The best gas barbecues for 2019

Grilling season has arrived and whether you're buying the ultimate Father's Day gift, upgrading your own grill, or just getting started, there are many options available at your local home improvement store. There are charcoal barbecues, pellets, gas barbecues and smokers. Choose the best grill can be overwhelming.

We're putting together six of the best-selling grills you can buy now at CNET Smart Home to help you find the one that's right for you. Twelve squares of spare ribs, 18 whole chickens and 96 hamburgers later, here is how it was shaken.

Read more: The best way to clean gas grills and grills | Become a grill master: 5 tips for a better barbecue

Disclosure: CNET may obtain a share of the proceeds from the sale of the products presented on this page.

Other grills we tested

CNET Smart Home publishers have been providing grill data for a few years now. In addition to the models above, here are the other gas barbecues we tested:

• Weber Spirit II E-310: Weber's largest Spirit II model includes three burners and is also compatible with iGrill. However, this accessory costs $ 100 and this basic model with three burners already costs $ 449.
• Char-Broil Performance XL Last year, the $ 299 Performance XL was our first choice because of its exceptional performance and reasonable price, but this five-burner model (# 463243518) is no longer available on the website of Char- Broil nor at Lowe's, although the Char-Broil told me that a nearly identical model was replacing it.
• Char-Broil Double Business Header: This $ 700 barbecue is a good choice if you are looking for a large capacity. Four burners, two separate fireplaces and a side burner allow you to be ready for any crown.
• Broil King Baron S520 (not available): The Baron S520 tended to heat up in our tests and we ended up burning food too often. You will not have any additional items, such as side burners or temperature probes, and this does not appear to be available on the Broil King website.
• KitchenAid 720-0891C: KitchenAid's style and color options are impressive, but the performance of this two-burner grill has been disappointing in all three tests. If you are looking for a two-burner grill, the Weber Spirit II E-210 is a better choice.
• Char-Broil Signature Series 4-Burner This well-built and practical Char-Broil model was in the middle of the road during our tests. It comes with plenty of cooking space, a side burner and cabinet doors. If you are a Char-Broil grill fan, this model is a safe bet, but there are better grills of other brands priced at $ 500.

How we test

To get an idea of ​​how these grills work in various cooking scenarios, we perform three tests. Based on different meats, methods and heat settings, these tests show us the efficiency and regularity of grilling.

Ribs

Our first test is the ribs. It is an anecdotal tour, so there is no temperature probe or software capturing specific data. We preheat each grill on high for 10 minutes before reducing to low indirect fire. Depending on the size of the grill, this means that one or two burners must be completely extinguished.

We remove the outer membrane on a Saint-Louis style rib cage and we wipe it with an all purpose scrub that we use for ribs and chicken. Then the ribs are placed on an aluminum foil and roasted for three hours.

Lovers of spare ribs may not agree with this relatively short, smoke-free cooking method, but it allows us to see how much an ordinary grill can cook on low heat. Even with the three hour cooking time that can be discussed, the ribs at the end of the test can be tender and juicy.

A blind tasting test conducted by five selfless and dedicated colleagues (and certainly not just for free food) gives a ranked list with the lowest scoring grid having been declared a winner. We repeated this test twice, you know, for science.

chicken

To test the grill with medium cooking time and medium heat settings, we grill an entire chicken. We preheat the grill on high for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium and turn off the burners to create an indirect heat environment.

Once we have cut and seasoned the bird, we place it in a roasting pan and insert a temperature probe into each chicken breast, for a total of two probes per chicken. For our results to be as accurate as possible, all chickens are as close as possible to 5.5 pounds.

These temperature probes are connected to a data logger and laptop computer with software that records the internal temperature of each chicken breast every two seconds. Each chicken cooks until the temperature in both breasts reaches a food safety level of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

The well-grilled chicken should have crispy skin and fully cooked but not dry meat. This test is done in three rounds, giving us a solid average cooking time for each grill.

Hamburgers

Burgers are our final test of the grill. We measure 5.3 ounces of 80/20 ground beef and roll them into uniform slabs. These slabs enter a grill basket and we insert a temperature probe at the center of each slab at a 45 degree angle.

When the grill is preheated for 10 minutes, the basket goes on the grill. After six minutes of cooking, we return the basket and monitor the internal temperature. Once the last hamburger in the basket has reached 145 degrees, the batch is over. A good hamburger in this test is one that has both a beautiful outdoor character and a slightly pink center.

The burger test highlights hot spots on the grill's cooking surface if a burger consistently reaches 145 before each other at every turn.

An average difference of 15 or 20 degrees between the fastest and slowest patties of a lot was the norm in our tests. The red flags are raised when we start to see differences in the range of 30 to 40 degrees. In this group of grills, only the Royal Gourmet gave us a real hot spot problem.

A closer look at the specifications

The comparison of these gas barbecues is not limited to apples. With different grill sizes and BTU levels, a different performance is expected. However, there are some observations to make.

Our test data highlights how quickly a grill can cook with its medium or high setting. This does not mean that each grill is set to the same preheated temperature. It simply means that we turned the knobs so that each grid indicated to be a medium heat.

The table below compares the average cooking time of each chicken for chicken and hamburgers in three identical tests.

Average cooking times

	Char-Broil Double Business Header	Char-Broil Signature Series 4 Burners	Dyna-Glo DGB390SNP-D	Dyna-Glo DGE486GSP-D	KitchenAid 720-0891C	Royal Gourmet GG3201	Weber Spirit II E-210	Weber Spirit II E-310
chicken	94 min.	75 min.	86 min.	113 min.	103 min.	73 min.	117 min.	80 min.
Hamburgers	14 min., 2 sec.	14 min., 54 sec.	12 min.	14 min., 45 sec.	15 min., 4 sec.	9 min., 35 sec.	13 min., 26 sec.	15 min., 44 sec.

If speed is not your deciding factor, fear nothing. There are other features you can compare to choose the grill that's right for you.

Exactly which one is it? It depends on your cooking style. If you cook frequently for large groups, you will need a grill with a large main cooking surface, a grill and a side burner. If you plan to use your grill to spill some hamburgers from time to time, opt for a smaller or cheaper model.

Looking for a small model that does the job? The compact size and bright color options of KitchenAid make it a solid and stylish choice. If you want to use this side burner and enough power, the commercial double collector Char-Broil allows you. Otherwise, I refer you to my first choice this year: the Dyna-Glo burner with 4 burners (DGE486GSP-D).

Check out this chart to compare size, power, warranty and more.

Compared gas grills

	Char-Broil Double Business Header	Char-Broil Signature Series 4 Burners	Dyna-Glo DGB390SNP-D	Dyna-Glo DGE486GSP-D	KitchenAid 720-0891C	Royal Gourmet GG3201	Weber Spirit II E-210	Weber Spirit II E-310
Price	$ 749	$ 500	$ 329	$ 449	$ 279	$ 200	$ 349	$ 449
Dimensions (HxWxD) inches	47.8×66.3×23.5	46.2×55.2×27.5	45.7×49.6×23.0	47.0×51.2×24.6	44.69×48.03×21.46	44.9×48.8×22.4	44.5×48.0x27.0	44.5×52.0x27.0
Weight in pounds.)	215	143	77.8	101.5	72	89.3	103	114
BTU of the main burner	36,000	30,000	36,000	40,000	26,000	36,000	26,500	30,000
Side burner	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	no
guarantee	Burner: 10 years Firebox: 3 years Other: 1 year	Burner: 10 years Firebox: 3 years Other: 1 year	Burners: 5 years Other: 1 year	Burners: 5 years Other: 1 year	Burner: 10 years Firebox: 3 years Other: 1 year	1 year	10 years	10 years
Main cooking space (in²)	650	530	507	486	332	413	360	424