Best barbecue 2024: top charcoal, gas and pellet 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 three main categories, including charcoal, gas and pellet 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. While 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.

The best charcoal BBQ

The Masterbuilt Gravity Series 560 indirect charcoal grill-cum-smoker goes straight to our top spot with a bullet. This remarkable app-enabled model uses simple gravity and computer-controlled heat management to provide consistent grilling, searing and smoking with very little input by the user.

For less than the price of a pellet grill you get the convenience of hands-off cooking, reversible cast iron grill grates plus twin-level wire shelves amounting to 560 square inches of cooking space, an easy to use charcoal hopper and a powerful fan to feed the flames. Unlike most charcoal grills that take ages to reach cooking temperature, this one is ready to grill on in about ten minutes. And because it uses indirect heat, chances are you won’t burn anything.

If you prefer charcoal to gas or can’t afford a pellet grill that does much the same thing only for a lot more money, make a bee-line to this amazing model and you will not regret it. Highly recommended.

Now read our full review of 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

If you have a habit of carbonising every barbecued meal you get your hands on, it’s time to get rid of the lidless brazier you’ve been using and embrace the simply technology of convection-based kettle cooking. 

The classic Weber Master Touch Premium E-5775 is very easy to use. Simply load one or both crescent-shaped charcoal baskets and place them on either side of the bowl. Leave the lid off – there’s a catch-stand at the rear – light the charcoal and retreat for about 25 minutes. Now drop your food onto the steel grate – which has enough space for about six placements – put the lid on and go chat to your guests.

This system only requires occasional intervention, whether it’s turning food or adjusting the air intake on the aluminium ash catcher (which also includes a  ‘smoke’ setting). If you follow the rule ‘if you’re lookin’, it ain’t cookin’, the food should come off the grill perfectly cooked with chicken skin just the right side of crispy.

This model is also designed to accept Weber’s Gourmet BBQ System of optional inserts, making it very much a true 3-in-1 system, capable of roasting, smoking and searing foods. Simply remove the grate’s centre section and drop in the sear grate, pizza stone, Dutch oven or poultry roaster.

Weber BBQs are renowned for their durability, and you can safely expect this one to last many, many winters. That said, a cover is always advisable to keep out the elements. 

For even more information on this top-rated 3-in-1 BBQ, take a look at our full  Weber Master Touch Premium E-5775 review.

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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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