Best Grills

Our Editor’s Choice — all-stainless build, a 40-lb hopper, 700°F searing, and a 6-year warranty for less than a comparable Traeger.

The Recteq RT-700 “Bull” is our Editor’s Choice — the pellet grill that out-builds Traeger on nearly every spec for similar money. Where most pellet grills use powder-coated steel, the RT-700 is built from roughly 70 pounds of marine-grade 304 stainless throughout, so it resists the rust and warping that age cheaper grills. Add a huge 40-lb hopper (40+ hours of unattended smoking), a genuine 700°F sear ceiling, rock-steady PID WiFi control, two meat probes, and a 6-year warranty, and it undercuts comparable Traeger Ironwood models by hundreds. The trade-offs are minor: it’s heavy, sold direct-only, and its app is less polished than Traeger’s.

The benchmark gas grill — even heat, a 750°F sear zone, and a 12-year warranty that helps it last 15–20 years.

The Weber Genesis E-325 is the benchmark premium gas grill and the safe “buy it once” choice. Three PureBlu burners deliver class-leading even heat across 513 square inches, a dedicated sear-zone burner hits 750°F+ for steakhouse crust, and the whole thing is backed by one of the longest warranties in grilling (12 years on the cookbox) and Weber’s unmatched parts ecosystem — the reason these grills routinely last 15–20 years. The honest caveats: at $949 it’s a clear step up from entry grills, the base model has no side burner, and being gas, it can’t deliver wood-smoke flavor.

The most capable ceramic grill out of the box — Divide & Conquer, a SloRoller smoking insert, and a cart all included.

The Kamado Joe Classic III is the most capable ceramic kamado out of the box — and the one that out-engineered the Big Green Egg. It ships complete with a cart, side shelves, and a stack of genuinely useful hardware: a 3-tier Divide & Conquer system that doubles the cooking surface and enables multi-zone cooks, a Kontrol Tower vent that holds its setting when you lift the lid, a Harvard-designed SloRoller insert for offset-quality smoke, and a multi-panel firebox that resists the cracking that plagues single-piece kamados. The catch is price: at around $2,199 with the cart it’s the most expensive grill here, and it’s heavy with more parts to manage.

The iconic buy-it-for-life kamado — grills, smokes, bakes, and sears, with a lifetime ceramic warranty (budget for the accessories).

The Big Green Egg Large is the iconic ceramic kamado — a genuinely buy-it-for-life cooker that grills, smokes, bakes, and sears with equal skill and lasts decades. Its thick high-fired ceramic retains heat and sips charcoal, the lifetime ceramic warranty backs it, and no grill has a bigger accessory-and-community ecosystem. The honest caveats keep it just behind the Kamado Joe: it’s sold dealer-only with no set MSRP, its single-piece interior lacks the Kamado Joe’s multi-level system, and essentials like the heat deflector and a stand or table are extra — so the real cost runs well above the egg-only price.

The easiest set-and-forget pellet smoker with the best app — but a rust-prone build and short warranty, so buy it on sale.

The Traeger Pro 780 is the easiest on-ramp to wood-pellet barbecue: set-and-forget cooking, automatic pellet feeding, and the best app in the category, from the brand that invented the pellet grill. For a beginner who wants to put a brisket on and watch it from their phone, it’s genuinely the friendliest choice. But it’s also our lowest-scoring grill here, and honestly so — its powder-coated steel body can rust, it tops out around 450–500°F so it can’t really sear, it carries only a 3-year warranty, and the auger and controller are documented weak points. At $999.99 you’re paying for the app and brand more than the hardware.