The 12 Best Gas Grills Reviewed

Since you probably haven’t read the other reviews yet (this is the first on the page, after all), you may not know that every single one of the grills on this page has porcelain-enameled, cast-iron grilling surfaces. These hold heat much better than their stainless steel counterparts. This grill, though, takes things to a whole other level with its double-wall lid.

What’s the purpose of a lid for a barbecue, anyway? Well, it holds the heat in, silly, turning it into a “man oven”. For many barbecuing delights, you won’t really need the lid (the makers of the griddle-style Blackstone Grill Station don’t seem to think a lid is important), but it can come in really handy for certain tasks. When cooking some dishes, like a whole chicken or baked potatoes, trapping heat all around the food is important. You can’t cook those sorts of foods by simply heating one surface at a time the way you can with steak or kabobs.

Any lid helps to hold heat inside an area around your grill for better all-round cooking. This double-wall lid, though, traps even more warmth. The double-wall design acts as insulation so that less heat dissipates through the lid.

A Step Above Basic

Looking at the rest of this grill’s stats, it’s easy to see that it’s only a little above average. With only 3 burners and a total of 497 square inches of cooking space, it isn’t quite as large as some of the others on this list. That’s OK, though, if you’re only cooking for two to four people most of the time. With 72 BTU per square inch, it really isn’t one to rival the top contenders in terms of grilling performance, either.

That all being said, it’s nice to know you can control each of the three burners independently to get just the right temperature in all three cooking zones for different types of food. Again, this type of control is common among most of the grills on our list, but you have to remember that the ones we’ve selected are already a step above the average – we’ve chosen these particular grills for a reason.

The four caster wheels allow you to push this barbecue around your patio. Some people find a permanent home for their grill and really won’t care about the wheels. Those who often need to tuck it out of the way, though, and pull it back out when it’s time to cook, will be pleased with these 360-degree swivel wheels.

Come campers, one and all, to see the best camping stove in the world! Well, that at least is our opinion. The whole set of attributes this product offers has come together so nicely, we just had to nominate this portable grill as best for camping. While it may not be the absolute smallest, we believe that the positive attributes it does have make it the best.

Since this is available in any of 12 different colors, you shouldn’t have a problem finding a grill to match even the most unique camping gear. Of course, we know that camp grills are about a lot more than style. Still, it’s nice to know that you can express your personality by selecting a color you like.

Full of Function, Too

For many people, grilling is an important part of the whole outdoor experience, so it’s good to know that this is a full-featured yet compact barbecue. Overall, users are pretty impressed at the job it does, considering its small size. They also report that it is easy to use, assemble, break down and transport, which are all essential when it comes to camp grills.

The four-footed stand lifts the grill up off the ground or whatever other surfaces you may set it on, so that you won’t damage or possibly set fire to something. The large, domed shroud keeps heat inside and makes it easy for you to cook heftier portions evenly, without burning the bottom and leaving the top raw.

With a total of 189 square inches of cooking space, the Weber is average in size among the three camping grills we’ve chosen to look at. If you need to cook for a lot of people when you’re camping (or tailgating, for that matter), or if you want to use this grill on your home patio at times, you may want to consider our runner-up, the slightly larger Napoleon TQ2225PO.

Since we are comparing this with the Napoleon, though, we should point out that it definitely beats the Napoleon on one front: side tables. The Napoleon has none; and any dedicated cook will know how frustrating this can be when camping. While that does make the Napoleon more compact and lightweight (great for short distance backpackers or people transporting it in a small trunk), it does require you to pack an extra folding table. Thanks to the two side trays built onto this grill, you will always have somewhere to set your cooking utensils, raw ingredients and finished dishes.

This large grill boasts a total of 650 square inches of cooking space. Add to that an additional 280 square inches of keep-warm space on the swing-away warming rack and you have a total of 930 square inches, which should be more than enough for most cooks.

A large space for cooking is essential when you’re throwing a party. If you need to prepare multiple types of food for a large group of people, a big usable area forms a huge part of accomplishing that task. Instead of cooking in stages, leaving the food you cooked first to sit and get cold as you make more (or having some of your guests finish eating before others even get their food), you can cook everything at once and serve everyone at the same time.

Cooking for a large group of people? You can extend your cooking space even further by employing the side burner. Use a pot or saucepan here to whip up a side of veggies, a starch, or a delicious sauce for your famous ribeyes. This, too, is where the warming rack comes in handy. You can cook up a bunch of burgers, sausages, or skewers and just pop them onto the warming rack so that they remain warm and ready to serve while you cook more food below on the actual grilling surface. Swing the rack away when cooking an entire chicken or turkey beneath the tall shroud or when using a rotisserie to take things to the next level (the rotisserie is sold separately, but is easy to add onto this grill).

Built with Quality in Mind

All those square inches of cooking and warming space aren’t the only thing we used to decide that this top-selling grill should receive the title “Best for Backyard Barbecues”, though. Space is essential when cooking for large groups, but quality is especially important when looking for the “best” anything.

With a total BTU of 60,000, this grill is tied with the Blackstone for overall cooking power. When calculated based on the square inches of cooking space, though, this grill tops them all with a satisfying 92 BTU per square inch. This means higher temperatures, consistent cooking, and great performance overall.

A total of six burners gives you flexibility. Not only will the six burners ensure there are no cold spots on your grilling surface, but they are also each attached to their own independent control. When you are cooking for only a few people, you can choose not to turn all the burners on and use only one portion of your grill. When you are creating multiple culinary masterpieces at one time, you can adjust the cooking temperature in each of the six zones to reflect the type of food you are making. This requires some skill to get right, but you’ll be glad to have the option.

Let’s say you want something small, compact, easy to fit onto your cramped patio, deck, or balcony space – but you don’t want to sacrifice quality. You don’t want to just walk into your local department store and grab the first basic, no-name model that will rust through in a year and always struggle to produce perfect ribs. We hear you. We know what you want.

You want quality. You want longevity. You don’t want to pay an arm and a leg to get it and you’re not set up to store (or simply don’t need) a gargantuan grill. You need the Weber Spirit II E310.

Let’s begin by pointing out that all of the grills on our page, and in fact every product on this website, has been screened for quality. We don’t bother to review just any random thing. We look closely at the quality of each grill and the actual experiences consumers have had with each before choosing whether or not to include them here. So, you can rest assured that, even though it looks sort of entry-level, this barbecue is very different from those discount models you find lining the aisles of your local department store.

Available in either a propane option or a natural-gas version, this barbecue is made of stainless steel and powder-coated steel for extra protection against outdoor conditions. Though the powder-coated steel may rust if it gets scratched, it’s still a step above the painted aluminum used on some grills. That means that it is stronger, less likely to rust, and won’t get nearly as hot (remember, aluminum is a good conductor of heat). The actual grilling surface is porcelain-coated iron, like the grills on every other barbecue on this list. This holds heat well, doesn’t rust, and doesn’t require oiling.

Squeezes Into Small Spaces

It’s rather small when compared with the others on our list (take a look at the size of the Char-Broil Performance 650 and the Weber Genesis for comparisons). That’s good, though, if you have limited space for storage. What’s neat is that, thanks to its slim design, people will be able to make use of the side tables as a place to put their plates and utensils. If you really don’t have much space, you can take the side tables off (or don’t attach them during assembly).

Need something even smaller? Don’t want to sacrifice the side tables, after all? No problem. This grill also comes in a 2-burner model. Slightly slimmer, you should be able to fit the 2-burner model into smaller spaces and transport it more easily. You won’t even need to sacrifice control, since the 2-burner model allows you to control each of its two burners separately for a total of two different cooking zones.

When thinking of camping equipment, definitely including portable gas grills, it’s important to remember that different people have different preferences. Some people want a small grill they can load into a backpack for traveling trips. Others want a grill with side tables they can use for preparation (those people may want to take a closer look at the Weber Spirit E310). Some people need a grill with a foldable stand to make it full height when necessary (the Weber Spirit is a good option for this, too).

For the most part, though, campers want high-quality grills they can rely on, which are relatively compact and lightweight for easier transport in their vehicles. This grill hits all of those notes, with the additional advantage of having the highest BTU per square inch of cooking space among all three of the top-quality camp stoves on this list.

Measuring only 11 inches in total height (including its lid) you will be able to slide this grill into your trunk, back seat, or even an oversized backpack without much trouble. The push start button and control knob have been positioned on the side of the grill where they will not stick out past the overall width of the machine, meaning that they won’t get in the way when you’re packing the grill into your car and aren’t likely to accidentally get damaged.

The built-in drip tray is reusable and quite durable. In fact, the whole unit is pretty sturdily built. Made almost entirely of stainless steel, it is built to withstand the rough and tumble lifestyle of campers and backpackers. The heat-reflecting properties of stainless steel also mean that these parts of the grill won’t hold heat, so you can pack it up fairly soon after use. The actual grill surface, like all the others on this list, is made of porcelain-coated cast iron for the best grilling performance.

It’s easy to see, even at a quick glance, that this grill is different from most others. Its unique cylindrical shape makes it stand out, for one thing. But what do you really get when you sign up for such a unique barbecue? Let’s break it down a bit, so you can see what it’ll actually be like to own this interesting circular grill.

First of all, you should know that, despite its tiny footprint, this grill uses an average 20-pound propane tank. In fact, the overall circumference of the grill is only slightly larger than the tank itself. That means you won’t be able to store anything in the base of this grill, since the tank takes up most of that space.

What you can do, however, since this unit is so narrow, is fit it into tiny spaces. Whether you’re working with a tiny balcony or you just want to be able to tuck your grill out of the way when it’s not in use, this slim grill will fit into some of the smallest spaces. For perspective’s sake, the next slimmest backyard grill on this page measures 36 inches in width. This Fuego is a mere 21 inches in diameter – the slimmest in terms of width, and just as narrow in depth.

With an Edge to Edge Design

You be wondering, “With this slender design, do I lose cooking space?” The answer is no, mostly. Though you will certainly have less grilling area than you would with an oversized grill like the Char-Broil Performance 650, you’ll still have more to work with in terms of square inches than you would if you owned, for example, the Char-Broil Classic 280.

Let’s think about that for a minute. It’s smaller in overall size than the Char-Broil 280, but it has a larger cooking surface. This is thanks to this grill’s unique edge-to-edge design. The grill surface stretches to the very edge of the overall circumference to give you as much cooking space as possible.

There is certainly something to be said for the traditional grill. Some people just love that nice criss-cross pattern on your meat when you cook it, and won’t consider it properly grilled unless this is present. A grate-style grill also lets you infuse a slightly charred flavor in your favorite cuts of meat and a bit of a savory tang to your veggies (especially if it has flavor bars). But there are a lot of things a grill really can’t do, and this is where the griddle comes in.

Unlike the grated grills featured on the rest of this page, this griddle’s smooth cooking surface will let you cook smaller bits of meat and sliced vegetables without worry. It’s the perfect solution for grilling up a nice souvlaki wrap or a stir-fry. Want to grill your veggies, meat, and some potatoes or rice all together for a full flavor experience? No problem – this griddle can do the job, and also makes great eggs.

While the best electric griddles can easily prepare breakfast indoors, this one is especially useful for preparing full breakfasts outdoors. This makes it a wonderful camping companion (assuming that you have the room to transport it to your campsite). You can use this griddle to cook up a whole dozen of eggs, some bacon, toast, and even pancakes. What other grills can make pancakes without awkwardly trying to use it with a pan?

All that being said, you can still cook hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, steaks, chicken, fish, and anything else you normally make on a traditional grate-style grill. Unfortunately, it won’t have the criss-cross pattern you may be used to, and will probably be slightly more greasy due to juices not being able to drip down. To keep grease to a minimum, though, the Blackstone’s cooking surface is slightly slanted toward a little trough that feeds the grease into a special drip tray. The drip tray itself is small and easy to remove for cleaning.

The cold rolled steel cooktop will take a little bit longer to heat up than the iron grills the other barbecues have, but it also allows you to try hibachi and other cooking styles. It’s kind of a trade-off, and you’ll have to decide for yourself which is more important: fast cooking time or a solid surface.

Beneath the steel cooktop are four separate burners. Though the griddle tends to heat fairly evenly anyway, they are all independently controlled so that you can cook different foods at different temperatures or even elect to have one or more burners turned off when cooking small portions.

If you need to stay within a relatively modest budget but don’t want to give up too much in terms of quality, the Char-Broil Classic 280 may be just what you need. It’s well built and among the cheapest grills on our page. In fact, it’s cheaper than the tiny camping grills we have here. How is that possible?

We won’t lie. This Char-Broil isn’t nearly as nice as some of its more expensive counterparts. For one thing, it doesn’t have the cooking power of many of the others on this list. With only 71 BTU per square inch, it won’t heat as quickly over its entire 280 square-inch cook surface as some others would.

While 71 BTU per square inch is below our recommended cooking power (see our Buying Guide for more on BTU), we’d like to point out that there are many grills on the market which aren’t even capable of this level and still give decent performance. Our 80 to 100 BTU per square inch recommendation is sort of based on the assumption that you want a serious grill that will make your friends jealous. Anyway, it’s mostly this lower cooking power that helps keep the price of this grill under control.

Also helping to keep it in a very affordable range is the fact that the barbecue’s stand is open. In other words, it doesn’t have an enclosed space with cupboard-style doors like the Dyna-Glo or the Weber Spirit II. Another big reason this is so affordable when compared to the others is its size. Among those which are made for home use (we’re excluding the camp-style grills, here) this one is, by far, the smallest in terms of cooking space. Its cooking surface is almost as small as the Napoleon camp grill.

On the upside, though, when compared with other grills of similar prices, this one is superb. None of those other ones made our list, of course, since we try to feature only the best of the best. Other products costing something similar don’t feature durable porcelain-enameled cast iron grilling surfaces, lockable caster wheels, heat tents, side tables, and independent burner controls. Some might have a few such features, but not all of them. This one, on the other hand, gives you a few useful extras and thereby sets itself apart.

Offering one of the most unique features among any of the barbecues we found, this model from Weber will check the temperature of your food and relay that information directly to your cell phone. It has a handful of other great qualities, but let’s begin with this most impressive one.

Its unique ability can be attributed to its iGrill 3 Bluetooth Thermometer. Unlike the temperature gauges built into most of the other barbecues on this page, the iGrill thermometer does not measure the temperature under the grill’s lid – it measures the temperature of your food directly.

Just like the typical meat thermometer you would use in your kitchen, the iGrill is plunged directly into your food to give you an accurate reading of its cooking temperature. Much better than simply guessing whether or not your food has reached a safe temperature, this thermometer puts ultimate cooking control in the palm of your hand. Leave the thermometer in the food as it cooks and check your phone for updates about the cooking temperature. It’s simple and easy to use – just follow a few quick instructions to set up the software on your cell phone and you’re good to go. This means that anyone can cook large, whole cuts of meat perfectly with this grill, which rarely fails to impress dinner guests.

Other Notable Qualities

Four burners evenly distribute heat across the rather large 646-square-inch cooking surface (the third-largest cooking surface of all the grills on this page). The tuck-away warming rack increases the overall cooking and holding space under the lid by 198 square inches. A total of 48,000 BTU breaks down to 74 BTU per square inch – a decent amount of cooking power, but certainly not the best we’ve seen.

You can control each of the four burners independently based on what you happen to be cooking in each area. An effective grease management system also adds to the convenience of using this grill, as do its large, stainless steel side tables.

The sturdy design of the grill itself, the shroud, the cook box, and the cart all add value to this unit. Its rugged wheels won’t change direction like the caster wheels affixed to many of the other grill carts, but they will cross rocky and grassy terrain with ease.

We’ve already looked at a couple of camp-style grills on this page (namely the Weber Q1200 and the Napoleon TQ2225PO) but there is something about this one that makes it worth mentioning as well – its weight.

Each of the three camp grills we’ve featured has its own big selling point. The Weber Q1200 stands out thanks to its large side tables. The Napoleon is exceptional mostly because of its high BTU per square inch and compact design. This Cuisinart, though, is the lightest of all three. If you plan to strap a camp grill to your backpack on your next hiking trip, this is the one we suggest choosing.

The Napoleon may be easier to carry in terms of its shape and the fact that you could slide it into a bag without sacrificing too much space, but we really prefer that one more for stationary camping trips, or those you’ll be driving to. Its slim design is helpful mostly when packing your car (especially if you’re one of those people who likes to pack everything but the kitchen sink). Despite its slim design, though, the Napoleon is over twice as heavy as this grill. At a whopping 30 pounds, that grill is not something you’ll want to drag around the forest or up hills.

This one, on the other hand, weighs a mere 13.5 pounds. Light as a feather when compared with its competition, this Cuisinart can be strapped to the outside of a pack without adding too much weight for short-distance hiking/camping expeditions.

With a Telescopic Stand

Something else that’s really neat about this camping grill is its stand. Using a telescopic configuration, you can extend the small stand beneath the grill to raise it up off the ground. It won’t lift it up all that much, but is still high enough to protect whatever surface you have it sitting on top of and to keep things hygienic.

If you want something a little larger – if you prefer to cook as if you were in your own backyard while camping – you can purchase this grill with an extended stand, instead. Tall enough to let you stand comfortably as you cook, this larger telescopic stand is still compact enough to carry around with you on short hiking trips. It will add a little extra weight to your pack, though (an extra 3.5 pounds), so be aware of this difference before making the choice.

One look at this Weber grill and you just might be fooled into thinking it’s the same as the Weber camp grill we’ve already looked at, only with a stand. That’s not the case.

Despite its very similar appearance, Weber did not just take their camp grill, slap it on a beefed up stand and try to pass it off as a backyard barbecue. On the contrary, this grill is pretty competitive among the other high-end home grills we have featured on this page.

The two side tables add extra prep space and a place to set your utensils and plates as you await your delicious, juicy, barbecued meal. They are removable so that you can choose to work without them. Unlike a lot of models, though, you won’t have to take them off to store your grill in a convenient corner: they fold down for added convenience, meaning that your grill doesn’t need to take up much space when not in use.

One of this grill’s biggest selling points is its drip tray. While the trays on some other popular grills are difficult to reach, this one doesn’t suffer from that drawback. Once you locate it (this should take only seconds), you can simply slide it out. What’s cool, though, is that you aren’t just sliding out the tray. There’s actually a flat piece of metal surrounding the tray that will help you keep the mess to a minimum if you happen to be a little clumsy when pulling it out.

Capable of 21,700 BTU in total, covering no more than 393 square inches at only 55 BTU per square inch, this grill is not quite as powerful or as large as many of its competitors. We suspect that its elevated price (compared to its best competitors) is based on its durability and build quality. Since they are well known for the camp gear they create, it’s no wonder that Weber has made a sturdy backyard grill.

Whether or not you find this particular barbecue to be worth the money will depend on your needs. Ask yourself, “Does the weather in my area demand a durable grill? Do I have somewhere dry to store my grill?” Your answers to these sorts of questions will help you decide if this is the right grill for you.

If you haven’t already noticed, allow us to point out that there is only one other grill on our page which includes a side burner. Why is that? Well, honestly, it’s hard to say. We based our selections partly on popularity and, apparently, side burners just don’t seem to be what people want in a gas grill.

Perhaps it takes an unusually enthusiastic outdoor chef to appreciate the added function and convenience of a side burner. After all, you won’t have to run back and forth between the grill and the kitchen if you have a side burner on your grill to steam or fry veggies, prepare starches or to bring your mouth-watering sauces to just the right temperature.

Char-Broil also makes the only other option with a side burner we’ve chosen to review, and apparently assume that if you purchase it you must have a ton of family and friends you regularly cook for and plenty of space in which to store your grill. With a total of 6 burners, that other grill (the Char-Broil Performance 650) measures an ungainly 63.4 inches in length. That’s far too large for a lot of people’s patio spaces and, at 650 square inches, the cooking zone is more than most people will ever need, as well.

Thankfully, this grill is only about 53 inches long and has an adequate (but not overwhelming) 475 square inches of cooking space. It’s large enough for your family get-togethers and, thanks to its 175 square-inch warming rack, it will be pretty useful for those extra-large parties you host once in a while.

Let’s talk BTU for a minute, because you might want to cook up some extra-thick steaks for those partygoers. With a total of 36,000 BTU spread over 475 square inches, this grill puts out about 76 BTU per square inch. Though this is below our recommendation for those who want a top-notch grill capable of roasting a chicken on a spit, it’s still plenty powerful enough to grill anything from a burger or a fish fillet to a chicken breast – or even a thick-cut steak.