Best grills 2024: explore the top smoker, charcoal, and gas grills, tested by experts

No summer family gathering is complete without a grill sizzling away in the background. But while they're a home entertaining essential, it can be hard to find the best grills. Grills come with a lot of unhelpful marketing jargon, so it's easy to get lost if you don't know your smokers from your side burners. They can also be very expensive, and if you're not sure what to look for, it can be daunting to take the plunge.

That's why I've tried and tested the best grills on the market. After tracking down the top grills from market leaders like Weber, Traeger, and Kamado Joe, I spent days ranking the very best. I've tested grills and other garden and kitchen products for my entire career, so I know exactly what makes the best grill.

I've covered charcoal grills for that unmistakable smoky flavor, smokers for succulent slow-cooked joints of meat, and gas grills for speed and ease of use. The best grills will let you cook almost anything, look great in your garden, and be simple to operate. They should also be affordable, easy to store and quick to assemble.

My favorite, and the best example of all of these qualities, is the Weber Spirit II E-310, but I've also found several other options worth considering.

The Quick List

Best grills 2024

Best grill you can buy

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This is the best grill on the market. It's everything you need for a family barbecue. It has a large cooking area, is easy to set up and use, and most importantly, it produced the tastiest food on test. It does all this and more at a very reasonable price. 

What I love most about this grill is that it's unfussy and straightforward. Where lots of grills are marketed to 'pit bosses' and need hours of training to make the a simple meal, the Spirit II is fast and easy. You hardly need to think while you're cooking - Ignite it and you'll have burgers and sausages ready to go in minutes.

These burgers were delicious - the whole team agreed that they were the best on test. They were perfectly seared and picked up a delicious char, but were still juicy on the inside. It was a similar story when we grilled vegetables. We also made an unbelievable spatchcock chicken. What's more, the cooking area is huge for a relatively compact grill. If you're smart about it, you could turn out dozens of burgers without much effort. 

The side rack for holding propane is quite small, so if you're cooking off a 30 or 40lb tank it might be hard to hide. The grills are also quite wide - we found that thin slices of vegetables like zucchini easily slip through the gaps. We also felt that the plastic knobs feel a little cheap, but these are minor quibbles rather than serious problems.

There's more detail in our full Weber Spirit II E-310 review. 

Best premium grill

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If you're looking to step up your grilling game, Weber's Genesis II E-335 is a good place to start. It won't be for everyone, but it's a mighty grill that's up to just about any task you could throw its way. This high-tech grill can be paired with your smartphone for remote monitoring. We were able to pair the probe with our smartphone and set it to monitor a specific type of meat and doneness as it grilled. 

This means incredible performance when cooking backyard staples like burgers or chicken. We also used it with the side burner on this grill, making a delicious steak. That's because the smart tech in the grill told us when the meat was at the perfect temperature for a juicy, medium-rare steak, taking away all the guesswork.

However, there's no denying that this is a hefty grill. If you've got a small garden it could dominate your space. Assembly took a while too, but once we had everything set up and ready to go, it was more than worth the trouble it took to assemble.  You can monitor the grill from your phone but not change the temperature or control it, so keep this in mind when slow-cooking your meat. But while we love all the functionality, this grill is usually $1000 more expensive than our #1 pick.

Best electric grill

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You might be surprised to see a portable grill so far up the list, but the Ninja Woodfire passed our tests with flying colors. We're confident that this is as good as some full-sized smokers. This portable electric grill has seven different functions, including grilling, roasting, smoking, frying, baking, dehydrating, and broiling. While it can't match the cooking area of a full-sized smoker, this grill is perfect for small families and camping trips, offering fast, simple, and delicious smoked foods. 

The standout feature, however, is the smoker. The Woodfire uses a box of wood pellets to infuse your dishes with a delicious, smoky flavor. While the flavor's not the same as the smokers on bigger grills, it's still as good. Our tester Alex used it to make an incredible smoked pork tenderloin in just 45 minutes, and a neighbour she shared it with thought it was the best tenderloin they'd ever had. 

It offers incredibly quick cooking. We had a joint of salmon ready in only 7 minutes, and if anything, it was almost too quick. The handy smart display will tell you when to flip your food, but we recommend keeping an eye on it anyway, as this grill is so efficient that it will cook faster than the given recipe times. 

Alex's full Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Grill review has all the details. 

Best large grill

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This is straightforward: the Weber Genesis SPX-435 Smart Gas Grill is huge. We found that it has nearly a thousand square inches of grilling area, not including the side burner. If you've got a big, hungry family, this will cater to everyone. It's more than double the size of some of the other grills on the test. It fits forty burgers. That's enough to feed an entire football team, let alone a family. 

That's before you get into the extras. We're big fans of the sear station, designed to leave those classic charred lines in your steaks and burgers for maximum flavor by creating an intense heat zone. There's also a side burner that can be used to prep side dishes or cook off smaller items that can't go on the main grill. 

There's also a foldable warming rack that can heat burger buns or keep hot dogs warm when they're done cooking, so you can prep your foods with different cooking times but the same serving time.

However, unlike the Weber SmokeFire below, you can't adjust the temperature of this grill via an app. You'll need to run it off an outlet, and it's the most expensive grill on test.

Best gas/charcoal hybrid

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Grill orthodoxy is that charcoal tastes better than gas, but it takes too long to heat up; gas is faster than charcoal, but tastes sterile in comparison. Enter the Charbroil Gas2Coal, which offers the best of both types of fuel. 

Our expert tester and Head of Reviews Millie Fender was impressed with how quickly this grill reached temperature with both fuels. It's fast, responsive and perfect for cooking under pressure. 

The Char-Broil Gas2Coal Hybrid Grill claims to be rust-resistant, and we can confirm that this is true - after more than a year of testing, we haven't seen any rust. However, to be safe, you should store it with a cover or inside your garage to keep the grill safe from the elements year-round. 

The side burner caused the most trouble of the whole experience. It's raised above the side table, so the flame blows around a lot. If you want to cook a steak in a skillet as you grill, you'll have to ensure you do it in a sheltered area of the yard. 

Best charcoal grill

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This grill delivered delicious food with a smokiness that a gas grill simply can't match.  It made delicious hot dogs and perfect burgers, with enough room for 6 chicken skewers and perfectly charred vegetables. It grills great steaks in only two minutes, and you can also use it with a wok for delicious garlic prawns. There was a tiny amount of sticking, but not enough to be an issue. 

There's a cool zone around the outside of the grill, but this is typical for kettle charcoal grills and useful for cooking burgers in the center while warming things like corn on the cob on the outside You can also overcome this by setting the grates at different heights, which is a great feature. 

On test, the only drawbacks are that where we prefer lump wood charcoal, this grill was more built for briquettes, as lump wood fell between the grates. It took a long time to get going compared to a gas grill or ceramic kamado, almost an hour. What's more, we aren't sure that the extra $200 for the cart is worth it - you'd likely get better value buying the PRO22KLEG2 - it's identical but doesn't have the cart attached.

There's more detail in our full Napoleon Pro22K review.

Best wood pellet grill

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Traeger revolutionized the grilling game when they introduced the world to wood pellet grills over 30 years ago. Rather than the searing heat of charcoal or gas grills, pellet grills cook at a much cooler 450°F. This imbues your food with a fantastic smoky flavor, and the Ironwood 650 takes this to extremes, with a Super Smoke mode that ensures your food is cooked 100% hardwood smoke. 

We found that this grill has great capacity. Its 650 square inch volume means you can fit eight whole chickens, six pork butts, or five racks of ribs at a time. That's more than enough to feed even the biggest families. 

The technological features of the Traeger Ironwood 650 are also impressive. For instance, once you've set the temperature, the grill maintains that temperature for you, saving you all the hassle. It's also outfitted with WiFi and a built-in meat probe, so you can monitor the internal temperature of the food and the grill all on your phone. 

The smart tech in this grill means you need electric power to use it. That could be inconvenient if you don't have an outlet in your yard. The huge capacity is great, but means it'll take up a lot of space in your yard. 

Best big smoker

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For another pellet grill, our tests found that the Weber SmokeFire EPX6 STEALTH Edition Grill is an excellent smoker that excels with large cuts of meat.  

The smart dial can be turned from 200-600°F degrees, allowing you to cook at high heat but also smoke and roast at lower temperatures. It will also keep itself running for hours with little maintenance, and you can control it remotely using the Weber CONNECT app, which also allows you to check the probe and adjust the temperature for easy pre-heating.  Unlike the Traeger Ironwood above, you can adjust the temperature in the app. 

Under the hood, you'll find enough space to cook quantities of food for a large family. Our expert tester Millie Fender used it to make a succulent shawarma shoulder of lamb and barbecue ribs, as well as 8 steaks and chicken kebabs.

Just like the Traeger above, it needs to be connected to electricity to work, so ensure to place it somewhere with easy access. You're also at the mercy of the software - Millie's grill shut itself down for a software update in the middle of grilling when she had some guests due to arrive any minute. Admittedly, this was just after the launch of the grill, so there were some bugs to work out, but it demonstrates a wider weakness of WiFi-enabled grills. It also has a smaller capacity than the Traeger Ironwood, with 432 square inches to the Traeger's 650.

Best Kamado grill

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Kamado grills are high-end charcoal barbecues with ceramic plates. These heat-efficient plates make them versatile, handling simple grilling, roasting, smoking, and slow cooking all in one grill.

The Joe II is incredibly capacious. We tested it on a single chicken but you could easily grill two at once. It's great for catering to big family parties. The ceramic plates make it incredibly efficient, reaching a blistering 750°F, so it's a good choice for quick cooking too. While we love a good gas grill, there's something about the smoky flavor of cooking on charcoal that gas cannot recreate. The burgers we made on this outperformed all of their gas competitors.  

We also loved the design of the Joe II. It will look incredible in almost any garden, a large, modern appliance with an eye on tradition. The bright but sophisticated glazed red shell makes it a great focus point for a social area or kitchen garden. We also love the small touches that elevate it from a basic kettle or drum grill, such as the soft opening on the lid. 

This grill is a great choice for dedicated grilling enthusiasts, but that means it takes a lot of getting used to. Because it's so efficient, it's easy to overcook your food. We're also concerned about the heat at the base of this grill. It's low-slung, so it's not the safest grill if you've got small kids or pets around. It's also very pricey for a charcoal grill. 

Best looking grill

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Even our favorite grills are pretty ugly. If you're proud of your garden, it can be heartbreaking to have perfected your patio only to ruin the design with an ugly metal grill that looks completely out of place. Not so with the Everdure Force. This beautiful grill looks as good as it cooks. It's at home in almost any backyard, and every detail on this grill feels high-quality. Even the control knobs are sleek, polished chrome, and the bright, modern lid comes in several striking colors. We might be appliance nerds who get overexcited at new products, but there were gasps when we had this bright orange grill fully assembled. After a couple of days of staring at the same boring gray and black grills, this was a welcome change

That said, it's not just a pretty face. Co-signed by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, the Everdure performed well in our cooking tests, making excellent burgers and a good whole chicken. The clever diagonal patterns on this grill mean it's hard to drop food between the gaps, which is a great feature. 

However, bear in mind that cleaning this grill is a little frustrating. Because the body is so shallow, grease from meat dishes won't run down to the grease tray, instead sitting under the grill. That makes for a surprisingly gross clean-up compared to other grills on our test. It's also pretty basic, lacking a warming rack or a side burner.  

There's more detail in our full Everdure Force review. 

Best kettle grill

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I've tested this grill for a previous employer but I'd love to get another look at it, because it's one of my favorites that I've tested. 

It's easy to build. The instructions are already simple, but Weber has collaborated with an iOS app that gives you fast, concise, 3D instructions that make the whole process painless. 

When it comes to food, it's one of the best grills I've tested. It's very heat-efficient, so it heats up quickly, and it has a searing hot spot in the center of the grill but gentler indirect heat at the sides, which is great for cooking sides and vegetables. Unlike lots of other kettle grills, it has a warming rack. The spatchcock chicken I made with this was excellent. Where other grills dried it out, this grill is excellent at retaining moisture, resulting in a crisp, juicy, perfect chicken. 

Perhaps I'm just clumsy, but I've always found that there's a finesse to using the lid hook. When you're in the rush of grilling it's a little frustrating to try and hook the lid onto the hook as you cook. While this is about as cheap as you'll ever find a Weber, it's still a lot to spend on a charcoal grill. However, my biggest warning with this grill is that the tool hooks aren't useful. There are only two of them on either side of the handle. If you like to have a range of spatulas, tongs, forks, and brushes on hand, you'll find this limiting. I also found the handle a strange square shape that can be oddly tricky to hold. 

Best portable grill

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This compact grill is unlike any other on this list, because it can fold completely flat, so it's perfect for storage in winter or folding into a truck bed to take on a trip. It's much easier to move around a yard as needed compared to the behemoth grills for the rest of this year.

It might be small, but it's got a pretty decent capacity. Wit a cooking area of 320 square inches, it offers enough surface to cook around 20 burgers, and it even has a handy side prep station for salads, sides, and sauces. It has all the usual quality of Weber grills, cooking excellent food, though it lacks all the warming racks and side burners of full-size grills.

It might be small, but it's pretty hefty. At more than 60lbs, it's not one to take out on hikes, but it will excel for tailgating. It's also perfect for an RV because it can fold down for storage. 

How we test

We get hands-on experience with the products featured in our guides and grills are no exception. It's our mission to test as many of these grills in our backyards as possible. Our expert panel combines close and personal experience with customer reviews to get the lowdown on these grills' strengths and weaknesses. We've cooked dozens of meals on these grills, and at every step of the process we assess factors such as the ease of set-up and use, cleaning, maintenance and storage, and ultimately, how well each grill cooks. Not every grill we test makes the cut. 

For further information about how we conduct our reviews and for our product-testing process explained, explore how we test on Homes & Gardens. There's even more information specific to our grill testing process in how we test grills. 

Our testers

Alex David

As Head of eCommerce, Alex oversees all our reviews content to make sure our readers find the right information to help them make the best purchase. After graduating from Cambridge University, Alex got his start in reviewing at the iconic Good Housekeeping Institute, testing a wide range of household products and appliances. He then moved to BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, assessing gardening tools, machinery, and wildlife products, so has experience of reviewing products across the entire home and garden, with several years' experience reviewing grills. He tested our current favorite, the Weber Spirit II E-310.

Millie Fender

Millie Fender is Head of Reviews at Homes & Gardens. Formerly our head of all things cooking, she has tested a wide range pizza ovens, grills, and even fire pits.  Millie's most recent test was her Napoleon Pro22K review, finding a new favorite charcoal grill for this guide. 

Alex Temblador

Alex Temblador is a award-winning author and freelance writer based in Dallas, Texas. With an expansive outdoor space for thorough testing, she has tested everything from hot tubs to grills for Homes & Gardens and our sister brand, Gardeningetc. 

Alex tested the Weber Genesis SPX-435 Smart Gas Grill, assembling it with the help of her cousin for three hours straight. Once assembled, she was wowed by the quality cooking she was able to achieve with this large and impressive gas grill. 

FAQs

Which type of grill is best?

The most conventional type of grill is a charcoal grill, which will slow-cook all manner of dishes for smoked meat or chargrilled vegetables. Gas grills are loved for their convenience. They are easy to ignite and you can work the burners independently, whether it's at different temperatures or for smaller servings without wasting gas.

More popular in recent years is the smoker grill. Powered by pellets, they often feature intelligent temperature probes and auto-dosing burners to keep your grill cooking for hours on end, even when unattended. 

Charcoal grills
Pros: Charcoal grills provide a phenomenal smoky flavor to food, which is especially tasty in meats.

Cons: They take longer to heat up and the temperature can be somewhat harder to control. Even grills with charcoal boxes to collect the ash require some time for cleaning. 

Gas grills or liquid propane grills 

Pros: Gas grills are quick to heat, easy to adjust the temperature, and don’t require a lot of prep or clean-up time. Gas grills are best for those who are new to grilling.

Cons: They may offer great sear and grill lines and have the capabilities to keep your meats juicy and tender, but unless the grill is outfitted with a built-in or separate wood box, you can’t achieve the same delicious smoky flavor that's provided with charcoal or wood pellet grills.

Electric grills 

Pros: Some electric grills can be used indoors and others must be used outdoors. They heat quickly and don't require a lot of maintenance. 

Cons: Most electric grills are small. If you have an outdoor grill that needs electricity, like a wood pellet grill, you’ll need an outdoor outlet, which may not be placed in the most ideal (or safe) grilling location.

Wood pellet grills 

Pros: Meats come out juicy, tender, smoky, and fully-flavored with a wood pellet grill. Once you set the temperature on a wood pellet grill, the grill maintains that temperature for you, so your attention can be elsewhere. If you like cooking with wood, you'll love the best pizza ovens. 

Cons: These grills require electricity to function, so you’ll need a good outdoor outlet.  

Which type of grill is easiest to clean?

All grills need regular care and maintenance to work at their best, so learning how to clean a grill and how to clean grill grates is essential. 

Stainless steel and gas grills are usually the easiest to clean. Charcoal grills are a lot dirtier, and you must remove and dispose of the old ashes, which makes them trickier to clean.

The best tools to use when cleaning a grill are a wire brush with tough stainless steel bristles for the grill's grates, a sponge or cloth for the other grill areas – and some have even learned how to use an onion to clean a grill.

For optimal food safety, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that you ‘wash work surfaces, utensils, and the grill before and after cooking.’

Are gas grills better than charcoal?

Gas grills are easier to use than charcoal grills but taste worse. Gas grills are incredibly simple and safe to use. Once you're hooked up to your propane, it's as easy as cooking on a gas range. However, that means there's little difference in flavor between a gas grill and a gas range. When you compare gas grills to charcoal grills, they're missing out on that classic smoky flavor. 

However, charcoal grills are much trickier to use. You need to learn the difference between direct and indirect heat and work out the precise window when the grill is at temperature for your ingredients. That can turn grilling from a tasty treat on a lazy afternoon into a tedious chore. 

If you aren't a hobbyist, I'd opt for gas. It's faster and simpler, and while it doesn't taste quite as good, the difference isn't big enough to bother with charcoal. 

For the average user, yes. For gourmands, no. Gas grills are smaller, simpler, and cheaper than pellet grills. There's nothing new to learn or extra equipment to buy. Most of us need a grill for a few burgers in the sun a couple of weekends a year. Gas grills do the job without breaking the bank. 

However, if cooking is your hobby, it's well worth considering a pellet grill. Unlike gas grills, pellet grills make it easy to smoke meat, and their capacity is much bigger than the average gas grill. For example, I made grilled vegetables, burgers, sausages, and chicken to test gas grills. To truly put a smoker through its paces, our Head of Reviews and exceptional cook (trust me, I know first-hand) Millie Fender made a shoulder of lamb, ribs, steaks, chicken kebabs, and flatbreads, all smoked, and some at the same time. However, there's a bit of a learning curve, and you need an outdoor outlet. If that doesn't sound like fun then a gas grill is the way to go. 

What can I make on a grill?

You can make pretty much anything on a grill. You're only limited by your skill and imagination. Using only examples of what we've assessed in our tests, you can make burgers, sausages, grilled chicken, ribs, salmon, steak, vegetable skewers, whole shoulders of lamb, shawarma meat, and in one incredibly inventive move in our Ninja Woodfire grill review, cinnamon rolls. If you cook it with heat, you can cook it on a grill. 

What's a side burner?

Side burners are extra gas burners that are great for cooking with a skillet. I've found that they're especially useful for steak, and are just the thing for caramelizing onions for burgers and hot dogs. 

What's a warming rack?

Warming racks - unsurprisingly - keep your food warm. They sit high above the grill, so they keep food warm rather than cook it. If you're cooking for a big gathering, you can keep the first round of burgers or sausages ready while you make the next. In my experience, they're the perfect place for heating sides like corn on the cob. 

Which grills are American-made? 

Most grills on the market are made abroad. If this is important to you, watch out for 'Made in the USA' claims, as these may be shorthand for 'made in the USA with globally sourced parts', which is not wholly American made. Weber, for instance, assembles a lot of its grills in the States but the parts are manufactured in China. American Made Grills is your best bet.

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