time of publish: $399

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Amazon

The Q 1400 is a lightweight grill with quality components.

We’d like to see a finer degree of temperature control.

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 has a single temperature control and heats quickly. Perhaps too quickly. The grill temperature on the high setting maxed out our thermometer at 610°F after five minutes. Shying away from going full-bore on the temperature yielded fine results in our cooking tests, with reasonably even cooking, but we never attained good searing or grill marks at this lower temperature. It’s easy to clean, there’s little setup, and it's lighter than its gas counterparts.

Price at time of publish: $329

Food & Wine / Greg Dupree

It’s not just the nostalgia talking; for value and performance, the Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill really delivers in both areas. If you’re looking for a gas grill with fewer hands-on requirements, the Weber Genesis E-325s 3-Burner Gas Grill or its Smart counterpart are excellent choices, as well.

Because the grills we tested include gas, charcoal, and electric models, we put them through separate testing scenarios. Each of the scenarios involved rating the ease of setup and clarity of instructions, testing grill temperatures at designated time intervals, evaluating a test case of food cooked for a specified amount of time, and the ease of cleanup. We scored each area on a scale of one to five, with performance weighted to account for 50% of the final score, then averaged the results to arrive at our highest and lowest performers.

In selecting a grill, your style of grilling should dictate the grill you pick. Your grilling style is where you cook, how many people you cook for, and what type of foods you typically cook. If you like to cook whole pork butts in your backyard for your family, a small portable grill isn’t going to fit the bill for you. 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.

How much food will you cook for how many people? Before you get yourself in the weeds with that question, simplify it: How many people will you regularly cook for and what size is the food? You can reasonably expect to feed 10 people with four whole chickens or four to five racks of ribs. If you find a grill that holds four racks of ribs, it should fit 16 to 20 burgers. From there, if you plan to cook for a smaller group with smaller food, you can do the math to work downward, and a portable grill may be your best bet, even if you don’t plan on moving it very often. Again, your middle of the road option will probably be a kettle grill.

You want to find a grill made of quality materials to ensure longevity, heat dispersal, and heat retention. Weber uses a variation of enamel-coated metal for the body of most grills, which is suitable for all of those factors. Enamel-coated cast iron grates are excellent for their non-stick properties, searing, and easy cleaning, but they’re heavy. Stainless steel grates don’t leave the same degree of charring and grill marks, are more prone to sticking, and require more effort to clean. If your grill has wheels, examine the material carefully, as you want hard, preferably rubber, wheels and a solid construction where they attach to the grill.

There’s truth to the idea that you get what you pay for – and what you overpay for. When you examine most of Weber’s offerings, you’ll find that they’re simple and well engineered, not over-engineered. Most of us want to find quality materials, with the best design, for the least amount of money, and many Webers fit that bill. Weber’s grills under $100 tend to skew that idea, though, by not delivering on the engineering, the materials, or both. So, if you want quality and longevity, you should probably go with a high-grade model.

Weber grills are manufactured in Palatine and Huntley, Illinois, but some parts and components are made in China before being assembled in Illinois.

Procedures vary depending on the model of the grill, but generally Weber suggests a “top down” approach for cleaning its grills. This consists of allowing the grill to cool and cleaning the exterior and interior of the lid, grates, firebox, ash management system, body, legs, and wheels. You may prefer cleaning the grates while hot; that’s a personal preference and fine. A mild solution of soapy water should be sufficient to clean any fresh spills or grease accumulations. Always ensure the fire is dead out before emptying the ash collector and cleaning the firebox.

Depending on the model and where you store it, you can reasonably expect a three to 10 year lifespan for your Weber grill. Keeping the grill shielded from the elements and cleaning it after each use are your best bets for expanding the grill’s longevity. As I previously mentioned, I had a Weber Original Kettle Grill that I neither sheltered nor cleaned regularly, and it lasted almost 10 years in a very humid environment.

Vigilance is key to getting a good deal on a Weber grill. Weber has a strict Minimum Advertised Price policy, so you’ll probably notice that prices are pretty uniform across many authorized retailers. So, watching for sudden price drops is your best bet. You may get lucky dealing with an independent retailer around the major grilling holidays like Father’s Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day, when the retailer might want to move grills on volume over sticker price. Also, Weber changes its model line occasionally, and you may luck into finding an end-of-run model at a lowered price.

Weber Genesis EX-325s Smart Gas Grill ($1,179 at Amazon)

This grill is the Genesis EX-325s with an intelligent upgrade. It performs with the same quality and versatility as the analog version, but this step up comes with a digital display, a remote temperature probe, and an app.

Weber Spirit II E-310 3-Burner Gas Grill ($619 at Amazon)

The Spirit II E-310 is a perfectly fine gas grill, just not an exceptional one. There were some flare-ups during cooking, and we found about a 15-degree difference between foods cooked in the front and those in the back and center.

Weber Spirit II E-210 2-Burner Gas Grill ($449 at Home Depot)

Like its three-burner counterpart, the E-210 is fine. It does have significant hot spots in the middle and middle back, with the edges registering cooler temperatures.

Weber Go-Anywhere Gas Grill ($89 at Amazon)

The Go-Anywhere is a good example of Weber’s quality dropping when the grill is below a certain price point. It yielded good charring and grill marks in our testing, but the temperature of the finished food varied by more than 15 degrees.

Weber Go-Anywhere Charcoal Grill ($60 at Amazon)

The Go-Anywhere Charcoal follows suit with its gas counterpart; the uneven heat distribution from evenly-layered charcoal gave a mixed bag of results, from overdone to pale and unimpressive.

Weber Smokey Joe 14-Inch Charcoal Grill ($46 at Amazon)

The Smokey Joe was disappointing. On paper, it’s a smaller version of the Classic Kettle, but in reality, the heat wasn’t there, yielding gray, unappealing food.

Weber Q 2400 Electric Grill ($399 at Amazon)

The Q 2400 showed cool spots around the edges and hot spots on the middle and left-hand side, which delivered mixed results from a full load of food.

Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Tasting Table, Food Republic, and other publications.