The Best Kettle Grill for 2025: 6 Charcoal Grills Compared

Features to Compare the Best Charcoal Grills

In this article, we're writing our checklist specifically for kettle grills and refining our rubric to give you the best data and scoring system we know how to create. Does that mean it will be perfect? Absolutely not.

We're trying to quantify the unquantifiable here, and this is our attempt to show you what makes the best grills truly great. We're going to award a possible 5 points per category, but in reality, user experience trumps everything else.

Cooking Capacity

The Weber Mastertouch is a 26 inch kettle, making it the largest in the group. The other 5 kettles measure at 22 inches, so I'm going to award the Master Touch a 5 and everyone else a 3 when it comes to cooking capacity.

Cooking Height

Whenever I'm working on a kettle, I usually notice that they're much shorter than other grills when it comes to the interaction height. Measuring from the ground to grate level, here's the measurements for each model in our testing group.

Napoleon is the tallest at 34" and the Spider Grill Huntsman is the lowest at 29 1/2 inches. The Huntsman does have an optional lift kit available that will bring it up to 32 1/2 inches available as an optional accessory, so i'll rate it with that in mind but give it a half a point penalty for having to buy it separately.

Napoleon gets a 5, Weber's Performer Deluxe and the Master Kettle get a 4, the Huntsman gets a 2.5, the Weber MasterTouch gets a 2, and the Kettle Joe scores a 1 out of 5. 

Cooking Grates

A big deciding factor for the kettle grill is the cooking grates themselves. What are they made of, and are there ways for me to add smoking wood or work with my charcoal without lifting the entire grate out to get underneath. 

The Huntsman grates are made of thick and heavy stainless steel and there’s easy access to the charcoal below through a front door so it earns a 5. I'm going to give the Slow N Sear, and both Weber's a 4 for all being stainless with easy access to charcoal through hinging grates. The Napoleon earns a 3 since it has cast iron grates that hinge, but I'm already worried about the grates rusting over time. The Kamado Joe earns a 2 for 2 half moon grates, but I don't love that I need to lift off half the grate to do anything with the fire.

None of these grates are incredibly easy to clean, but some are certainly easier than others. The standouts for most difficult are the Weber grates with all of their hinged and pull-out sections. And while the Slow N Sear grates spin easily to help with its 2 zone cooking technique, the spinning is a challenge when trying to brush the grates clean. The two that I assumed would be the most difficult to clean actually weren't that hard after all.

Ease of Cleaning

Other than cleaning the grates, there's the every-time cleaning of the grill that's also a consideration. You can use lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes with a kettle grill, but if you're using briquettes there will be considerable ash every time you start it up.

All but the Kettle Joe and Napoleon are cleaned using a blade system in the bottom of the kettle to sweep ash into the ash bucket. The Master Kettle has 5 blades, Spider Grills have 4 blades, while both Weber models have 3 blades.

The Kamado Joe uses the same type of ash drawer system that you'll find in their kamados where ash is routed into a pull out drawer for easy cleaning. The Napoleon needs a manual brushing of the ash into the bucket for disposal.

In my opinion, none of these grills are easy to fully clean. I need to get down on one knee for each of them since the cleaning apparatus is so low, and lining up the ash bucket is hard to see unless you're down at that low level.

I'll give the Master Kettle, Kettle Joe and the Huntsman a 4, a 3 for the Napoleon, and I'm going to say a 2 for both Webers for 1 main reason. When you use the blades to push out ash, they don't clean it all. There's sections that build up because the blades don't cross paths. Maybe that won't bother you, but it bugs me enough to give it a 2 out of 5. 

Temperature Control

For ease of control, we're talking about how easy it is to manage the temperature of your kettle grill. This is where the Spider Grill Huntsman is the king. With the Venom digital controller and fan that manages the heat for you, the Huntsman is a set it and forget it machine. I just light the charcoal, set the temperature I'm after, close the lid and the grill does the rest. It's a 5 out of 5 for the Huntsman.

All of the rest are manual control kettles. Both Webers and the Slow N Sear utilize a very similar design both at the air intake level as well as the exhaust level, making it easy to visualize your airflow, so I'll give each of those a 4.

The Kettle Joe and the Napoleon both have a rotating disk for exhaust and I personally find those to be more difficult to read so I'll give those grills a 3.  

Kettle grills have manually adjusted air flow for decades, but since I often find myself cooking while multi-tasking, I've found that fan-controlled is my preferred way. 

By the way, it's worth mentioning that Spider Grills offers the Venom controller as an add-on accessory for 22" Weber kettles, if you like that level of ease and already have a mid-sized Weber.

Temperature Monitoring

Monitoring temperature on kettle grills has been historically handled by a small analog thermometer dial located on the lid. Internal temp monitoring isn't something you find on most kettle grills, but here again Spider Grills has both the digital temperature readout and an internal meat probe that reads out on the digital display.

Is this overkill for a kettle grill? Maybe, but I admit I love taking the guesswork out of things.

The rest of the kettles in our roundup all have an analog thermometer in the kettle lid and no way to monitor meat temperature. I can hear the charcoal purists now... (That's the way it's supposed to be... dang technology trying to take over my grill...)

The largest thermometer is found in the Napoleon at around 3 inches, and the smallest were the two Weber models coming in at around an inch and a half. A 5 out of 5 for the Huntsman for digital temp display and an internal probe. The Napoleon, Slow N Sear and the Kettle Joe get a 3 for having a large gauge, and both Weber models earn a 2 for small temp gauges. 

Indirect Cooking

Indirect cooking is a staple on kettle style grills. Simply bank your coals to one side or the other, set your meat on the grate opposite the fire and you have indirect heat. 

There are a few notable exceptions on this list, starting with the Kettle Joe. The bottom of the Joe is slanted to pool the charcoal towards the middle of the kettle. There's no real way to put the coals to one side in this kettle, but that's where the Slo Roller accessory that ships with this grill comes into play. It's a heat deflector that you add in to enable a whole grate of indirect low and slow cooking. 

The Huntsman can bank coals to get half of the cooking surface indirect, but there's also a ceramic plate diverter you can pick up that gives you full cooking surface heat deflection.

Both Webers, the Napoleon and the Slow N Sear can do indirect cooking, but it's half of the cooking grate instead of the whole like the Joe and the Huntsman.

The Kettle Joe gets a 5 for having the deflector included, the Huntsman a 4 for the optional accessory to deflect for the whole grate, and the rest get a 3 for half grate indirect cooking capability. 

And like the Venom Controller I mentioned earlier, you can also pick up Slow ‘N Sear accessories that can be used in any kettle or kamado grill. 

Lid Function

A key function on a kettle grill is simply working with the lid. Half of these lids come completely off and half are hinged. You probably think of the Weber kettle lid in most cases, and here's how it works. Just pivot the lid to the side, and it stands vertically in the lid holder attached to the side of the cart. The same goes for the Master Touch 26 inch, the lid is much heavier, but you can still pivot it using the built in rollers.

The Master Kettle from Slow N Sear operates in primarily the same way, but there's no roller-style element at the pivot point. Instead of the easy roll back into position, I find that this grill gets stuck on the way back, so it's a lift and reposition instead of pivot when I use it.

The Napoleon has a hinged lid, and I admit that I didn't expect it to hinge this way when I first opened it. It's odd compared to the others, but it's functional. It goes up to a complete 90 degrees (and a little bit more even), completely out of the way when you're cooking.

The kettle joe also has a hinged lid, but it's a little less than 90 degrees when it's fully open. The lid is incredibly light, so barely any effort is required to lift the kettle joe.

The Huntsman lid is the only lid in this roundup that resembles a kamado more than it does a kettle grill. It hinges open from the rear and only opens up about 45 degrees. If you're hoping for a lift off lid or one that hinges fully open, this isn't that kind of lid. I find it hard to start a charcoal chimney on the grates like I do for the others since the chimney would just pour heat directly into where the lid and gasket are. 

The second consideration for the lid is how much vertical space is available for cooking when the lid is closed? With 3 different cooking levels, the Napoleon Pro has cooking heights of 6 and a half inches, 9 inches and 11 and 3/4 inches for the 3 levels. The Kettle Joe has 9 inches of height, the Master Touch 8 and a half inches, the Performer Deluxe has 7 and a half inches, Huntsman has 7 and the Slow N Sear has a total of 6 inches of cooking height.

The Napoleon Pro and the Kettle Joe earn the top prize here with 5 points, the Spider Grill Huntsman gets a 4, The two Webers each get a 3 and the SnS MasterKettle finishes things up with a 2. 

Lid Tightness

I know a lot of kettle users want to know how tight the lid is and if it leaks smoke while in use. All but 2 of these grills leaked quite a bit of smoke in our testing around the lid.

Only the Weber 26" and the Spider Grill Huntsman resisted smoke leakage. The sheer weight of the lid on the 26" Weber resists letting smoke out even though it's metal on metal construction.

The only lid in the group that has an oven grade gasket all around is found on the Huntsman. If you don't want smoke leaking around your lid, the gasket on the Spider Grill does a nice job of keeping the smoke inside the cooking chamber. Is it completely smokeless? No. It's using a forced air fan to push air through the chamber, so that extra air pushing through causes leaks even with a gasket, but it's minimal compared to what's coming out the top.

I'll give the Huntsman and the Weber 26 inch a 5, the Slow N Sear a 4, and everyone else gets a 3 out of 5. 

Quality of Construction

Looking at the quality of construction of each kettle in our roundup is difficult, since it's not easy to measure the metal thickness with rolled edges around almost all of these grills.

Manufacturers aren't quick to divulge metal thickness on their website either, so we're left to wonder. Here's what I could get measurements on using our digital caliper. The Master Kettle came in with the thinnest mesaurement on the lid at 0.85mm and the Huntsman had the thickest measurement at 2.25mm thick.

The only cooking basin that wasn't rolled or rounded on the edges was the Huntsman as well, which measured a whopping 10.29mm thick. I'm going to give The Huntsman a 5 out of 5 since it's simply built like a tank. The Kettle Joe and the 26" Weber get a 4 for both being right around 2mm thick, and i'll give the others a 3 out of 5 to round out the group. 

Seal Tightness

One thing that I've talked about with quite a few of you is how well a kettle seals when you're ready to be done cooking. That's the lid seal, exhaust setting seal, bottom vent seal where the blades make contact with the bottom of the bowl and more. 

We tested how well the grill sealed by lighting a full chimney of charcoal briquettes, let them burn for exactly 25 minutes and then dumped them into each grill. We set the grill to fully open and watched it until it hit 400 degrees on the dial and then closed it down to cool. We timed how long each took to cool down to 150 degrees, and here's the numbers for each grill.

The quickest to cool down was the Weber Performer with a time of 1 hour 32 minutes. The longest to cool down was the SNS Grill with over an 8 hour cooldown period to get below 150 degrees.

After the grills cooled down, we knocked off the dust and weighed how much charcoal was left over to be used again. The 22" Weber Performer had 2 pounds, 0.1 ounces left and the Huntsman had 1 pound 15.3 ounces left. for less than a 1 ounce difference. The Master Kettle had the least left over with just 8.4 ounces when weighed.

I'll give the Napoleon Pro, Huntsman and Weber Performer a 5 out of 5 for sealing the best and leaving the most charcoal for the next cook. The Master Touch and the Kettle Joe get a 4 for still having about a pound left, and the Master Kettle gets 3 points for just over a half pound remaining. 

Side Shelves

I find that there is never enough room to set trays of food when I'm grilling, so let's take a look at the shelving options on these kettles.

The Kettle Joe has two folding metal side shelves like you'd find on a kamado. Not oversized, but they will support what I need when cooking on a kettle.

The Master Kettle comes with a cart that features a shelf on the right and a removable spice rack down below. Weber's Performer Deluxe is a cart model with what I would call a table on the right hand side of the grill. It's by far the most space in this group, and gets a 5 out of 5.

The Master Kettle and the Kettle Joe get a 4 out of 5 for slightly smaller shelf space. The Spider Grill Huntsman and the Napoleon Pro 22 get a 3 out of 5 for having optional side shelves available if you want to add them. The 26" Master Touch doesn't have any side shelf options, so I have to award it a 1 out of 5 in this category. 

Mobility

Moving these kettles around the patio isn't very difficult, but when you introduce moving across the grass it's a different story.

The Kettle Joe is heavy with the ceramic plates in the kettle, and with these small wheels it's tough to move through the yard. The Huntsman is very heavy as well, but it's easier to get through grass while still not being easy.

The Master Kettle, Weber Performer Deluxe and Weber MasterTouch are pretty easy to move through the grass as long as you lift up on one side of the grill.

The 26 inch Weber only has 2 wheels, but they're the large wheels that easily get through grass with this tripod design. The 22" Weber has two of the same large wheels, but also 2 small casters on the cart, but I still find it easy to move through the grass when you lift up on the caster side.

The Slow N Sear has two large wheels and two legs, so lifting up to move it is the only option. The Napoleon is a "Shin Hitter" so I suggest small shuffling steps to keep the bottom rack from whacking you in the shin.

I'm going to give the 2 Weber kettles a 5 for mobility, The Slow N Sear and the Huntsman a 4, the Napoleon gets a 3 and the Kettle Joe finishes out the group with a 2. 

Available Accessories

I know that many of you want to trick out your kettle with accessories, and every one of these brands has copious amounts of add-ons.

The number 1 add-on we hear about is the rotisserie, and some of these kettles can use a rotisserie attachment. The Napoleon, SnS Master Kettle, Spider Grill Huntsman, and Weber Performer can all use a rotisserie. Since those brands also offer covers and a variety of other cooking accessories, they each get a 5.

Kamado Joe and Weber both offer a ton of accessories and covers, but since the Kettle Joe and MasterTouch can't use a rotisserie, we'll give them a 4. 

Warranty

When I buy a new grill, I know I want the best warranty on the block. Many boast a 10 year warranty, but it's further complicated by separating out the components and coverage lengths. The Kettle Joe gives a pretty comprehensive 5 year warranty and the Spider Grill Huntsman rounds out the group with a 3 year warranty. I'll give the Huntsman a 3, the Kettle Joe a 4 and the rest a 5 out of 5 for warranty. 

Final Thoughts

There's a few things that only personal experience can teach you, so I want to walk through each grill and give you some thoughts that I had along the way.

And lastly,  I want to cover their final scores and answer the question, "If I could only keep 2 of these on the patio, which would I keep, and which would I send to storage..." It's bound to make some people mad, but it's honest feedback after more than a month of testing.

The Kamado Joe Kettle Joe with the two half moon grates gives me kamado vibes. Multiple types of cooking are possible, grates that are divided and placed on different levels screams kamado to me.

The included slo-roller makes indirect cooking easy, even though it's not as nice of a system as what you get in the large Kamado Joe. (which makes sense at this price point).

The grates are surprisingly hard to clean with the horizontal support beams running perpendicular to the main grate rods. With any kind of pressure, you get stuck at every brush, and I didn't like that. I found temperature control to be more difficult on this grill when working with the exhaust. It's hard to see inside the top wheel how open it really is if you don't have smoke pouring out.

The Kamado Joe Kettle Joe came in last place with a score of 51 out of 75. It's a fine kettle grill, but the score reflects how I've felt about it for multiple years. I picked this kettle up when there was a sale around Christmas years ago, used it a few times on the patio and then stuck it in storage. It's lived there ever since. If you don't have the other kettles to compare to, it'll be just fine for you, but when you can compare them directly, the kettle joe stays in storage for me.

The Weber Master Touch 26" is huge in comparison to every other kettle in this roundup. It's only a 4 inch difference, but in reailty there is a ton of cooking space on this grill, and it needs more charcoal to cover the larger area. When I'm cooking for just my family, the 26" is too big. When I have friends over, the 26" is barely big enough. Buying the 22 or the 26 really comes down to how often you're wanting to use it to feed a crowd.

I love the slide over lid capabilities on this grill. The lid is much heavier than the 22 inch version, and I'm glad I just have to roll over the lid instead of completely lift it off to move it. Cleaning the grate kind of stinks on the 26 inch though. The multiple pull out sections make it so your brush gets stuck quite often, and then the pieces come out and you have parts of the grate all over the place. I don't like cleaning these multifunctional grates at all. Thumbs down when cleaning time comes.

The 26" Weber Master Touch comes in 5th place with a score of 53 out of 75. If you're surprised at that score, so was I. Losing 4 points for not having any kind of side shelf option really tanked this grills score overall, so that's where weighing each category in your decision can help nudge you this direction.

It's a huge grill that's made for large families and get togethers. If you have looked at the standard 22 inch kettles and think they're too small, the 26" is no slouch to be the only kettle on your patio.

I wouldn't have any problem keeping the Weber 26" on my patio if I didn't have an outdoor kitchen. It's redundant to the two kamados I keep on my kamado drawers, so the Weber 26" goes back to storage for me.

The Napoleon Pro 22 inch was the only kettle that had enough height to do a beer can chicken. The 3 levels of grate position paired with the charcoal baskets gave me the control I needed for this kind of cook.

The cast iron grates can give a mean sear, but they're extremely heavy compared to the other 5 in this group. If you have to lift them up and move them around, be prepared for a workout.

The cart isn't as solid as I hoped, and if you shake it, there's a good bit of wobble. The hinged lid that opens to the side was weird the first few times I used it, but over time it became normal and didn't bother me.

The Napoleon Pro 22 scored 55 out of 75 for a third place tie with the Slow N Sear Master Kettle. If you're okay with heavy grates that weigh multiple times more than the others, this might be for you.

When you look at the Pro 22 being the lowest priced kettle in our roundup, there's something to be said about the value here. If you're on a budget, you can save a couple hundred dollars by going with the Pro 22 compared with most of the other grills in this lineup.

The Slow N Sear Master Kettle is my favorite grill in this roundup to sear a steak on. With the Slow N Sear system built into the Master Kettle, it's easy to have a cold zone and hot zone with a grate that easily spins in a full circle. The trade off is that the grate can be hard to clean since it moves around so easily.

One oddity when I went to close the lid on the Master Kettle is that I wanted to lean the lid over and slide it into place each time, and when I did that it would catch. It's a lift out and place lid instead of the slide over lids like you'd find from Weber.

Cooking on the Slow N Sear for me was all about 2 zone cooking, so if you're into banking your charcoal to one side and creating a hot zone and having the rest of the grill be a cool zone, this is better than the rest at 2 zone cooking. It's also the best at searing for a single family. By filling just the charcoal basket, you use less charcoal and keep that coal close to the grate. It gives you a smaller sear area with less coal which is perfect for week nights after work.

Tying for 3rd place with the Napoleon Pro, the Master Kettle by SnS Grills comes with 1 of my top two favorite accessories for kettle grills. The Slow N Sear accessory comes included in this grill, which means that you don't have to buy a more expensive kettle and then add $70-$100 for a Slow N Sear.

The price point on the Master Kettle is really good and what you get for the price is a stand out in this comparison. For $399, it's the most complete grill in this roundup for the lowest price.

The Weber Performer Deluxe is only available with the 22 inch kettle, which is the perfect size for my family of 4. I'm a huge fan of having the built in side shelf and charcoal storage with my kettle grill. 

The 22 inch 2 zone cooking gives me half of the 22 inch grate to work with, and for small groups it's fine. The 22 inch multifunction grates are the most painful to clean out of the group. With so many pivoting panels and removable pieces of grate, my brush is always getting stuck and pieces falling off while cleaning.

I like the pivot over lid and the lid rest that's built into the cart. Personally I'm always looking for reasons to use my GrillGun but I can see how the built in charcoal lighting feature would be appealing to a lot of people.

The 22" Weber Performer Deluxe scored 56 out of a possible 75 points for second place in our roundup.  

It's the second highest priced at $550, but you get the Weber name and all the added features of the Deluxe model.

This has been the kettle on my patio for the last year, and I enjoyed using it. However, when the winner of this roundup came along though, the Performer Deluxe went to storage where it stayed until we pulled it back out for this comparison, and now that the comparison is over, that is where it will return.

The Spider Grill Huntsman is a breeze to set and maintain temperature. I've used this grill to cook all kinds of things, and it fits my lifestyle while I'm working on multiple other things. My usual routine is to load it up with charcoal, grab my GrillGun to light just one section of the charcoal, close the lid and let the digital controller take care of the rest. It really simplifies kettle grill cooking when I can set up the grill and then go inside and keep working while monitoring things on my mobile phone app.

I thought the grates were going to be a real pain to clean, but personal experience has taught me that they're fine. If you want to make them hard to clean, you can push down really hard while cleaning and get your brush stuck, but normal cleaning is easy, and I like using a flat scraper for cleaning since this grate doesn't have anything to get in the way.

To say that the metal is thick on this kettle is an understatement. I've never worked with a kettle grill that's this heavy and built to last. You can control the Huntsman without the digital fan by setting air intake manually like the other grills in this roundup.

With a total of 62 and a half points out of 75, the Spider Grill Huntsman takes first place in our kettle roundup. The digital controller and computer controlled fan is a game changer in how I use a kettle here at The Barbecue Lab.

If I'm cooking something low and slow for my family and want maximum flavor, I turn to the Huntsman. If it's a flight of burgers on a weeknight, I fire up the Huntsman. Just about any time I want to amp up the flavor of my cook with charcoal and wood chunks, this is the grill I light up, even with a complete outdoor kitchen on the patio, which is saying something.

The Huntsman makes grilling and smoking easy. With a standard kettle, I have to keep going in and out checking the charcoal, checking the vents, making sure that the temperature isn't getting out of control and is landing where I want it. With the Huntsman, I light it up, set the exhaust where the controller tells me it should be and head back inside until I'm ready to cook. It's the ultimate kettle experience without the hassle of needing to micromanage a traditional kettle, and that's why this grill stays on my patio year round.

If the Huntsman is out of your price range, or if you already have a Weber kettle, the Venom controller is available to add to your Weber to make it digitally fan controlled as well. For a not too expensive upgrade, you can have the features of the Huntsman for your existing Weber.

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