Best Charcoal Grill for 2024
Testing charcoal grills requires a lot of hands-on cooking, and your results will obviously vary based on your technique and ingredients, among other things. Depending on the season and how your charcoal grill is set up, your cooking and grilling experience will likely be very different from ours. For example, a kettle-style charcoal grill left in the July sun all day will get a lot hotter than in the cooler spring months.
Also a note about grill thermometers. None of the hood thermometers built into these grilles reflected the temperatures recorded by our proprietary thermocouples and data software. It is not unusual for grill thermometers to indicate high readings, so we recommend that you keep an oven thermometer or Bluetooth thermometer on hand when grilling, both for your meat and for the temperature of the grill itself.
We placed two steaks on each grill rack near the center and seared them for 5 minutes before turning them over and searing for another 5 minutes. With a good and reliable grill you get a steak with a seared outside and a medium rare to medium core. If you prefer meat that is better done, you can increase the cooking time or sear the meat and finish it in the oven.
High temperature searing was our first grilling test.
The best charcoal grill for searing steak in our range was the Weber Classic Kettle. The steak had nice grill marks, while it was medium cooked on the inside. The worst was our Tacklife review unit, which didn’t hold much heat and didn’t sear while cooking. The steak on that grill needed an additional five minutes to reach a temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit, the minimum for medium rare.
Chicken and indirect, medium heat
We then tested each grill’s cooking capabilities over medium heat by roasting whole chickens. The trick here is to keep the grills hot enough to cook a chicken for more than 2 hours.
For our tests, each grill gets a full chimney with lit charcoal and a 5-pound chicken opposite the coals for indirect heat.
Each grill had a chimney with hot charcoal.
Cooking on charcoal takes longer than cooking with a gas grill, and we typically need to add more fuel during cooking to keep our grills above 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the entire duration. Our favorite bird from this batch was the one cooked on the Weber, although it was a tough task. The bird cooked on the Nexgrill cart-style grill came close behind, a close second in taste and texture.
We cooked chicken over indirect heat until it reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
The difference between the two was largely in the crispiness of the skin, with the Weber producing the superior results. Meat from the Nexgrill was delicious, with just a little more flavor than the Weber. I’d say it largely depends on your budget and what style of grill you prefer for other meats, like burgers or steak. Weber certainly had the superior quality in that category.
Low and slow ribs
Our final test is grilling grilled ribs, specifically pork ribs. This cooking style requires strict temperature control for several hours. Ideally, a high-quality charcoal grill (or any smoker) will keep its fire humming at a temperature near 225 degrees Fahrenheit for as long as possible.
Stack your charcoal briquettes in two rows of two deep along the inside wall of the grill.
First we set each grill to a low and slow burn, using the charcoal hose method. For kettle models, we place the coals in a semicircle around the inner wall of the grill. The charcoal briquettes (Kingsford blue) form a line two coals wide and two coals deep. We also drop a few pieces of smoking wood onto the hose (also called a wick). On wagon style grills we adjust the hose to run at a right angle to match their rectangular fireboxes.
We then light the hose from each grill at one end of the chain with five lit briquettes (tumbleweed fire starters also work). We set all the vents on each grill (top and bottom) to half open. Finally, we place a rib rack on each grill for indirect cooking, where the meat does not sit directly over the coals.
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The classic Weber Kettle grill covered rib racks at right.
The Weber was the undisputed king in this test. No other grill in this group can match the rock-solid temperature control of this iconic stove. Measurements from our own thermocouples, plus a digital well thermometerconfirmed this. During the Weber’s 6 hours and 32 minutes of cooking time, the grill’s internal heat level never got further than 25 degrees of our target, 225 degrees F. In fact, the temperature usually fluctuated between 220 degrees and 230 degrees Fahrenheit. As a result, the ribs cooked in the Weber were tender, juicy and full of smoky flavor.
Ribs cooked on the Napoleon grill were tasty, although the bark was a little dry.
The Napoleon grill came second in this test. Internal temperatures had a greater swing and could reach 300 degrees Fahrenheit during cooking periods. The rib rack was ready in just under 4 hours and 30 minutes. While the ribs looked tender and juicy overall, the outer bark showed a few burnt spots.
Ribs cooked on the Nexgrill had a lot of bark, but were juicy and tender on the inside.
We noticed similar temperature performance with the Nexgrill, along with similar rib results. Cooking ribs slowly and low on the Nexgrill took just 4 hours and 30 minutes. Its stretch was also well demonstrated, although like the Napoleon, the bark was more pronounced than that of the Weber.
Our rib experience with a few of the other grills was less than ideal. The Tacklife was particularly bad. Sometimes the inside of this grill reached temperatures of up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. And unfortunately, the ribs it produced came out burnt, charred and overdone.
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