Weber Pulse 1000 is a great electric alternative to gas or charcoal grills and the ultimate balcony barbecue

Enjoy the thrill of outdoor cooking with a much less flammable fuel

Weber Pulse 1000 electric barbecue
Duncan Bell
By Duncan Bell
last updated

Barbecue fans divide off into two camps. There are those who love the primitive caveman thrill of charcoal, and there are those who favour the more controllable, instantaneous cooking provided by gas. There are absolutely none who say, "Nah mate, what you want is an electric barbecue." 

If you're looking for a way to cook on your balcony without breaking the terms of your lease (although you will still potentially aggravate your next-door and upstairs neighbours), this could be the answer. Read the full Weber Pulse 1000 review here.

By the way, now it's 'done electric', Weber's next big thing is smoker grills that burn fuel pellets instead of charcoal or gas. We've already seen them from Traeger and others and the Weber SmokeFire could be huge in 2020.

Weber Pulse 1000 with stand

• Weber Pulse 1000 is £549 direct from Weber (opens in new tab)

• Buy Weber Pulse 1000 with stand from John Lewis  (opens in new tab)

Designed for, or at least marketed to, people who want to BBQ on the balcony without breaking the terms of their lease, or causing their neighbours to come and KILL them, the Weber Pulse 1000 is an electric barbecue.  

At 1.8 Kilowatts, it's actually less powerful than some electric grills, but with its huge size and capacious under-lid area, it's a very powerful cooking device. 

It's got a bright temperature display and decent control over heat – the precision is far greater than charcoal, although gas doesn't have anything to worry about. Maybe the real killer feature however is the inclusion of a Bluetooth, plug-in probe for monitoring the internal temperature of your meat and fish. 

Used via Weber's iOS and Android app this works so well, it almost takes the fun out of cooking. Everything from chicken to a side of salmon comes out perfectly done, so long as you properly pre-heat the grill and then follow the simple instructions (turn once, no peaking!).

As well as being perfectly cooked every time (so long as you keep an eye on the app), food done on the Pulse 1000 does seem to have a more barbecue taste to it than what you'd get from a standard electric grill. Weber reckons that's down to its porcelain enamelled cast iron plates, but maybe it's just the fresh air. 

As there's no charcoal smoke or gas canisters involved, the Pulse 1000 is much more balcony-friendly than most BBQs, although clearly, due to science, smoke and fumes will still come off your food and annoy your neighbours.

Still, never mind them. The Pulse 1000 is easy to clean (for a barbecue), has a 5-year warranty, and the electric/electronic elements are easy to hoik out and store indoors, while the main body of the grill can be left to dwell outside.

• Weber Pulse 1000 is £549 direct from Weber (opens in new tab)

• Buy Weber Pulse 1000 with stand from John Lewis  (opens in new tab)

Fantastic Weber BBQs for Australia that you can buy right now

TOPICS
Home Gadgets
Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell

Duncan has been writing about tech for almost 15 years, during which time he has attended every event going, apart from Apple ones, as he mysteriously doesn't get invited to them. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. 

Duncan's current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. Duncan also edits T3's golf section because fuck it, someone has to. Dave Usher does all the real work on that bit, though. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."


Latest