Weber Go

Plus, the size-to-weight ratio is fabulous; there’s a lot of grate space, but it’s light enough to move it around to wherever I feel like grilling. The Weber 22-Inch Original Kettle charcoal grill is, as the name explains, a charcoal-fired grill. It’s a basic grill, as most charcoal barbecues are — no side burners, shelves, infrared, glowing temperature knobs, etc. In 1992 the first generation Master Touch kettles were introduced. This would serve as a premium model charcoal grill through the remainder of the 1990s.

weber charcoal grill

We’ve put these and several more collections together for you, including healthy recipes, smoking-on-a-plank recipes, rotisserie recipes, and more. There’s no doubt about it—these grills portable bbq have plenty in common. Aside from the difference in size, they’re virtually identical in most of the top categories. So, are there any particular features that set the two apart?

Since it’s the same for both units, however, there’s no winner in this category. The 22-inch unit also offers a low and slow vent setting, so this unit can pull double duty as a smoker. It can be difficult for amateurs to get a grasp on how this system works at first. Nonetheless, it’s an impressive feature that gives the smaller Weber the top prize in this department. PKs are extremely high quality charcoal grills made of thick cast aluminum and will NEVER rust. The fan base for PK Grills is smaller than Weber but they are just as fanatical.

Over the course of two days, we put three charcoal grills through a battery of tests designed to demonstrate their qualities and highlight their differences. We cooked burgers on high heat to see how well the grills seared meat and how even and intense a heat they could generate across the whole grate surface. Then we slow-grilled cut-up chickens to see if our contenders could hold a low temperature evenly across the whole grate. Finally, we roasted whole chickens indirectly to see if the grills could create browned skin and perfectly cook meat without charring. Sam Sifton, editor for the Cooking section of The New York Times , joined us for these tests.

A wire brush dipped in soapy water should do the trick in scrubbing off all the carbon of a gas grill. In the case of a charcoal grill, the old burned coals need to be thrown out. The next step is to take the grates along with any other removable part and place them in a bucket of soapy water to be scrubbed with a sponge after being soaked.

Other nice design touches include a heat shield on the lid that prevents the handle from heating up and two large wheels for maneuvering the grill around the patio. During our chicken cooking tests, however, this portable grill held its temperature better than any other charcoal grill we’ve tested. The resulting chicken was tasty, and the grill features really well-made cast-iron grates across its 365 square inches of cooking area. The lid houses a temperature gauge and a handy hinge that makes it easy to add charcoal.

As of 2015, Weber has switched over to these individualized serial numbers that begin with a two letter prefix. “Although it has some imperfections—the enamel on the bottom rim is not perfect, the bottom grill is missing, and it’s not perfectly round anymore—the rest it still looks great. “We found your website after we had the pleasure and excitement of finding a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker at an estate sale. We love our Weber Performer but have always wanted to have a smoker. When I got home, I removed the smoker from the box and found out that it had never been used.