Is there anything that says summer more than grilling a thick, juicy steak or hamburger?
Sure: It’s called taking that experience up a notch by grilling a thick, juicy steak or hamburger on a portable grill at the beach, the park or the campground.
The good thing for would-be grillmasters: Portable grills don’t have to be a disposable tin foil box full of charcoal with a thin wire grate. The companies that make some of the best outdoor cooking gear in the world — like Weber, Napoleon and TEC — also offer portable models that easily fit in a car trunk or the back of a minivan.
Add a 16.4-ounce cylinder of propane, and you’re good to go.
Invest in a good portable grill, and it won’t just cover your summer trips — it’ll have you ready to hit road games in the fall.
And you don’t need to close your eyes and blindly point at the nearest portable grill. We’ll help you choose with this collection of five of the best ready-to-roll (or carry) grills on the market.
Summer Gadget Guide (The Best Portable Grills): Weber Q 1200
When it comes to grills, Weber is one of the biggest and most revered names.
The company got its start with charcoal grills, but it makes some of the best gas grills on the market, too. Check the higher-end range at a store like Home Depot (HD), and you’ll see a lot of Weber products.
But Weber doesn’t just do big, expensive standing grills. It also does portable.
The Weber Q series is renowned for its durability. The lid and body are made of cast aluminum, making these among the sturdiest portable grills you can buy.
The Q 1200 has a single 8,500-BTU burner, electronic ignition, 189-square-inch cooking surface, two folding work tables, a built-in lid thermometer and a porcelain-enamaled cast iron cooking grate.
While Q grills have traditionally been offered in a black-and-beige color scheme, the $219 Q 1200 is available in a range of bright colors.
Summer Gadget Guide (The Best Portable Grills): Coleman NXT 200
When it comes to the great outdoors, Coleman is one of the most recognizable names in gear. Now a division of Jarden Corporation (JAH), the company started selling gas lamps, gas stoves and other camping gear in 1900.
Coleman portable grills are extremely popular with the camping and tailgating crowd. With built-in stands, large cooking areas and a wide range of optional accessories like griddles and burner attachments, these are extremely versatile grills.
I’ve taken one with me on camping trips for the past two years, and it’s easily among the best portable grills I’ve ever owned. The optional griddle attachment makes it easy to cook up breakfast for five, plus the inevitable drop-ins from other campsites.
The latest series is the NXT line. The NXT 200 has a tall lid with built-in thermometer, push-button start, 20,000 BTUs of power, a 321-square-inch cooking surface (enough for 18 burgers), and it’s mounted on a collapsable stand with wheels.
The Coleman NXT 200 Grill is also affordable, at $250.
Summer Gadget Guide (The Best Portable Grills): Napoleon TravelQ Portable Gas Grill
Napoleon is the Canadian equivalent to Weber — a company that has come to dominate the market for premium quality grills. In Canada, when you shop at Lowe’s (LOW) or Home Depot for a good backyard grill, it’s pretty much all Weber and Napoleon.
Like Weber, Napoleon also makes portable grills, and you can buy them in the U.S.
The TravelQ — currently $189 on Amazon (AMZN) — is one of the more unique-looking portable grills you’ll see, and also one of the easiest to carry around. Its clam-shell form factor folds up with a single, sturdy handle, and at 30 pounds it’s manageable to carry from the car to the beach.
The TravelQ has a 225-square-inch cast iron cooking grill (enough for 14 burgers), electric ignition and a single burner pumping out 10,500 BTUs.
I had one of these as my primary camping grill for many years — one of the best portable grills I’ve owned — and the unusual form factor always had someone dropping by to ask what it was. When I retired it, the TravelQ became a secondary grill in my backyard BBQ pit.
Summer Gadget Guide (The Best Portable Grills): TEC Cherokee FR
If you’re determined to have the best portable grill money can buy, a lot of pro grillers point to the TEC Cherokee FR.
Unlike most portable grills, this one uses its 13,000-BTU gas burner to heat a sheet of glass instead of heating the cooking grill directly. The glass in turn radiates the heat (for infrared cooking) with 100% temperature consistency across the entire cooking surface.
That 212-square-inch cooking surface will take care of a dozen burgers in 10 minutes or less.
The all-aluminum construction makes the TEC Cherokee FR stand out in a crowd when it comes to looks, and at $849, if you show up with one of these, you’ll definitely collect gawkers.
Summer Gadget Guide (The Best Portable Grills): BioLite CampStove Bundle
Unlike the other portable grills in this guide, the BioLite doesn’t run on a portable propane cylinder. It’s also tiny (the Portable Grill attachment is just 55 square inches).
It’s here because this isn’t just a list of the best portable grills — it’s part of our summer gadget guide series, and there is no other device out there that fits into both categories like the BioLite does.
The BioLite Campstove burns any biomass — twigs, sticks, pine cones and practically anything else you can find — using an extremely efficient combustion chamber. With a built-in fan driving the air back in, it gets very hot, very fast.
Even more impressive, the CampStove simultaneously generates electricity. Plug an Apple (AAPL) iPhone into the USB port and 20 minutes of burn/charge time gets you another hour of talk time.
With the grill attachment, you can cook burgers and hot dogs (only a few at a time, mind you) without having to shell out for propane, while charging your devices at the same time and the whole thing weighs about four pounds (five pounds if you being along the kettle that’s included in the $225 bundle).
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
