Maki Yazawa: Let’s get right to it. Make the case for a gas grill, Kathy.Kathleen Squires: A gas grill is for a cook who wants convenience and control. Gas is great because I’m a big weeknight cooker, and when I come home, I’m hangry, and I want to eat as soon as possible. I don’t have the time to futz with a bunch of coals and wait for them to get ready.Lesley Stockton: A charcoal grill is for someone who is budget-conscious, doesn’t mind having to tinker with things, and likes being more hands-on. I like making fire, I like cooking over fire. What can I say? I like fire.Lesley: It’s very budget-friendly. A charcoal grill is very low-tech. It’s a bowl with grates that hold coals, and that’s it. Not a lot of moving parts, maybe just the wheels on the cart. You do have to light coals, which some people might find intimidating if they’re not used to it.Top pickFrom burgers to chicken to slow-smoked ribs, this Weber model’s time-tested design produces great results — for a terrific price.Maki: Kathy, I’ll ask you the same thing. How easy is it to get into gas grilling?Kathleen: Well, the gas grills are a little more complicated to assemble than the charcoal grills because there’s more moving parts. But in terms of starting to cook, you’re ready to cook in 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your grill. So that’s super, super easy.Lesley mentioned cost, and charcoal grills are more cost-effective. A gas grill can cost anywhere from $300 to thousands of dollars. But our pick, the Weber Spirit E-425, runs about $700, and our budget pick, the two-burner Weber, is $400.It’s an investment, but it will last for years. Our editor-in-chief has a Wirecutter-owned Weber in his backyard that various Wirecutter testers — including Lesley — have been testing for a decade, and it still works great. Propane also lasts longer than charcoal, and you don’t have to buy it as often as charcoal.Top pickWith its unrivaled combination of performance, durability, and value, this is a great all-around grill.Budget pickThis two-burner grill is suitable for grilling novices or for people who have limited space. However, it lacks some of the versatility of our other picks.Lesley: Charcoal does also range in cost. It’s not worth it to buy cheap briquets. Our top pick for briquets, Royal Oak, usually costs $8 to $20 depending on the size of the bag.Maki: Is there a learning curve for these grills?Kathleen: For gas grills, no. You just have to know just to turn things on and fire it up. But for charcoal, it’s a different story.Lesley: Yeah, you’ve got to figure out: How much coal do you want to start with? What do the heat zones mean to you? What do you do with heat zones? Heat zones are when you divide your cooking area into distinct temperature areas. Lesley setting up the charcoal grill while testing models for our guide. NYT WirecutterThe fast-cooking things might go on first, like, directly over the heat. Then, you can add the slower-cooking things in a cooler area of the grill. If you’re grilling chicken pieces, and they’re charring a little too quickly over high heat, you can let them ride over lower heat, in a section with fewer coals, so they can cook all the way through without getting torched. So there is some tinkering involved. But some people really love that.Maki: What about space concerns?Kathleen: You do have the extra weight and accessory of a propane tank, whereas I think a charcoal grill can be a little more lean and mean. But if you’re living in tight quarters, the gas grill tends to not flare up as much and not be as smoky. So your neighbors will probably not be so mad at you if you have a gas grill over a smoky charcoal grill.Lesley: Yeah, you can tuck a charcoal grill anywhere, and, you know, maybe you don’t like your neighbors. That’s all I got to say about that.Maki: Talk to me about heat consistency, heat range, and what you have to do to get it right.Lesley: Unlike a gas grill, once your charcoal is lit, it’s going to slowly get cooler, because there’s a finite amount of fuel. So if you’re cooking a bunch of different things, you should have a plan mapped out in your head.Kathleen: I like that I have more control over the heat on a gas grill. I don’t have to move the coals around. Just with the turn of a knob, I can raise or lower the heat. I can cook in zones very easily. I can have direct heat or indirect heat if I want it. And I feel like gas gives a very consistent cook. Kathleen on grill duty. NYT WirecutterSo if you’re making a bunch of burgers, and you want things to be uniform, or if somebody wants that medium-rare burger, or somebody wants the well-done burger, you can put it into different zones and know what’s going to happen. I like the control. I’m a control freak when it comes to grilling.Maki: Are there any shortcomings about cooking on your preferred grill?Lesley: I hate to help you, Kathy, but on a three-burner gas grill you can cook a Thanksgiving turkey. You can do this on a charcoal grill, but you have to be really good at it. So if you don’t have a lot of oven space, it’s a great option. And I hate to help you more, but a gas grill can basically be treated as an outdoor oven if you finesse it and you know what you’re doing.Kathleen: To help you out, Lesley: You can get that nice crust on a steak that people really like on charcoal grills that I feel like I don’t get as often on a gas grill.Lesley: It’s because of the higher heat. You can only get as hot in a gas grill as the fuel line and the dials let you achieve through the Btus. Whereas with a charcoal grill, you can just throw some more coals in there to create more heat.Maki: Kathy, how easy is it to clean a gas grill?Kathleen: Super easy! All you have to do is empty the grease tray. Sometimes people forget, and then you get some unwanted visitors from the animal kingdom. Then, scrape the grates, and you’re pretty much done. You don’t have ash or the sooty coals to deal with, or worry about disposing of or handling coals while they’re still hot.Lesley: That is true. For a charcoal grill you do have to empty the ash catcher. So if you get one, it’s a good idea to get a small, lidded metal trash can to dump the coals into, close the lid, and leave them overnight. You really want to empty out the grill right away, especially before it rains, because water plus ash makes lye, and lye is very caustic.But when it comes to actually cleaning out a charcoal grill, it’s a lot easier, because the fat is dripping into a hot coal bed, which immediately incinerates it. Whereas if you let your gas grill accumulate gunk for a couple of years, that’s a lot of scraping to do.Maki: What about the safety precautions?Kathleen: Always make sure there’s no leaks coming from the propane tank when you’re starting to cook. You can easily check by making a 50-50 water-to-dish-soap solution, put it in a spray bottle, and spritz it onto the hose. If you see bubbles once the gas is on, like blowing bubbles as a child, that’s bad — you have a leak in your tank that could be very dangerous. Fortunately, that’s not the norm.The other thing is, you can just walk away and forget to turn it off. Make sure that you turn your knobs off, and then always turn off your propane tank. And again, always clean your grease trap. Make sure that you’re not leaving the grease sitting there.Lesley: Dumping out hot coals from a chimney starter can be perilous. And you want to make sure you’re lighting them in a safe place. Ideally, that would be on a concrete slab away from a structure, fence, house, anything that can burn. If you’re especially scared of embers flying around, you can always get a cheap screen from the hardware store to help catch any flyaways. The chimney starter in action. NYT WirecutterMaki: What about flavor? Lesley, what makes cooking on charcoal so tasty?Lesley: I mean, y’all, come on: You’ve got the smoke. There’s that charcoal smell that gets into your olfactory as the coals are heating up. It really butters everyone up for what’s to come.Kathleen: I do love a good smoke. And if you love the flavor of smoke and that distinct char, then a charcoal grill is for you. But there’s a lot of ways you can coax flavor from a gas grill: You can add wood chips or pellets that can impart a smokier flavor. You can also coax a lot of flavor with marinades and seasoning well.This article was edited by Maxine Builder, Ben Frumin, and Annemarie Conte.Further reading
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