The Best Outdoor Grills

A grill this size fits the way most families actually cook. Three burners put out 39,000 BTUs across 513 square inches of primary cooking space, clearing the 450-inch benchmark for feeding four people at once. The tapered PureBlu burners spread flame across the grate instead of concentrating it in the middle. You get a hot sear zone on one side and gentle indirect heat on the other, which covers almost everything you'll cook.

Porcelain-enameled cast iron grates hold heat, so a cold steak keeps sizzling when it lands instead of steaming. Underneath, Flavorizer bars catch dripping juice, vaporize some of it back into the food, and funnel the rest away from the burners. That's the part that keeps chicken thighs from going black over a grease fire. Owners consistently describe quick preheats and even results corner to corner.

Cleanup is where you'll notice the design. The grease tray slides out from under the cookbox, so you're not reaching into a hot cabinet with a putty knife. Raised flame openings keep debris from dropping into the burners and clogging them, which is the usual reason a cheap grill starts cooking unevenly after two summers. The warming rack handles buns and sides while the main food finishes below.

The warranty is why we'd take this over a similar-looking grill that costs less. Weber covers the Genesis for ten years, and Consumer Reports' multi-year owner surveys have ranked Weber at the top of the gas category for satisfaction and long-term durability. Cheaper grills often rust or warp within three to five years. Parts stay available too, so a failed burner means a burner, not a new grill.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's big and it's heavy. At nearly five feet wide and 188 pounds assembled, this needs a real patio spot, not a balcony corner, and you won't be tucking it into a shed for winter. Assembly eats an afternoon — owners commonly report an hour and a half or more — and the packaging fills a recycling bin.

A handful of owners have received bent or badly drilled frame pieces and found Weber's support hard to reach past the automated layers. That's not the common experience, but it happens. And this is still a gas grill: no wood smoke, and no app or WiFi probe if you want to watch a pork butt from the couch.

Weber covers the Genesis E-325 with a 10-year warranty, the longest term in the gas grill category.

This is the grill most people picture when they picture a grill, and the shape has survived decades because it works. A domed lid, a deep bowl and two dampers give you more control than you'd expect: crack the bottom vent for low, slow heat, open both wide for a hard sear. It holds around 13 burgers, which covers a normal weekend cookout with room for a few ears of corn.

It's the least fussy way to get real charcoal flavor. Wirecutter's long-term reporting named the 22-inch kettle the top charcoal grill for most people, crediting the porcelain-enameled bowl and lid that resist rust and won't peel. Serious Eats' comparisons found charcoal produces markedly more browning on beef than gas at matched surface temperatures. You can taste that on a burger, and it's the whole reason to put up with the ash.

The Premium version earns its name with the ash catcher. A one-touch lever sweeps ash down into a covered aluminized bin that lifts off, so you're not tipping a bowl of gray dust into the wind. Add the built-in lid thermometer, the hook that hangs the lid on the side rail, and glass-reinforced nylon handles that won't rust, and most of the small annoyances of charcoal quietly disappear.

At 32 pounds, it's genuinely portable. You can roll it across the deck on all-weather wheels, lift it into a truck for a campsite, or stand it in a garage corner all winter. For a small patio, or as a second grill for the nights you want smoke, it takes up almost no room and asks nothing of you when it's idle.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

You are the thermostat. There's no knob — you bank coals to one side, work two dampers, and learn what your grill does in wind and cold. Expect a few mediocre cooks while you figure that out. Lighting takes 15 to 20 minutes with a chimney starter, so this isn't the grill for a spontaneous weeknight.

Space is tight and there's nowhere to put anything. Thirteen burgers is fine for a family and short for a party, and there are no side tables, so you'll want a cart or a nearby surface for platters and tongs. The plated steel cooking grate also doesn't hold heat the way the cast iron on our top pick does.

This is the grill for someone who cooks outside all year and wants options. Four stainless main burners put out 48,000 BTUs across 500 square inches of main cooking space, with another 260 inches on the warming rack. Layered stainless sear plates spread heat rather than let it pool under one burner. Napoleon's Accu-Probe gauges let you see what each zone is doing instead of guessing from the lid.

The infrared side burner is the party trick that turns out to be useful. It reaches 1800°F in about 30 seconds, which is steakhouse territory and a crust a normal grate can't produce. The 18,000 BTU infrared rear burner drives the rotisserie, and Napoleon includes the heavy-duty rotisserie kit with the grill. A whole chicken turning for an hour is a genuinely different dinner.

Ignition is a small thing you notice every single time. Each main burner gets its own Jetfire igniter, and a back channel between burners lets them light off each other if one igniter goes stubborn. Owners several years in describe the burners, grates and cookbox as holding up hard, and Consumer Reports' surveys put Napoleon alongside Weber at the top for long-term owner satisfaction.

You're paying for capability, not a badge. Between the main burners, the sear station and the rotisserie, this does more than any other gas grill here, and it's the one to buy if grilling is a hobby rather than a chore. If your cooking is burgers and hot dogs, our top pick handles that just as well for considerably less. Be honest about which one you are.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The cabinet doesn't match the rest of the grill. Several owners report the doors and lower panels feel thin and less carefully finished than the cookbox, grates and burners, which is an odd place for a premium grill to economize. It's also close to 200 pounds and more than five feet wide, so pick the spot before it shows up.

Assembly is a real project. One person can do it in an afternoon, but the heavy pieces go much faster with two. And since this is the most expensive grill in this guide, the sear burner and rotisserie need to be features you'll genuinely use, not ones you admire.

One cooker that smokes, bakes, roasts and sears is a real thing, and this is it. Thick ceramic walls hold heat like a brick oven, so the Classic III will sit at 225°F for a brisket and then climb for steaks without a fight. The Kontrol Tower top vent keeps your airflow setting when you open the dome, so you're not re-dialing the temperature every time you peek.

The SlōRoller is the reason we'd point most people here rather than to a plain ceramic cooker. It's a baffle that pushes smoke and heat around the chamber in rolling waves instead of letting it rise straight past the food. Kamado Joe says that produces more even distribution across the grate than a conventional deflector plate, and owners describe temperatures that hold steady through long cooks.

The three-tier Divide & Conquer system does more for weeknight cooking than the smoking features do. Half-moon grates sit at different heights, so you can sear sausages low and direct while peppers ride high and gentle on the other half. It also ships with a rolling cart, side shelves, a grate gripper and an ash tool, which is a stack of accessories you'd otherwise buy one at a time.

Charcoal efficiency is the quiet advantage here. A ceramic cooker sips fuel compared with a metal kettle, and a single load holds smoking temperatures long past the point where a thin-walled grill needs a refill. That matters if you want to put a pork shoulder on before bed and sleep through the night instead of setting alarms to feed the fire.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It weighs 286 pounds. The cart has locking wheels and rolls fine on flat pavers, but this is furniture, not equipment — you won't take it camping or shift it for a party. Ceramic chips, and it can crack if you hit a hot cooker with cold water.

The 18-inch grate shrinks fast once the SlōRoller and a deflector are in place, so a big crowd means cooking in shifts. Kamados are also slow to change their minds; coming down from searing heat to smoking heat takes patience and planning. And a few owners have run into shipping or assembly trouble with a heavy, fragile item.