[MY340i]

Looking to get my first BBQ setup. Fairly new to all of this so some steer would be nice :-)

I’ve seen there’s a few types
-coal
-electric
-gas


And a few different shapes - round, barrel, rectangular.


What would be the best option for cooking burgers etc on them? I probably won’t be smoking any meats.

[fantanas]

Originally Posted by Barsj111

Looking to get my first BBQ setup. Fairly new to all of this so some steer would be nice :-)

I’ve seen there’s a few types
-coal
-electric
-gas


And a few different shapes - round, barrel, rectangular.


What would be the best option for cooking burgers etc on them? I probably won’t be smoking any meats.

The easiest one would be gas. Closer to taste with coal (not as good for sure) but easier and quicker. All you need is a gas bottle which will last you ages.

Depends on your budget and outdoor space though. Give us some more info.

Do you want to do only burgers or more stuff? For how many people? How often?

[Abrek]

Has to be coal and if budget allows pick up Webber, will outlive you and probably your kids. Range starts at £60 but get mastertouch If you can. Absolutely love mine keeps consistent heat with in built thermometer is easy to maintain temperature, although I have invested in inkbird Bluetooth thermometer to do meat smoking.

[un1eash]

Switched to gas 5 years back and never looked back, have a lot more BBQ's now as it's easy to just fire up. I have a outback excel onyx 2 burner, it's my second. It has a flame tamer but think I preferred the older model with lava rocks.

[davyk31]

Bought my first BBQ about 3 years ago and had the same dilemma. Always heard that charcoal was so hard to light and a lot of hassle but tastes a lot better.

A friend who had a Weber charcoal BBQ told me that the Weber starter chimney makes the charcoal bbq a total ease to light. And he is 100% right. Fill the little chimney item with your charcoal, stick a lighter under it, put it in the bbq and let it heat 20 mins. Then tip the charcoal into the BBQ and you are ready to cook.

If you go for the Mastertoucg Weber ones they can come with a pot beneath for the ash to fall below into so its simple to clean.

Top notch kettle shaped Weber Mastertouch will be over £200 but it will last forever. Mine is 3 years old and used a lot and it is still as new. A cheaper one will have lost its surface coatings and rusted by now.

[wrongmark]

+1 for Weber and chimney starter. Always use quality briquettes too. I also have a “Vortex” for mine which I use all the time (google it).

[DougMcL]

Weber Q2200 gas. Mine has been going strong for over 15 years. Still a which best buy

[MashinBenzin]

Half a dozen bbqs in my Weber over about three years and then not used for five or six years.

Bought a Napoleon gas bbq this spring and a dozen uses so far in May and June.

That makes my vote for gas. Life and days are literally too short for me to use charcoal, but if you have time on your hands then it's great as well, once you've perfected your skills.

[JustChris]

7 posts in and no BBQ snob police are in yet with 'gas and electric' are not BBQs!?

I have 2 preferences

1) a large gas BBQ* which you can fire up in moments and cool a family of 4 plus guest food on with ease. No need IMO to go Weber or something expensive unless it has to match the BMW. I don't even know the brand of our one as it was a Xmas gift. It's just big and a BBQ*

2) the cheapo disposal jobs, zero clean up and great when there are just 1 or 2 of you. They're hot almost instantly and settle down to a good 40 minutes heats.


* forgive me I meant outdoor gas grill of course

[Grant_7]

Originally Posted by DougMcL

Weber Q2200 gas. Mine has been going strong for over 15 years. Still a which best buy

I've had mine for >10 years. Lives outside etc. Still going strong.

The other week we BBQ'd 6 days straight, lunch and dinner. That's the thing with gas - it makes it so easy that you are inclined to BBQ more often.

[NotGotABimmer23]

Another vote for a webber kettle if all you want to do is grill. Lighting charcoal is a piece of cake with a chimney.

A gas grill would do the job for burgers as well and if all you really want to achieve is to be able to cook outside it might be easier.

[DougMcL]

Originally Posted by Grant_7

I've had mine for >10 years. Lives outside etc. Still going strong.

The other week we BBQ'd 6 days straight, lunch and dinner. That's the thing with gas - it makes it so easy that you are inclined to BBQ more often.

Yup. Mine lives outside all year too and hasn't corroded. I even use mine just to cook a steak. Here's what Which? says

"This is a great gas barbecue for people who don't want a chunky model cluttering up their patio all the time. It's easy to move, very simple to clean and cooks brilliant barbecue food for four to six people.This is Weber's most basic full-sized gas barbecue, which can be bought either with a collapsible, four-legged stand with a screen to hide the gas bottle behind (the version that we tested) or a two-wheeled trolley cart.

It's an unusual model, with one large oval stainless-steel gas burner under the two-piece cooking grill. There is what looks like a built-in flavouriser bar in the grill above the burner, which is designed to ensure that fat drips down past the flame, so it doesn't ignite and cause flare ups and cover your food in black, oily soot.
The cast-iron grill is porcelain-coated to stop food sticking and measures 51x39cm, which is large enough to cater for four to six people. There's a small utensil hook at the front and two storage shelves that fold on to the grill for storage.
There's no warming rack and the lid has a space at the side where it's not in full contact with the grill. This means that some of the heat escapes from the grill, but helpfully the smoke all tends to blow out of the grill on one side.
There's a temperature gauge in the small hood.
It's expensive for a one-burner barbecue; you can buy a DIY-store own-label model for a fraction of the price, but the build-quality and cooking ability of this barbecue are a cut above cheaper models.

Our chef described cooking on this barbecue as 'delightful'. It's a great basic barbecue for grilling, with an innovative design that tackles the problem of flare-up and provides a massive safety net to prevent you doing anything wrong as you cook.
Unusually, the ignition is set apart from the gas dials, but it's otherwise easy to light the burners and to control the heat. The barbecue heats up very quickly and food cooks quickly, too. The wider area of grill bars over the burners means you get very little flare-up while cooking. We found that there are hotter and cooler spots on the grill. An experienced chef can use these to manage the speed that your food cooks at.
We were delighted with the food we cooked on it, which got top marks for its taste, appearance, evenness and succulence. There's not much charring to the finish or smokiness to the taste, but the food is delicious.
It's also very easy to clean for a gas barbecue. The split grills are small enough to go in a sink or dishwasher for cleaning. The fat drip tray slides out easily and you put a disposable liner in it when cooking, making it easier to keep clean. All of the surfaces are easy to wipe clean."

[M33DLO]

Webber coal with a chimney starter.. Easy.

But agreed with all the comments on gas being much more convenient.
Since moving to coal, we dont use it anywhere near as much as we used to..

But I dont think i'd move back to gas as coal tastes good and is satisfying to use.

[Goneinsixtyseconds]

There was a long debate on here recently with more information. This led to 5 or 6 members buying new gas grills. Read into that what you like.

I bought a Napoleon gas bbq as a couple of others did at the same time. I had a grillstream one before that which was great.

As Grant said, if you have gas you can use all the time. It does depend a little on where you would store and use. Ours is just outside the bifold doors in the kitchen, easy access. Barely a day goes by where I don’t use it, once or even twice. If it’s less accessible and not straight outside your kitchen, you might not use it as much as an extension of your kitchen like we do, and it sounds like Grant does.

I was always a fan of charcoal, but gas is close to as good. A perfect charcoal cook might just beat a gas cook, but gas is easy to get right all the time, charcoal isn’t. And I probably charcoal grilled 5-6 times a year, now it’s more than that a week.

Most of the bbq taste come from the juices dripping on heat and evaporating back up into the meat, that happens with both. The smoke from charcoal itself doesn’t add that much IMO.

Finally, both the Napoleon and Grillstream bbq’s come with the option to use as gas or charcoal. You can put charcoal in, light up with the burners and then just cook on the charcoal. Standard on the Grillstream, and buy a tray to fit in on the Napoleon.

Best of both worlds?

[SkyJawa]

I’ve got the grillstream and used it in both modes now, it’s great. Now it’s run in the gas taste is better, still not quite as good as charcoal tho. Used it with Weber briquettes for first time on sat and it was so easy, ready in about 15 min and taste as good as normal charcoal. The great thing is you can switch to gas if the charcoal runs out, or run one half on charcoal and 1 half on gas...

If going charcoal, Weber are ok but imho overpriced for the features, I went with the napoleon kettle because of the cast iron adjustable height cooking grill, and hinged lid.

That said I did get my mum a Weber MasterTouch because I found it as an end of season bargain for 110 quid!

I still use the kettle if having big parties but generally for the 3 of us just use the grillstream gas now. You do need to plan a bit more with charcoal to allow for the heating time but definitely use a chimney starter....

[isleaiw1]

Used the Weber kettle with chimney starter for first time last night - I say used, I ate the food from it, leave that stuff to son in law. First rate, piece of cake to light with chimney, great taste.

If I want something that lights easily and cooks with gas, I have a grill and hob all of 10 paces from the patio, I'll use that....

[Bryans69]

Originally Posted by JustChris

7 posts in and no BBQ snob police are in yet with 'gas and electric' are not BBQs!?

I have 2 preferences

1) a large gas BBQ* which you can fire up in moments and cool a family of 4 plus guest food on with ease. No need IMO to go Weber or something expensive unless it has to match the BMW. I don't even know the brand of our one as it was a Xmas gift. It's just big and a BBQ*

2) the cheapo disposal jobs, zero clean up and great when there are just 1 or 2 of you. They're hot almost instantly and settle down to a good 40 minutes heats.


* forgive me I meant outdoor gas grill of course

Well, I've just jumped onto the thread, and was about to say exactly that

Weber kettle for me. Been through many other brands, and they just rust or fall apart. This thing is bullet proof.

And if I wanted to cook or gas or electric, I have very good kitchen for that

[Bibbles]

For sausages, burgers etc just get a gas grill, it's much easier and you'll use it more. You won't notice the taste difference between gas and charcoal when cooking things that quickly.

[Eddamoo]

I must admit i always had the (ignorant) perception that Charcoal was better than Gas, but i've since realised the difference to be tiny in my opinion. I have a cheapish ~£100 charcoal BBQ with adjustable grill height etc but would prefer gas for convenience. Coal is just so slow and mucky!

[jackstrath]

Iv bought a hybrid, had it 4 years now, was 200 quid from asda, its only made of painted steel but as it lives in a shed its surving all right, best 200 iv spent in a long time.

Gas for when its just me, and charcoal when iv got mates around and do the burgers, sausages and steaks on that side and hotdogs, corn ect on the gas side.

[aquazi]

Gas with a smoker box/ chips is best of both world!

[Slipperyshoe]

I have a napoleon gas bbq and a kamado oven. Love the kamado and slow roast on there for up to 15 hrs. Also cook pizza, make Steaks taste like gaucho’s cooked them and a multitude of other things. The gas is for quick meals on a weekday evening. If you’re looking to cook burgers and sausages I’d prob be inclined to go gas. Get one with some flavour plates (basically metal strips that go across over the flame). That way you still get direct cooking but there is more smoke produced as the fat hits the bars and gives some Smoke off.

There is nothing better than a decent charcoal bbq (if we’re really going to be snobby I wouldn’t dream of using briquettes only charcoal or wood) but there’s no doubt it’s a bit of an effort and I wouldn’t do it to shove half a dozen bangers on. Gas is king in that respect.

Finally price is usually a fairly good indicator of quality. Weber make some of the finest bbq’s about.