[Closed] Weber Electric BBQs - any good?

Used one briefly at a Weber cooking course. It works well and is easy to manage temperatures. I am biased as I believe BBQ should be something over wood or charcoal - so essentially it's an outdoor oven/grill to me, but if all you want is something to cook outdoors on it seems pretty well made and as you say, you'll never need more gas for it.

Thanks toby1 - kind of what i thought a gas bbq is essentially just an outdoor oven/grill so if the electric works and gets up to the same temperature. Then the food should taste the same. Add in a smoker box with wood chips for choice of taste.

If it was for camping then the gas version would make sense, but home and cottages electric seems ideal.

Been thinking of one for home. Seems crazy I'm burning stuff to heat food when I have a plug socket next to the current BBQ. Not sure it would work for me in the camper as don't always have hook up but I like the idea.

smoke in a barbecue comes from the fats dripping onto the hot surfaces below - which could be charcoal, but could be lava rocks or the ceramic bars on a gas BBQ too, and while I don't know the Weber electrics, maybe these as well.

If you're getting smoke from your charcoal when BBQing you're doing it wrong.

Just sayin'

So no indirect cooked food is smoked Jon (as the fat doesn't touch the heat source)? I think a large volume of bbq cooks would disagree with you, but if you are happy you are right then that's ok with me.

Smokin'

When away it would be staying at cottages rather than camping,

BBQing finally disappears up its own arse..

Here's an idea. Why not use the cottages's built in electric implement for cooking food. It's also known as a grill.

Always helpful thegeneralist..........maybe because the grill is inside

Why not use a turbo trainer rather than this outdoor cycling lark.

They work perfectly.
As a display of middle class affluence. 😀

@toby1

you're talking about smoking there which i view as a different form of cooking. You can still do something like that on gas or electric with smoker boxes, but they're work arounds, and a charcoal barbecue like a Weber kettle still isn't really a smoker.

And yes, if you are talking about proper long, low and slow barbecuing of big chunks of meat and ribs, then there is a reasonable argument that the complex gases produced by wood charcoal impart a different flavour to the simple gases from gas combustion, but still the majority of smoke flavour comes from the combustion of fats and oils rather than the fuel itself. For a steak or a burger that's on there for 10-15 mins the difference is minimal, IMHO.

And while I'm sure a large volume of folks would disagree with me, doesn't mean they are right; this subject's as old as the hills and there are also a large volume who would disagree with you.

Good article of pros and cons here....

https://amazingribs.com/ratings-reviews/how-to-buy-a-grill/charcoal-vs-gas

but still the majority of smoke flavour comes from the combustion of fats and oils rather than the fuel itself.

I use indirect heat often, where the fat doesn't drip and burn. Still tastes pretty different to an oven. But then, you'd expect that since charcoal isn't pure carbon and the combustion products aren't pure CO2.

@theotherjonv, cheers, that makes a lot more sense and yeah, my Weber is no smoker but I have managed some killer pulled pork and chickens on it 🙂

@molgrips, don't disagree if you're doing proper Southern States type BBQ'ing and cooking big hunks of meat in smokers or indirect heat for hours on end*, but being honest most british barbecue chefs are doing a few sausages and burgers on direct heat with clouds of smoke and raging flames and..... and in that situation the nuances of the wood charcoal smoke are lost in a cloud of flaming fat!

* which you can still do on gas but use a smoker box for it

A Weber that uses anything but charcoal is heresy.

Burn the heretic, over charcoal!

We used to have a similar George Foreman version. It was so easy to cook delicious juicy meat on it, less faff with coals that may or may not light and easy cleanup as well. However, it didn't have the charcoal flavour so we gave it to my parents when we bought a proper Weber charcoal grill.

I'd definitely recommend one though if you just want to cook outside, and can't be bothered with the faffing about that charcoal grills can bring into the equation.

aff with coals that may or may not light

You may well have already discovered this, but with a chimney starter this will never be a problem again 🙂