It also doesn’t get hot enough when sitting on the grate to ignite the wood chips either. First of all, raising and lowering down the scissor cart could not be any easier, and it’s actually quite satisfying to see and do. I can’t say enough good things about having a workspace beside the grill and the weber kettle bbq tool hooks. Little touches like that make grilling on the go much more pleasurable. To fold it back down, first, remove the gas canister — as a safety feature, the Weber Traveler will not fold down with a canister in place. You should also empty your drip tray to prevent making a mess in your vehicle.
The burner ignites with a push of the ignition button, and you can control your heat with the infinitely adjustable knob. They’re set nicely away from the lid, so there’s no chance of accidentally burning yourself. There’s no mistaking this is a travel grill, even with a casual glance. The folding stand, the aluminum construction, the low-profile cooker all scream out “on-the-go” to me. The Cuisinart Petit Gourmet Portable Gas Grill stands out from the crowd thanks to its unique design, which converts from a freestanding model into a tabletop model in seconds. If you don’t want to shell out for our best overall option, this is a more affordable choice that also stood up to rigorous testing.
Cooking the food was very much like cooking on my other Weber at home. I fit a full 10 pack of burgers that took minutes to get to medium-rare. Due to the amount of cooking space, I also managed to char about 6 hot dogs and 4 turkey burgers at the same time.
But if you want a pellet grill for tailgating or base camping, this is still your best option. The portable Petit Gourmet features telescoping legs that fold up neatly, and it’s easy to carry in one hand. Models like this are easy to carry into the park to find your ideal picnic spot. With any grill, cleaning them before transporting them will lead to less mess. The Cuisinart Petite Gourmet is one of the smallest grills in our tests, and the size does affect control. It has a fairly uniform temperature, but the shape of the grate and burner gives you the option to move your food around to different temperature zones in case you need some range for different foods.
As a rule of thumb, a grill with thicker construction will retain and spread heat better than one with thin walls and bottoms, with some exceptions. The Everdure CUBE, for example, has thinner construction but is specifically designed to distribute heat evenly. The Weber Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill 18″ is the only charcoal portable we tried that can sear and cook foods about as well as a full-size backyard grill. It’s a good choice if you like cooking with charcoal or don’t want to spend a lot, but it’s less convenient than gas, especially when you’re on the go.
The tuna steaks and sausages I plunked down on the grill grates got a nice sear with pretty grill marks in about 10 minutes (five on each side). Another tabletop option, this portable gas grill from Weber was a standout for our testers, who named it the winner of the group, and even noted its performance rivaled standard-size grills. “This thing could be priced even higher and I would buy it,” a tester noted, although at under $300, it’s attractively priced as-is.
Assembly is simple thanks to the manual providing pictogram-style instructions, and the whole task took just 12 minutes for us to be ready to cook. Attaching the gas bottle took a little manipulation that sparked safety concerns but ultimately resolved once connected. After the easy task of lighting the grill with the pushbutton ignition, the grill grates came to cooking temperature in just eight and a half minutes — a tough task for most portable grill competitors. If we look at this as just another travel grill, it’s a simple but effective one. The single burner outputs 13,000 BTU per hour, so there’s plenty of power to grill even a thick steak, and it will handle all your camping and RVing cooking needs with ease. But, with 320 square inches of grill space, chicken pieces, chops, burgers, sausages, veggies, fish, and breakfast food are all doable.
At 30 pounds and with a long cool-down time (again, cast iron), it’s also not going to be very portable. The Q 1200’s design caused the fewest flare-ups of any model we tried, thanks to built-in channels in the porcelain-coated cast-iron grill grates. These helped keep grease and drippings away from the flames while still allowing ambient heat to brown between grill marks. In our tests, burgers from the Q 1200 had the most seared surface area of all the burgers we grilled, and more browning means better flavor. Porcelain-coated cast-iron cooking grates are best at searing foods, though cast iron does add an extra 5 to 10 pounds to the total weight of a grill.
A compact grill, yet with a large grilling area, that can fold to fit inside the trunk of your car and be wheeled around on its own foldable scissor stand. Easy to set up and fold, with a heavy-duty frame and wheels and premium materials, this grill is also easy to use and built to last. Actor Taylor Kinney is a fan of Weber grills — and he’s certainly not the only one — so we think he’d approve of the Weber Q2200 as an option weber kettle bbq for your next tailgate or backyard barbecue. This model is actually the next size up from the Q1200, and it provides 280 square inches of cooking space, making it better-suited for large-batch grilling. For this metric, we had to consider how different methods of heat production compared among different grills across the board. For gas, we looked at the number of BTUs (British thermal units) each product generates.
An experience-based, comprehensive review of the best portable grills on the market. That’s why we’ve teamed up again with the grillmasters at Weber to deliver the perfect portable grill solution for your Airstreaming life. The Airstream Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill takes one of Weber’s most popular portable gas grills and adds everything you need to use your grill with your Airstream’s onboard propane system. Simply attach the included RV quick connect hose to the external liquid propane (LP) port on your Airstream and your grill and you’re ready to go. If you’re interested in a tabletop grill—one with shorter legs that can be setup on a picnic table or bench—you can’t do better than the Weber Q1200 Gas Grill.