The Best Charcoal Grill of 2025

The Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22″ is a classic for good reason. In our tests it outperformed the other grills in cooking, ease of assembly, and user-friendly details. None of the other models performed consistently great on everything the way the Weber kettle did.

Its construction is simple and solid. The materials—rustproof aluminum legs, porcelain-coated steel for the body, and a nickel-plated steel grill—are designed to last. And we appreciated details like convenient tool hooks on the side handles. Add to that its solid warranty and well-regarded customer service, and it’s hard to see a better value.

It offered the best, most hassle-free cooking performance. The Weber grill produced an excellent high-heat sear on a dozen hamburgers; crisped the skin of our barbecue chicken over the course of a long, low-heat cook; and delivered a deeply browned, well-cooked whole chicken via indirect cooking. All of this required minimal fussing on our part.

The Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill’s design makes controlling the heat simple. You open and close the lower vents with a long handle mounted above the ash box. The handle slides easily and stays cool to the touch—no need to put on gloves or use a towel.

Up top, the Weber model’s lid vent is a simple disc of aluminum; you just flick it left or right to open or close the vent holes. Unlike the lower vents, this gets hot, so make sure to use a spatula or your tongs.

The Weber grill comes with an integrated thermometer. This is useful for getting your charcoal grill up to your desired cooking temperature, but keep in mind that charcoal burns faster or slower depending on wind and vent conditions, so these grills will have hotter and cooler spots. Bottom line: Keep an eye on how fast things are cooking and adjust accordingly.

The Weber kettle is round, so you can spin the grate to adjust heat exposure. Without having to move your food around, you can expose burgers, chicken, or whatever else you’re cooking to higher or lower heat. In contrast, rectangular grates (like those on the PK Grill) can’t spin around; you have to move the food or the coals to adjust the cooking.

Hinged sections on opposite sides of the grate let you access the entire charcoal bed below. The Napoleon grill we tested had hinges on opposite sides of the grate, too. But the PK Grill had a hinge on only one side, which proved inconvenient. All the grills we tested featured simple, thin-wire grates that worked well, with no notable sticking.

The Weber grill’s assembly is simple and clear. The legs and ash catcher slot effortlessly into built-in sockets and lock into place with idiot-proof spring pins—not a bolt or screw in sight. Weber even supplies a simple plastic tool to help you attach the thermometer without digging out a wrench.

All you need is a Phillips screwdriver to attach the side handles, and a hammer (or even just a chunk of firewood) to tap the end caps of the wheel axle into place. One person can have the grill up and running within minutes of opening the box. By contrast, other grills we tested had cumbersome assembly processes.

The Weber kettle is hackable. Because this grill is so popular, both Weber and other manufacturers offer a bunch of add-ons (such as charcoal baskets, pizza stones, and rotisseries) that increase its capabilities. We especially like the Slow ‘N Sear Deluxe charcoal basket, a popular third-party accessory. We’ve used it to smoke ribs two ways, with terrific results both times.

We recently tested the Rust Resistant 22-Inch Griddle Insert that you can swap in for the grates on the Original Kettle grill, and we like it too, though the learning curve is a bit steeper than with a gas griddle.The steel plate conducts enough heat to produce a thick sear on smash burgers, and also holds a nice moderate temperature for pancakes. If you’re curious about outdoor flattop cooking, and you don’t want to invest in a full-sized propane griddle, this insert is a solid option.

Maintaining a Weber grill is easy. Dump the handy ash catcher and scrub the grates each time you cook. Beyond that, give it the occasional deep clean and keep water away from the ashes (lest they combine into a corrosive lye), and you should be grilling happily on one of these for a decade or longer.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The 22-inch Weber Original Kettle Premium is short. The grates are just 27 inches from the ground, nine inches shy of the standard kitchen-counter height. So cooking on it can be a literal pain in the butt (and lower back). The Napoleon grill, which we otherwise didn’t love, is a generous 34 inches in height at the grate, making it more comfortable to work on.

The Weber grill has three legs—an inherently stable design, because having three points of contact means the legs will automatically “find their level,” even on bumpy ground. That said, the Napoleon model’s four legs felt just as stable, and more stiff, on a garden-variety concrete patio, and also allowed Napoleon to install a big, square shelf underneath the grill. The Weber grill has a smaller, triangular shelf, which is far less useful.

Finally, the Weber model doesn’t come with a grill cover. We think every grill should, even though most don’t. Weber sells one for its 22-inch kettle, usually for about $40.

How the Weber has held up

Kit Dillon, a Wirecutter senior staff writer (and author of our guide to the best charcoal), really loves this grill: “The [Weber] kettle is the best single grill on the planet—with a little knowledge, it works for basically every type of grilling (smoking, zones, reverse sear, slow) and is remarkably customizable if you’re focusing on one type of grilling (the Slow ‘N Sear is especially fantastic).”