Charcoal Grill - Weber?

Finally thinking about buying a Weber charcoal grill.
I have used a Weber gas grill forever.

I don’t want to spend a lot…and thought the Weber Original Kettle Premium would be nice. ($165)

Any opinions?
I also saw the Master touch. ($219) - worth the upgrade?

Anyone use the charcoal trays?

I’m literally a dunce when it comes to charcoal.
How do you use the chimney thing?

Go for the Weber Q no stuffing around with charcoal, replaces your oven a lot of the time. Great for roasts. No flare cooking.

My Weber kettle is the best money I have ever spent. 10+ years old and still looks great (I do keep it covered).

Get a Weber kettle and don’t look back. It’s an icon and works great. I’d also recommend getting a vortex with the kettle purchase. (Medium size for a 22”). It’s a game-changer for chicken and many others.

Amazon.com?

I have owned a Weber Original Kettle Premium for about five years. It’s the best value in outdoor cooking in my opinion.

I recently started using the charcoal baskets that fit around the outside and I’m not convinced they are any better than just a pile off to the side.

I don’t use a chimney. I use an electric starter. You see them used a lot in BGE or other Kamado grills. I plug it in, pile the charcoal on top, wait about seven to eight minutes, unplug, pull it out from under the coals and then I let it cool in my chimnea where it will usually get the piñon wood started. The model I have is bent at an angle versus being straight so it sits up out of the coals well.

I recently purchased the Kettle Pizza setup. It’s made the Weber even more useful. With a combo of charcoal and wood I can get temps around 900* for pizza or searing steaks.

The chimney starter is easy. Fill with charcoal. Crumple up 3-4 sheets of newspaper and stuff underneath. Put it on top of the lower rack (down towards bottom of kettle), with top rack out the grille. Light with a match or flame starter. Let it do it’s thing for 15-20 minutes as the coals get burning/hot. When you see flames coming out of the top dump into the bottom of the grill (lower rack) and put top rack on. I usually let them burn for a few more minutes to get the grill hot and then start cooking.

We have used the Weber kettle for decades. They do eventually need to be replaced but they last a long long time. We currently have one like this (although without the thermometer). Very handy to have the platform for tools. We also use a chimney.


I have a chimney, very simple to use but I’ve migrated to a blowtorch with a trigger out of sheer simplicity.

The more important question is why you want charcoal? Because you think a wood fire imparts something to the food that gas flame doesn’t? Because you’re a male and want to play with fire? Mid-life crisis? For the record, those are all good reasons :wink:

But a more serious answer: I use my BGE for smoking 99% of the time. Once in a rare while I’ll fire it up hot for grilling. There is no question that seeing those fire ant coals and hearing the sizzle of a steak is a thrill in its way. But there’s a reason I only do it 1% of the time: turning on the gas grill and a) having it ready in a few minutes with no hassle of cleaning out and loading the firebox, b) having much more control over temperature, indirect grilling, etc, and c) getting a result from quick grilling that is nearly indistinguishable from charcoal, makes gas the easy hands down choice most of the time. My advice is to keep using gas, but play this while you’re grilling

But if you really want charcoal, the Weber should be just fine. Also, don’t even think about using fake briquettes, use real wood charcoal. I have an extra bag you can start with. And you can have my chimney as well [cheers.gif]

I could not disagree with Alan more. Saying that a gas grill (which I have and use) produces a result that is “nearly indistinguishable from charcoal” is just plain wrong (IMHO). It’s like saying that any old cabernet you might pick up at Total is “nearly indistinguishable from Ch Latour.” Gas is good for some things, and is absolutely more convenient than charcoal, but so is the microwave.

The Webber is a solid choice, had one for many years.
Another option is the nearly indestructible PK Grill, they have been making them forever, my dad cooked on one.

Have owned Weber kettles (I have two, for when I get really cranking with some meats) for decades. Never have owned a gas grill (although, perhaps one day . . . ). Get the chimney for starting, but don’t “cheap” out on it as there are some chimneys on the market that don’t work well at all. I recommend staying with Weber’s chimney - this guy explains it just fine:

He’ll learn about the utility of his “hippie handle” . . . . [rofl.gif]

As Alan and others mention, find a brand of lump charcoal you like, also. [cheers.gif]

I love my Weber and maintain the opposite of Hank Hill. A gas grill isn’t a grill, but an upside down broiler. I am tempted by the ceramic kamado grills (e.g. BGE) but can’t believe there is that much of a difference than a Weber.

OK, let’s look at this a little closer: If you’re grilling something hot and fast, it’s not going to be on the grill more than a few minutes. If you’re fire is right, you’re getting a lot of heat, but almost no smoke that might impart some different flavor character to whatever you’re grilling. So for a normal thickness steak, a chicken breast, fish fillet, I’m standing by my claim that there is very little difference - it’s all about what heat level you can achieve with gas vs. charcoal. OTOH, if you’re doing reverse sear on something bigger or thicker that takes a while, the charcoal probably does impart some flavor. But then it’s harder to control temperature and keep it low vs gas; plus you can’t easily ramp the temp up for the sear at the end, so it’s a much trickier method.

Don’t get me wrong, I love charcoal, and would use it more often if it didn’t come with the necessity to clean out ash, set up and start coals and wait for them to get to cooking stage, etc. It’s a beautiful method that makes one feel more like a grill master. But, for me, the convenience of gas far outweighs those things most of the time. Mentioning the microwave in the same sentence as gas and charcoal is kind of silly, don’t you think? Gas achieves 90% of what you get with charcoal; microwave achieves very little, except to warm and cook, it’s completely different.

Some of my advice is based on what I know about Dan’s family situation, time pressure, getting things done efficiently at home, etc. I think he’d have some fun with a charcoal kettle, but I also predict he’d push it into the corner after a few uses, and revert to gas most of the time.

Mostly agree w Alan, but this is also not the point of the OP’s question.

Charcoal is superior, gas is more convenient. That’s the trade off pure and simple. Some applications the trade off is narrow enough in flavor impact where convenience clearly wins, but taste is never better w gas IMHO. I have gas right now as I want to grill often enough where convenience is primary.

Alan I can’t quite buy your argument. I never had an interest in a gas grill - it’s always been charcoal. Doesn’t mean I haven’t had gas-grilled steaks, etc., but they’re quite different. Even if they’re just on the grill for a few minutes, there are some pieces of charcoal that aren’t quite glowing and that are smoking and that provide flavors that gas just can’t. Even for something that cooks quickly like flank steaks.

We have two - one 18 inch kettle grill and one smaller Smokey Joe that’s perfect for cooking a couple steaks for the two of us. I use it all the time. The bigger one gets used if we have company or if I’m smoking something. It’s not quite perfect for smoking if you’re doing competition BBQ, but it’s just fine for our use.

BTW, I’ve never used a chimney starter or anything like that, and definitely NEVER lighter fluid, which will just ruin your dinner. I just use a propane torch. You can get a cheaper one than this, but this only cost around $20 and it’s perfect. There are different gases you can buy - get one that’s a little hotter than the basic blue can. This is a lot safer and faster than the chimney. Just pile your charcoal in the grill, light a few around the edges with the torch, and go on preparing your dinner. In a few minutes the rest of the pile will have caught and you’ll have a great fire. One of these cans lasts for a long time.
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As to lump vs briquettes, there’s some controversy regarding that. Some BBQ guys say that they’ll only use briquettes because they know what temperature they’ll get and it will be consistent. You can even count out the number you need. And they say the fuel is safe because it’s just compressed coal dust and wood dust so it’s really just carbon. OTOH, the lump charcoal will contain bark, sometimes nails, etc. It often contains pieces of oak flooring, which means it’s real wood.

I think briquettes suck. They don’t burn nearly as hot - 800F vs 1100+ for lump, they don’t light as easily, they burn out faster, they leave a mountain of ash, and you really don’t want to try to re-light them another day. Lump charcoal lights quickly, burns hot, leaves far less ash, and re-lights easily. No contest.

I’ve had Weber Kettles before and love them. I now have a BGE and a gas grill. I use the gas grill more simply because it less work. And I generally use the BGE for slow cooks. Though I do use it for grilling, too. I think some things taste better over charcoal and with some there is little difference. But I struggle to think of something I cook that is better over gas than coals. I have thought about getting another kettle I used them so much.

I only used gas for direct grilling for about five to seven years. It was all about convenience with a young family. First time I fired up the charcoal grill I made thick cut bone in pork chops. The flavor imparted by the charcoal was remarkable and something I missed. The gas grill got cleaned up and went to Craigslist the next day. Haven’t looked back.

I also have a Traeger and use that for the times I want quick outdoor cook. Not as hot as the gas grill but quicker than charcoal and fills the gap.

as something that is a pretty good compromise between a weber kettle and a BGE, I own a Char griller Akorn. If you are someone who is looking to do some long low and slow smokes but don’t necc. want to shell out for a BGE, its a really good option. You don’t have to constantly babysit it and replace coals like you would in a weber, but I bought it knowing it would definitely not outlast a BGE. have used it for normal grilling, 800* pizzas, briskets, pork shoulders, burgers, whole turkeys… has worked well for all of it.

that being said, if you just wanna cook burgers and love the flavor of charcoal, its hard to beat the QPR of a weber kettle.

love the basic Weber Kettle Charcoal grill. I would get a model with the ash catcher.
nothing beats hardwood charcoal. At home I have graduated to ceramic charcoal grill but in Florida my Weber rules