Weber Searwood XL review: grill, smoke and sear with Weber’s most versatile pellet grill yet

T3’s review of the new Weber Searwood XL in a sentence: a versatile powerhouse pellet grill-cum-smoker that takes the unpredictability and associated anxiety out of outdoor cooking.

US barbecue behemoth Weber was quite late to the pellet grill game with the original Smokefire but it’s upped the ante here with an outstanding model than can sear steaks as well as grill, roast, bake and smoke meats and fish using the low-and-slow technique.

With its expansive cooking area, seamless temperature control and that unmistakable richness of real wood smoke, this grill transforms an ordinary barbecue into a memorable feast. Is it as good as the tranche of other models in our guides to the best barbecues and the best smokers? Let’s find out.

Weber Searwood XL review: price and availability

The Weber Searwood XL is available worldwide, but if you’re in the UK head to Weber direct where it’s selling for £1,399 or ProSmoke (£1,399), BBQLand (£1,379), WowBBQ (£1,349) and Bell (£1,399).

If you live in the USA, try the US Weber store where the Weber Searwood XL retails at $1,299. Alternatively, visit Amazon ($1,195) or Lowes ($1,299).

Weber Searwood XL review: set-up

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Rather thoughtfully, the top of the Searwood XL's box lifts off for easier access

Not too many parts to deal with here

Assembly involves far fewer bolts than most other barbecues

The Seawood XL's flame diffuser is a heavyweight chunk of stainless steel

On the patio and ready to roll

Assembling and setting up a pellet grill is actually easier than most charcoal barbecues and especially gas models. This is because the main cooking area and the pellet hopper have already been assembled at the factory. All you have to do is fit the legs – a little awkward it must be said – the bottom storage tray for added extra rigidity, the two large wheels and all the grill inserts. Sadly, like quite a few BBQs these days, this one doesn’t have an extra set of castor wheels to make it easier to move around the patio so you will have to lift one side while moving it around.

Although the main assembly can be carried out by one person, you will definitely need an extra pair of hands to help lift if from the box to your assembly area. But before you do this, don’t forget to remove the heavy-duty lid and remove all the extra packaging underneath it to make it lighter to carry.

This model’s superb build quality can be summed up by the weight of the fire pot’s stainless steel diffuser (see image above) which looks like it came out of the engine room of a ship. Likewise, the fire pot itself is the largest I can ever remember seeing, which is one reason why this model can also sear steaks at such high temperatures. But more on that below.

Weber Searwood XL review: how it works

If you always struggle to maintain correct temperatures with a standard charcoal grill and often either overcook, undercook or even burn everything to a cinder, you need a pellet grill like the new Weber Searwood XL we’re looking at here. Whether you’re grilling the usual outdoor staples like chicken legs, wings and burgers or low-and-slow smoking a rack of ribs, Moroccan lamb or Texas-style brisket, a pellet grill makes it simple and fun right from the off.

Pellet grills (or pellet smokers as they are sometimes called) offer the rich flavour of wood-fired cooking with the push-button convenience of a kitchen oven. For the uninitiated, a pellet grill burns compressed hardwood pellets and these pellets are transported from a large hopper via an electrically-powered auger (a large corkscrew) to a mini furnace pot which in turn is kept ablaze with the assistance of a fan. As a consequence, a nearby electricity source – either mains or via a best portable power station – is paramount or the system simply won't work.

The whole pellet delivery process is controlled by a computer processor – accessed via a digital user interface or an accompanying app – that effectively turns what would otherwise be a volatile outdoor cooking system into one that functions with the consistency, reliability and ease of an indoor oven. Hence, if you set the temperature on the display panel to, say, 220°C, a pellet barbecue will remain at that temperature for as long as there are pellets in the hopper. Likewise, if you set it to just 107˚C, a pellet grill will hold a perfectly consistent temperature to perform a long seven-hour smoke.

Since a pellet grill’s internal temperature is so well controlled, it’s actually quite difficult to burn food on it – which is more than one can say for the conventional and usually volatile charcoal method.

So, if you’re a beginner who tends to burn food on a regular basis, an avid experimental chef who wants to push the envelope using a variety of ingredients other than the staple chicken and sausages, or someone who simply hates being chained to a barbecue while everyone else is having a good time, a pellet grill like the sterling Weber Searwood XL is likely for you.

Weber Searwood XL review: design and features

Weber is renowned for the overall quality of its products, from design and materials to fit and finish, and this new addition to its eclectic roster is a case in point. Although it’s not quite as handsome looking as the earlier Smokefire, Weber has learned from any mistakes it made with that model and produced what must be one of the most complete pellet barbecues on the market right now, mostly because it’s capable of embracing three main types of barbecuing – indirect convection, semi-indirect searing and low-and-slow smoking. It will roast, too, and if used in conjunction with the optional griddle plate insert, whip up a full English breakfast or deliver an excellent smash burger replete with fried onions and a toasted brioche bun.

It will do all this without breaking into a sweat or have you battling with a raging temperature or, indeed, not enough temperature. It’s a true set-and-forget machine for outdoor cooking that is both reliable and faff free.

The Searwood is available in two sizes – the XL version we’re reviewing here with a total cooking area of 6,270cm2 and a smaller version with 4,180cm2 of total meal estate. Both models come with high-quality stainless steel cooking grates that arrive as separate inserts so you can insert the optional griddle plate, pizza stone or dual-sided cast-iron sear grate. Above this you also get a large stainless steel warming rack which can be stored on two hooks behind the barbie. However, I’d have liked to have seen a hook to store the rolled up AC power cable when not is use.

One reason this model is called the Searwood is that, unlike many pellet grills, it can actually sear a steak at high temperature over a direct flame. However, as you’ll read in my performance chapter, it’s not completely direct because there’s a big triangular ‘flavoriser’ heat deflector panel between the fire pot and the grill grates and the flames kind of lick around that area instead of the food being directly above a furnace of hot flaming charcoal. Still, it’s one of the closest methods to direct grilling I’ve seen on a pellet grill, though I’ll admit that some PitBoss pellet grills can also sear directly over flames.

The Searwood XL features an attractive digital control panel with nice big, clear lettering that makes it easy to monitor from a distance while you chill in the background. It might take a while to get a handle on the small menu icons but once mastered it’s all pretty much plain sailing. Simply turn the big dial to your preferred temperature and press it to activate the fire pot's glow plug, the auger and the fan. It should take about 20 minutes to reach a temperature of around 195˚C. The whole control system has WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity which allows you to control temperatures on the fly using the Weber app.

The Searwood XL has a wide temperature range of 80° to 315°C but if you want to experience lid-up direct grilling and sear-marked food at even higher temperatures, you can switch to manual and choose from 10 levels of thermal oomph. Weber says that the entire stainless steel grate section is one big Sear Zone but I found that the righthand side is quite a bit hotter than the left. This is no bad thing, mind, because it means that you can cook some ingredients at a more sedate pace, just like on the best multi-burner gas barbecues.

Since this do-it-all model also features a dedicated ‘Smoke Boost’ setting, it’s also a master of low and slow smoking a la Texas style. So if a rack of fall-off-the-bone ribs, a full brisket with tell-tale outer bark and pink smoke rings or a spicy Moroccan lamb is your bag, you’ll be as happy as Larry because you can set it at around 107˚C and leave it for many hours without any constant checking. In fact, at such low temperatures you should feasibly eek out up to 20 hours of smoking from the 9kg (20lb) pellet hopper.

Speaking of pellet hoppers, this one is a zillion times better than the old Smokefire model. It’s a simple upright square box for a start and that means that gravity grabs every last pellet. It’s also easy to change pellet blends or empty the hopper for winter by simply pulling on a big red knob (sorry, there’s no other way of putting it). However, given our fascination for any red coloured button-like object, I would be ready to point it out before anyone asks the inevitable ‘what does this red knob do?’ question, or there’ll be a large pile of pellets on the floor.

The Weber Searwood XL uses its own brand of compressed wood pellets as fuel and these pellets come in a range of different wood varieties like hickory, apple, mesquite and oak or, in the case of the pellets that Weber sent me for this review, the US company’s own Grill Academy Blend comprising a sweet mix of beech, cherry and maple. However, as long as the pellets are roughly the same size as Weber's you could feasibly use other brands of pellets, too.

Weber Searwood XL review: performance

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There's enough space here to feed the neighbourhood

Scrumptious farm shop sausages with just the right level of charring

Kebabs on last at higher heat for better searing

I’ll admit it took me a minute or two to work out the control panel but mostly because I never read a manual. While I also admit to not having smoked anything on it, I did test the Smoke Boost button and, sure enough, it produced just the right amount of white smoke for any low-and-slow session. Anyway, I’ve smoked ribs on many pellet grills in the past and they have all performed extremely well in this discipline.

My first test was a bit of a baptism of fire because we invited some friends over and this put some extra pressure on me to a) get it right first time and b) quash any witticisms along the lines of ‘I just use four bricks and an oven grate for my barbecues’. In the event, my mini banquet of local farm sausages, chicken legs, chicken kebabs and grilled corn on the cob turned out perfectly – and with no over charring bar a few chipolatas that I forgot to turn. It was a prime example of just how easy it is to grill on a pellet barbecue. I didn’t have to stand by it the whole time or take a peek under the lid. I simply watched the accompanying app occasionally to check the timer and the two included meat probes’ readings and turned the food a couple of times, and that was that. Everything was cooked to perfection.

My second test was on my own so I had more time to fiddle about with things. This time I chose a hard-and-fast method to grill some chicken wings and started at 250˚C before switching to manual mode’s highest 10 setting. I’ve seen some demonstrations of this barbecue producing some serious flames around the main heat deflector panel but I couldn’t replicate that and I think it may have been because there wasn’t enough fat on the wings to drip down and catch fire.

However, this method definitely created some sear marks on the chicken skin and, best of all, the skin was air-fryer crispy while the centre remained succulent and easy to bite off the bone. I’d say they were up there with the best wings I’ve ever made.

It took about 15 minutes for my first cook to reach the 200˚C temperature I’d chosen and about 20 minutes for the second chicken wing experiment at 250˚C and higher. However, I did notice that the grill struggled to maintain temperature with the lid open in manual mode, which is the method Weber suggests for high-heat searing. On the plus side, when the lid’s down this beast holds its temperature better than any other pellet grill I’ve reviewed. Usually there are fluctuations of at least 5˚C when cooking on a pellet grill but the Searwood remained rocksteady throughout with no fluctuations at all.

I also noticed that it was very economical with its pellet use and that’s a major bonus, especially if you’re doing a long smoking session. However, one of the most overriding benefits of this grill is how much quieter it is than other models I’ve tested, which have often sounded like a Jumbo jet at takeoff. By contrast, this model can hardly be heard from just a few metres away. Yes, you will need to clean out all the ash the pellets create after a few cooks by emptying the removable ash catcher and grease container, but, hey, that’s the nature of the beast.

Weber Searwood XL review: app

The vast majority of pellet grills can also be used with an app to control temperatures, keep a remote eye on proceedings, set a timer and program preset internal temperatures for your ingredients when using the included meat probes. And that's the case with this model.

Like the similarly excellent Traeger app, the Weber app also includes a huge range of recipes that are broken down into different categories like beef, pork, poultry, seafood and vegetables. Hence, if planning to grill some drumsticks or wings with a difference, simply launch the app which should then connect to your grill, choose from a tranche of drumstick and wing recipes in the app, follow the preparation instructions, insert one of the provided meat probes, select it on the app, pop the chicken on the grill grate and the app will keep tabs on the whole cooking process, sending notifications from time to time until it’s ready to take off and tuck in.

This system makes it so easy for newcomers and specifically anyone wishing to up their BBQ game by experimenting with a range of new dishes other than the usual staple of chicken legs, burgers and sausages. Try it, you’ll like it.

Weber Searwood XL review: verdict

The Weber Searwood XL is a standout performer that strikes an impressive balance between power, precision and ease of use. Whether you're a seasoned pit master or a fretful novice, this beast delivers consistent results without any nasty surprises. Its generous cooking space, smart connectivity and great design make it as convenient as it is capable. A 5-star pellet grill if ever there was.