Best barbecue 2024: top charcoal, gas, pellet and electric grills for the great outdoors

Summertime and the grilling is easy – when you have the the best barbecue to hand.

With one of these outdoor grillers you can do burgers, sausages and kebabs, grill fish, halloumi and corn on the cob, smoke a joint of meat slow and low, prepare a rack of Texan-style BBQ ribs or even go crazy and have a stab at toasting flatbreads. The world is your oyster, whether you like it grilled, seared or smoked.

In this best barbecue guide, we're focusing on the very best options you can buy, including charcoal, gas, wood pellet electric, portable, and smokers. We've picked one barbecue for each fuel category, so if you want a fuller list of options, make sure to check out our dedicated guides to the best charcoal barbecues and smokers, the best gas barbecues, the best portable barbecues and best electric barbecues, too.

Without further ado, here's T3's guide to the best barbecues you can buy today.

WRITTEN BY

WRITTEN BY

Bethan Girdler-Maslen

Beth is Home Editor for T3, covering style, living and wellness. From the comfiest mattresses to what strange things you can cook in an air fryer, Beth covers sleep, yoga, smart home, coffee machines, grooming tools, fragrances, gardening and much more. If it's something that goes in your house, chances are Beth knows about it and has the latest reviews and recommendations.

The top three

The best BBQs you can buy in 2024

Below, we list the best of the best full-size BBQs in each of their four main categories, including charcoal, gas, pellet and electric varieties. Charcoal BBQs are a great choice for the budget conscious, as well as those that like a more traditional barbecue experience. Gas grills offer unparalleled convenience and speed, but require a gas canister and, in general, a little bit more spend to buy. Pellet grills combine the flavour associated with charcoal grills and smokers with more of the convenience (and speed) of gas, they do tend to cost more but we tackle all of this below. Finally, Electric grills are extremely convenient, cheapest to run in the long term and are best suited to areas where naked flame grilling is prohibited.

The best charcoal BBQ

This game-changing, app-enabled charcoal grill-cum-smoker uses the simple force gravity, an offset grilling area and a computer-controlled temperature management system that uses a powerful fan to provide consistent grilling, searing and smoking with hardly any input by the user.

The new Masterbuilt Gravity Series 600 replaces the Series 560 model we reviewed in 2023 with some very welcome improvements, including a fold-down front shelf, magnetic lid and charcoal hopper switches that are less likely to fail when the heat is on, a redesigned lid with chamfered corners for a more stylish look, increased grilling space on its twin reversible cast iron grates, a single large upper wire shelf instead of two smaller ones, an upgraded hopper with ceramic inserts for better heat retention and a solid floor-mounted shelf instead of a wire one. However, it’s a shame that Masterbuilt has elected to drop the extra pair of trolley wheels that made the 560 so easy to move around.

The Series 600 couldn’t be easier to use. Simply plug it into the nearest outlet, fill the deep hopper with 8 kilos of good-quality lump wood charcoal and light it using standard firelighters. Now head over to the control panel and select a temperature of choice and the 600’s computer-controlled fan will ensure that the interior of the grilling area remains at a constant temperature, just like a pellet grill but without all the moving parts. 

Like a chimney starter, the charcoal burns from the bottom with all ashes falling into a large steel bucket below. The fan, meanwhile, pushes the heat from the exceedingly hot fire bed in the hopper along a newly-designed enamelled steel manifold tunnel that sits directly beneath the main cast-iron grill grate. It’s the heat from this manifold that cooks the food indirectly without burning it to a cinder.

The Series 600 takes just 10 minutes to reach a standard grilling temperature of around 220˚C and about 20 minutes to hit a searing temperature in excess of 300˚C. If you want to do a long 5 to 12-hour smoke, simply set the temperature on the controller to around 105˚C and add a few lumps of smoking wood at different levels in the charcoal hopper. You will then be able to perform a low-and-slow cook for as long as you want by just adding more charcoal to the top of the hopper if necessary.

If you love grilling on charcoal but always have trouble finding the sweet temperature spot for consistent grilling without burning everything to a crisp or you’re a seasoned garden grill master who prefers not to be chained to a barbecue while everyone else is enjoying themselves, you need one of these.

Now read our full review of this model’s predecessor, the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 560

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The best gas BBQ

The Freestyle 425 SIB is premium Canadian brand Napoleon’s first entry-level four-burner gas barbecue and it’s a brilliant model in every respect. Aside from its robust wave-shaped cast iron grates – which amount to 4,315cm² of total grilling area – this model also comes with a side-mounted infrared Sizzle Zone for searing steaks, fish and veg at extraordinary high temperature. Cast iron grates of this caliber are superb to grill on since they retain and transfer heat extremely well. I also love the curly nature of the grates which stops small food items like prawns and halloumi from slipping through.

Napoleon’s tech bods have clearly thought long and hard about what constitutes a top-performing gas BBQ and, as a result, this model features Jetfire ignition – which produces a long flame that immediately ignites the stainless steel burners the moment you turn and click each individual temperature control wheel – two side shelves (one folding) and an adjustable plinth behind the front panel to house 5kg to 13kg propane gas bottles up to 58cm in height. An accurate temperature gauge, pre-fitted gas regulator and a pair of large transport wheels complete a tidy package. Yes, it took over two hours to assemble, but there are no qualms about the quality of materials used in its construction.

In our sliced bread test, the 425 produced excellent heat consistency across the entire grate with most of the slices showing a uniform colour. We then slapped on some drumsticks, sausages and a couple of burger patties and everything was perfectly seared and cooked to succulent perfection. The Sizzle Zone, too, produced a stunning ribeye steak with a delicious outer crust and soft pink centre. Most impressive.

If you’re after a versatile four-burner gas grill that’s easy to use, exceedingly reliable and very well built, the Napoleon Freestyle 425 SIB is pretty much a no brainer.

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The best wood pellet BBQ

The Traeger Ironwood 650 won the Best Barbecue award at the T3 Awards 2022, making it our number one recommendation. This is why the judges opted for it.

Many American barbecue aficionados swear by pellet grilling because it infuses food with a truly authentic wood smoke flavour that is difficult to attain using charcoal, let alone gas. It is also arguably the easiest type of barbecuing because it’s all controlled by a computer leaving you, the host, to chill out and relax safe in the knowledge that the food will be cooked to perfection with almost zero intervention. It’s also ideal for a range of cooking styles, from fast grilling to slow smoking and roasting.

Like all pellet grills, compressed wood pellets are transported from a large hopper (in this case 9kgs) via an electrically-powered auger (basically a large corkscrew) to a small furnace pot beneath the main grill grate. The whole pellet delivery process is controlled by a computer processor – Traeger’s own D2 Direct Drive – that ensures consistency and reliability, just like an indoor oven. Hence, once you’ve set the temperature on the Traeger’s display panel or its superlative app, it remains at that temperature for as long as there are pellets in the hopper. 

The heavyweight Traeger Ironwood 650 features wi-fi connectivity and comes with a 418 square inch main grill (enough space for eight chickens of five rib racks) and a removable 231 square inch warming grill above. It’s also equipped with a specialised ‘Super Smoke’ button that operates between 73˚C and 107˚C (ideal for those who like brisket and ribs), a ‘Keep Warm’ function and a meat probe that tells the processor when the food has reached the correct level of doneness. This grill is also capable of searing steaks at temperatures up to 260˚C (500˚F).

How does the Traeger Ironwood 650 fare against the mighty Weber Smokefire EX4? Well, you can find out in our dedicated Weber Smokefire EX4 vs Traeger Ironwood 650 comparison feature.  If you want the full picture of this grill, you can find out what we thought of this BBQ when we built and tested it in our Traeger Ironwood 650 review.

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The best smoker

Available in a variety of sizes, the Kamado Joe range of ceramic egg-shaped BBQs are among the most versatile of outdoor cookers. These ceramic-lined, do-it-all barbies have amazing heat retention properties which makes them ideal for any barbecuing discipline, from smoking, baking and roasting to standard grilling and high-heat searing.

The Joe Jr model we’re highlighting here is a thing of beauty and coated in a deep red glossy porcelain finish with attractive Van-Gogh-style finger swirls. Yes, at 31 kilos, it’s too heavy for one person to carry more than a few metres but its cast-iron stand’s twin handles make it perfectly doable for two sets of hands.

Heading inside the dome, the Joe Jr is equipped with full ceramic lining in the main bowl and inside the heavy and beautifully sprung lid. It also comes with a removable ceramic fire bowl and a ceramic sleeve that’s placed above it. All this ceramic makes it a perfect model for any low-and-slow smoking session. In fact, a single basket of charcoal will easily run for up to 12 hours at around 105˚C.

At 50cm in width and with a stainless-steel grilling grate that measures 33cm in diameter, this is a perfect sized barbecue for two or a small family. However, it’s also perfectly feasible to entertain up to six guests or more on this grill if cooking larger cuts of meat like brisket, a leg of lamb, a side of pork or a whole chicken or turkey. Its domed lid also provides plenty of space to accommodate a range of tall ingredients.

Ventilation is carried out using a simple sliding steel door at the bottom of the unit and a tactile dual-action daisy wheel on top of the lid. A clearly legible thermometer marked in both Celsius and Fahrenheit readings completes a highly accomplished package that will last for decades if well looked after.

Now read our full review of the Kamado Joe Jr

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The best electric BBQ

The Weber Lumin is the best electric barbecue and grill you can buy today. Despite being electric, it still offers authentic barbecue-ing and it offers five main functions, including grilling, searing, steaming, smoking and warming.

The Lumin uses an oven-style heating element which heats up quickly in about 15 minutes to give a nice sear on different foods. It comes with two stainless steel trays that are used for steaming and smoking, and the grill is split into two parts for versatile cooking.

The design of the Lumin is sleek and stylish, and while it's a little heavy, it's easy to set-up, store and move around. Available in two sizes, the Lumin and the Lumin Compact, both models come with or without a dedicated stand. Check out our full review of the Weber Lumin Compact.

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The best portable BBQ

The Weber Traveler is the best portable barbecue with a great folding mechanism for easy setting up and packing away. While the Traveler is pretty large and heavy for a portable barbecue, its wheels and cart make it easy to move it around, and can move over different terrain so you can take it camping and on the beach.

With a 2,065cm cast-iron grill, the Traveler has a big enough plate and area to cater for up to six guests or more at a time. It works with disposable gas canisters so you'll need to take into consideration that you'll need to bring a cannister with you, but other than that it's practical to use, easy to store and it grills amazingly well... it also won't cost you an arm and a leg either.

Read our Weber Traveler review for a full opinion.

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