The Best Grills to Up Your Cookout Game

The charcoal versus gas grill debate will never be settled to either side's satisfaction. (Those of us in the charcoal camp have to live with being right in silence.) But what if you could avoid the debate altogether by having both in the same grill? This is where the head-exploding emoji goes. Charbroil's hybrid grill can switch between gas and charcoal modes. There's also a side burner for heating up your mac and cheese or other sides, making it more of an outdoor kitchen than some of the other options here. Under the hood, this hybrid looks like every gas grill you've seen: Bars cover gas pipes to distribute flames, with a cast iron grate on top of that. The results from the gas grilling are as good as any I've tried.

Here's where your head explodes, though: If you remove the bars and add a tray to cover the gas burners, you've got a charcoal grill. There's only room for a single layer of charcoal, which isn't going to work for smoking, but for flavorful sears it's perfect. To get it going, all you have to do is light the gas burners and close the lid, and your charcoal will be ready in about 15 minutes. It really is the best of both worlds.

If you want to become the neighborhood pitmaster without leaving the couch, Traeger's Wi-Fi-powered Ironwood electric pellet smoker (7/10, WIRED Review) is the way to go. Like a Weber grill, it's made of heavy, solid metal. The excellent app makes it easy to control your cooks from the comfort of, well, anywhere. You can keep tabs on the cooking progress of your meat through your phone, but the grill itself controls the temperature, the amount of smoke, and all the other details. The in-app recipes are pretty good too, and clean-up isn't too hard thanks to the accessible grease trap.

The downside is the price. Oh, and the fact that Traeger recommends using only its own pellets. I've also heard stories of premature rusting in some cases, though that has not happened with my review unit.

If you're serious about grilling and smoking, Traeger's Timberline (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is the perfect all-in-one outdoor kitchen. It uses the same wireless smoking smarts as the Ironwood above but adds some extras, like an induction burner (perfect for adding a last-minute sear with a cast-iron pan or steaming some veggies). The insulated smoke box has room for six pork shoulders, or about the equivalent racks of ribs or chickens. WIRED associate editor Parker Hall managed to feed hundreds of people using it. If that's not enough, there's also an XL version that's even bigger.

"All of my meats heated evenly and were perfectly cooked right when the smoker said they would be," Hall says. If you want flawless smoking from the comfort of your couch and price is not a factor, the Timberline delivers.

Charcoal flavor, with the temperature precision of gas/electricity, is the BBQ community’s Holy Grail, and the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 delivers. It’s a highly versatile grill with a capacious cooking area, so you can feed the entire crew this summer. It removes the guesswork from slow smokes and lets you perfect seared burgers and dogs, weekend pancakes, and bacon and eggs on the flat-top griddle.

The large, top-loading charcoal hopper uses gravity (hence the name) to feed heat into an internal housing, and an integrated fan enables precise digital temperature control—on the device or via the app. You’ll reach the hottest necessary temp of 700 degrees Fahrenheit within 15 minutes. It’s remarkably fast, and watching the grill heat rise from the app while enjoying air-conditioning indoors is a delight. Temperatures are remarkably consistent once stabilized, and if you want to add smoke flavor, just throw wood chunks into the ash bin and let falling charcoal embers do the rest. That’s a lovely and intelligent addition to a grill designed to simplify the smoking process. The hopper holds 10 hours’ worth of charcoal, which you can always top up from above.

This versatility comes with caveats. You may miss the ability to sear directly over a flame, and you’ll need to change out the internal housing before switching to the flat top grill. It’s a more challenging assembly, and awkward maneuverability means the grill is best kept in the same place. —Chris Smith

Big Green Egg popularized kamado-style grills—and high-end home smokers—in the US. Amid the rise of pellet smokers and Wi-Fi-connected charcoal competitors like the Konnected Joe (which we've moved to the avoid section below), BGE hasn't tinkered with the basic design of its iconic cooker. It's big, it's heavy, it's sturdy, and it holds heat like nothing else, so you can get an amazing amount of meat out of one bag of lump charcoal.

What BGE has done instead is introduce a simple app-controlled fan that manages the airflow, and thus cooking temperature, of its smoker. Buy a regular Big Green Egg (you can order a shiny new one from Ace Hardware for $1,000 and pick it up in 15 minutes—though in the interest of transparency, mine came from Facebook Marketplace) and then attach this nifty gadget to the air vent on the front. You can connect three meat probes, all of which will feed data into an app and alert you if you're entering the danger zone. The app did not perform flawlessly when I started testing back in November 2023, but it has since been fixed, and will hold its temp without intervention and alert me when my ribs are ready. There's no electric ignition so you'll need a box of Tumbleweeds, but the simplicity and reliability make that a minor trade-off. —Martin Cizmar

Most grills do one thing well and several other things poorly or not at all. Yoder's YS640S is a more versatile tool, thanks to a design that allows easy access to the autofeed firebox. Like Traegers that are half the price, this Kansas-made grill uses an electric fan and an auger to feed wood pellets in for a slow smoke session. It's all driven by a control board that sends temp alerts and allows you to adjust the temperature via Wi-Fi.

As a smoker, it easily handled ribs and a chuck roast, holding the temperature better than most, thanks to its bomb-proof 10-gauge steel construction, which means this grill weighs as much as a refrigerator. Where the Yoder really stands out, though, is as a grill and possible pizza oven. By removing a steel plate positioned over the fire pit, you can sear burgers directly over the flame or remove the grills and plop on a hefty pizza oven attachment ($500), which uses the pellet feed system to maintain a constant 900-plus degrees Fahrenheit.

If you're looking for the perfect tailgating grill, we have an entire guide devoted to portable grills, but it's worth mentioning our absolute favorites here. For charcoal, I love the Weber Jumbo Joe. It's the little sibling to our top pick, the Original Kettle. The Jumbo Joe is perfect for car camping or cookouts at the local park. Build yourself a stand back at the house and it can do double duty as your portable and home grill—it's what I've been using both at home and on the road for four years. It's picked up a little rust in that time because I leave it out uncovered, but it still performs like the day I bought it.

If you want a portable gas grill, we recommend the Weber Q 1200 or the Q 1000. I've come to prefer the slightly smaller Q 1000, which lacks a thermometer and side tables but is more compact and leaves more room in the trunk for your cooler, tent, and other camp cooking gear.

Nomad Portable Grill for $649: Nomad's suitcase-style grill (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of our favorite portable grills. It's well built, sturdy, and easy to carry. It is heavier than our top pick Jumbo Joe at 28 pounds, but the shape and large handle actually make it easier to carry in my experience. Like the Jumbo Joe, the Nomad uses a dual venting system to achieve good airflow even when the lid is closed. The vents, combined with the raised fins on the bottom of the grill (which elevate your charcoal, allowing air to flow under it), allow for every precise control of both high and low temperatures. If you have the money to spare, this is the best portable grill you can buy.

Not everyone has a yard, and it's increasingly common for apartments to ban open-flame grills on balconies. This is where electric grills come in. It's grilling, sort of, but without the flames. I remain a fan of the George Foreman grill. Sure, you can say it's just a hot plate with ridges, but if it's all you can do, it's better than nothing. Grill on with pride, my fellow George Foreman grillers.

There are a lot of fancy George Foreman grills at this point, but I still prefer the simple four-serving one that served me well through years of apartment dwelling. There's a drip pan to catch all the grease, and if you're not in the grilling mood, it doubles as a panini press.

★ Luxury Upgrade: If you want something fancier, the Kenyon City Grill ($695) is as close to grilling as you can get without stepping outdoors. It cooks evenly and at consistent temperatures. (I was able to get up to 592 degrees Fahrenheit, measured with a digital thermometer.) There's very little smoke, though I suggest using it in a well-ventilated area if you're indoors.

Why limit your backyard cooking to a grill? Ooni's Karu 16 pizza oven (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is our top pick from our Best Pizza Ovens guide. It's designed to burn either charcoal or wood, though you can buy a separate gas attachment. Simply drop a lit fire starter and a few oak sticks on the fuel tray and it'll get hot within 10 minutes. It's light, portable, and easy to clean. You do have to constantly add fuel to maintain the temperature, but not any more than with other ovens that we've tried.

Another pizza option is a kettle grill. I have used the Weber Pizza Stone ($60) with pretty good results. KettlePizza's Pizza Oven Kit ($145) for the Weber Classic Kettle (or any other 22-inch kettle grill) is another option. I have not tested this one, but it gets good reviews around the web. The KettlePizza system solves the one big problem with Weber's pizza stone–every time you open the lid, the heat goes away. The access door of the KettlePizza prevents this heat loss.

There's a lot to like about the Konnected Joe, which was previously recommended in this guide. It's a kamado-style grill with electric ignition and Wi-Fi connectivity that allows you to measure the temperature of the interior and the meat via two probes. Unfortunately, reviewer Martin Cizmar has had constant problems with the electric grill tripping the 2-year-old GFCI outlets on his patio. Once it even tripped the breaker. A Reddit thread reveals this is a common problem. Like the Redditors, Cizmar found temporary relief by running an extension cord into an outlet in his kitchen, but even that has failed him a few times during testing. Unfortunately, this grill is a hard pass until the issue is resolved.

Here are a few things that will make your grilling life easier. Our Best Grilling Accessories guide has more tools, tips, and tricks.

• A good cover: Which one you need depends on your grill, but a cover is worth the investment. Even if your grill isn't exposed directly to the rain, it's still going to get wet from dew and will eventually rust. A good cover can keep the worst of the rust at bay and will offer you many additional years of use.
• Instant-read thermometer: After the actual cooker, nothing will improve your grilling like an instant-read thermometer. Stick it in and know your food's internal temp instantly. For newbies, this cheap thermometer ($17) will work. The gold standard is the ThermoWorks Thermapen Mk4 ($109). It is not cheap, but its automatic backlight and rotating display are nice to have. The feature I've come to appreciate the most is that it automatically shuts off when not in use and turns back on the minute you extend the probe (it's powered by one AAA battery).
• A good cleaning tool: We don't recommend using a grill brush. A stainless steel or brass wire brush can leave behind small bristles that get stuck in your grill and end up in your food. It happens more often than you think. Most grill makers don't recommend these wire scrapers anyway. If you have cast-iron grates, I like Proud Grill's Q Cleaner ($16), which combines a wire-free scrubber, stainless steel scraper, and disposable wipes to clean your grill without leaving your brush a mess.
• A charcoal chimney: For charcoal grills, get a chimney starter—I like this Weber ($26), but anything similar will do. It's faster and it saves your food from tasting like lighter fluid fumes. I have tested a charcoal chimney against our top-pick Weber gas grill and found that the gas was ready seven minutes faster, which is to say, not much.
• Use high-quality charcoal: You don't need artisanal briquettes handcrafted by elves, but don't buy the super cheap stuff. In my testing it doesn't burn as hot or last as long. Almost all the charcoal grill testing I've done has been using Kingsford briquettes.
• Try lump charcoal: I've had good luck with Jealous Devil All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal. If you're doing high heat cooking or want to have higher indirect heat, lump charcoal is a good choice. It burns much hotter, and also faster. I prefer lump for searing, but I don't like it for smoking or slower cooking. If you're worried about additives, lump usually doesn't have any.

Take a trip to your local big-box home improvement store and you'll see dozens of grill models not mentioned here. Are they any good? Most of them are probably fine, but we suggest sticking with brands you recognize.

The nice thing about shopping in person is you can get a better sense of the grill's sturdiness. Give it a good shake, and make sure it seems well put together. If it's a brand you haven't heard of before, check the aisles nearby and see whether there are replacement parts available. This is especially important with gas, but it can be an issue with any type of grill. The burners on gas grills don't last more than a few years, but they're easy to replace—if you can get the parts.

Other things to look for include a good temperature range (the dials turn smoothly and are big enough that you won't be fiddling with them to find the midpoint between low and high). While it may be tempting to go for the biggest grill you can afford, that isn't always the smart choice. There's no need to heat 660 square inches of the grill to cook two burgers. All that does is waste fuel. Finally, avoid anything that says infrared. My experience is that infrared doesn't sear anything better than regular flames. All it does is add a useless feature that ups the price.

It's also worth considering the warranty. Grills often live a hard life, being stored outdoors in the rain, sleet, snow, and baking heat. I've seen covers reduced to shreds in a year (they're still worth the investment—better the cover than your grill). A warranty won't cover normal wear and tear, but more reputable companies like Weber offer warranties for anywhere from 5 to 15 years (depending on the grill). Look for something similar when shopping the big box store grills.