12 best charcoal BBQs for your next garden gathering

The origins of the half-drum barbecue are shrouded in mystery. OK, actually, they’re not, as clearly some poor, put-upon grill hound, who routinely had to cook for large numbers of people, realised everyone could be fed and they could be sitting down with a drink much quicker if the drum was cut in half to increase the cooking surface.

The affordable Drumbecue is a brilliant example of this uncomplicated approach to charcoal barbecuing that’s loaded with benefits.

Well-made, zero assembly and with plenty of grill to go around, it holds the heat superbly and makes it easy to control the temperature and find direct and indirect heat for different proteins. We were very happy with what came off the grill, whether that was some succulent and satisfying meat kebabs, or burgers that had a delicious charred crust, encasing juicy flesh.

Good air circulation for a barrel means that, once the coals are going, you won’t have to worry about managing the heat, and we also liked the fact the drum had a good cooking height, which meant we didn’t get a bad back after flipping burgers all afternoon.

Coming together without incident (10 steps is all it took), this grill on wheels is a good option if you want a little more than burgers and sausages but don’t want to remortgage the house to secure a new grill for the garden.

We really liked the fact it will easily serve up grub for a family of four or five, plus guests, thanks to a really big cooking area with adjustable grills, which can be lowered or raised (with the help of a heat-retardant glove) to control the cooking process.

However, it was the addition of the oven that took a lot of the stress out of our grilling session, because it was really convenient for keeping cooked food warm without having to do a mad dash through to the kitchen – it was also handy for baking garlic bread and flatbreads to go with the fiery feast.

If one of your main reasons for avoiding barbecuing over charcoal is the lighting of the coals, the Fusion has been designed to do all of the work for you, with its fast flame ignition system. This heats the coals to ignition after you’ve loaded them into the porcelain enamel firebox, and turns itself off after nine minutes, by which time, the manufacturer claims, the barbecue will be ready to go.

Give or take a minute, we can confirm this system worked an absolute charm every time. The heat was reassuringly even across the chrome grill and, although there is some management involved once the food hits the heat, the hinged grate allows good access to the coals, so you never feel things are getting out of control. This BBQ produced one of the best burgers of the testing cycle, making a gloriously juicy patty with a flavour-packed crust, although you won’t be disappointed if it’s a whole chicken you’re after (or a leg of lamb, for example) as there is an in-built rotisserie that pops out from the side of the barbecue.

All you have to do is simply clip a rod and some forks (which are stored within the barbecue) into the integrated rotisserie columns and it will slowly revolve and cook your meat over the heat.

When it comes to kettles, this is the mothership. Assembly is straightforward but it’s a workout, because the grill is absolutely huge with 6,936sq cm of cooking space.

Obviously, a barbecue this size (and this expensive) will appeal to a fairly niche group of serious searers, however, if you have just invited the entire beer garden back to yours for an impromptu barbie, the ranch will certainly keep them all fed.

The stainless steel, hinged cooking grate means you can keep adding fuel via a charcoal chimney, although it is quite a tricky process when the fire’s going.

Tool and lid holders add convenience, and the whole unit, although weighing in at 67kg, is easy to move around on some very sturdy, locking casters and all-weather wheels.

The lid and bowl are porcelain enameled and this added to the very impressive heat retention and consistent temperature for even cooking across the grate.

The enameling also means it’s rust-proof, which is probably why there is no cover available for the Ranch, but if you’re leaving it out (we’re not sure where else you would store it) you’re still going to need to think about some form of over-winter protection.

Also, cleaning takes time. Firstly, to scrub down the expansive grate and secondly to clear out the prodigious amounts of ash that will have fallen into the grill.

You know a barbecue comes from a manufacturer across the pond (Canada, to be precise) when it’s compatible with the trailer hitch of a pick-up truck.

However, assuming you’re not on your way to a tailgating party, this grill will also deliver consistently flavourful meat with the egg-shaped construction holding in the heat and smoke to influence the taste of the food.

It was very easy to get the keg to temperature (and hold it). Whether you’re looking to smoke low and slow or go for high-heat grilling, the keg will handle both processes equally well, and, for a large barbecue, it is ridiculously fuel efficient.

The cast iron cooking grid held the heat, while the secondary steel rack can swivel conveniently out of the way. Combined with an accurate thermometer, it ensured effortless cooking of the proteins and veg on the menu.

From experience, we’ve found the heat that Kamados generate can be a bit tricky to control, but the keg’s airflow dampers were precise and responsive, heating up or cooling down the firebox accordingly, to allow for some very precise cooking.

A well-sized grilling area also means no one will have to wait for their food.

This is a serious grill that will allow you to really flex your culinary muscles and showcase everything you’ve learned while bingeing all those barbecue tutorials on YouTube over the winter.

Supremely versatile, the 800 comes with grates and griddles that allow you to be both pit master and short-order cook, but what makes it so unique is the tower (or hopper) on the side of the barbecue, which houses the charcoal load and is controlled digitally, so you can set the temperature high for thin and tender foods or something less-intense for thicker cuts. A fan near the bottom of the grill then pushes this hot, smoky air into the grill, cooking food to perfection.

The cast iron grates hold the heat, so you never have to panic and feel rushed, and there are two porcelain-coated warming or smoking racks

We were up and cooking in just over 15 minutes, and the 800 made it simple to switch up the heat from low to high and back again, producing mouth-watering results and really inspiring us to cook with more confidence, because everything is totally controllable.

Once you’re done cooking, you can starve the tower of air at certain points to stop the charcoal burning any more, thus saving on fuel.

On the digital side of things, the 800 has four plug-in locations for digital meat probes and is smart enough to pair with an app that will keep you abreast of temperatures, cooking times and all the metrics required for a mouthwatering mealtime.

The original kettle kings have been refining their craft for decades, and it shows with the latest incarnation. The only problem we had with assembly was attaching the spring-loaded hinged lid, which was a little fiddly, but the effort is worth it, because it frees you up to concentrate on the grill without having to play unwanted games of lid Frisbee.

The barbecue created a nice even heat across the stainless-steel grate, which includes a cast iron insert in the middle, to ensure you can wow with nicely caramelised steaks and burgers. It really excels at lid-down roasting too, with a built-in thermometer and the ability to move the charcoal to the sides of the kettle in two baskets (overcoming the classic kettle problem of having too much heat in the middle) to provide indirect heat for a perfectly cooked bird. Ash is dumped with a simple handle pull, which also controls the vents and there’s plenty of hanging space for tools.

Assembling a cart barbecue can be a frustrating process, but some very clear instructions and well-crafted parts meant the 3500 came together easily and was sturdy when in use.

The venting was very efficient, so getting the charcoal burning wasn’t a problem. We also liked the external crank, which made it easy to raise or lower the height of the fire pan to control the amount of heat exposure and avoid incinerating any quick-cook meats.

The well-placed warming rack meant we could easily let the meat rest for five to 10 minutes before serving, and it was also useful for toasting bread. The large shelf spaces on either side of the grill came in handy for serving, and clean up was easy with a fully removable ash pan.

If you’re barbecuing for two, this eye-catching grill is perfect for tabletop or balcony cooking, because the manufacturer has taken the innovative design used in its smaller, more portable grill and applied it to a larger grate size.

Because the grill is fan assisted (powered by AA batteries), the lit charcoal is ready to cook on very quickly (on average, 10 minutes), and, because it burns quickly, there’s very little smoke, which is a real bonus if you’re cooking in a covered area.

The air is adjustable throughout, which makes for a very relaxing barbecue experience, and the cooking was even across the grill – it didn’t take long to get through some meat kebabs, which were all succulent and satisfying.

Considering it’s a smaller barbecue, with a smaller charcoal load, the LotusGrill can reach good searing temperatures, too.

You can choose between five eye-catching colours, and you can put most of the grill through the dishwasher when you’re done, to add to the Lotus’s ease-of-use credentials.

Bored of burgers? Of course you’re not, but it might be nice to mix up the menu occasionally, and, with this kettle, you can do exactly that.

It comes with an insert that sandwiches nicely between the kettle’s firebox and domed lid and takes a pizza stone that produces 14in pizzas. After an initial failure, where we were a bit too eager to get busy with the pizza paddle and the oven temperature wasn’t hot enough, we waited for the inset temperature gauge to get into the red zone and then tried again.

The mouth of the oven is sufficiently wide and high to allow easy access to the stone with the paddle and when turning, and the oven produced a pizza with a lovely, chewy crust, crispier base, bubbling cheese and well-cooked toppings.

You may need to add to the fuel load if you’re cooking more than three or four pizzas but, for a large family gathering, you’ll be able to deliver a real taste of Italy – even from a back garden in Wigan.

If red’s your colour and you like traditional Japanese Kamado cooking, which is renowned for its impressive temperature range, this entry should make you pretty happy.

We’ve tested quite a few grills from this manufacturer, and we really like the ones that include the “divide and conquer” cooking system, which splits the grate in half and tiers it, so that some of your food is always closer to the charcoal – so you can ensure those chicken drumsticks are ready at the same time as the veg kebabs. It also made it much easier to cook with direct and indirect heat, which is important if you’re cooking your chicken bone-in, where the direct heat browns the skin and the indirect heat finishes it off.

The dome isn’t as unwieldy as in other kamados we got hands-on with, and the heavily insulated walls made the grill fuel-efficient and took the stress out of temperature control, so we could smoke, sear and, in particular, roast joints of meat, which is where the Joe really excelled.

Managing the food on the grill was simple, the slide-out ash drawer adds to the easy cooking experience and the cast iron cart means it moves around well on a level patio or deck.

One of the main advantages of an upright oil drum grill is that you get a lot of cooking surface for a relatively small footprint and that’s exactly the case with the Drumbecue. With minimal setup, you can get straight to cooking on this no-nonsense grill that’s very effective at searing a lot of food, very quickly, without having to worry about your quality control. It produced consistently juicy, crusty burgers seared nicely over the grill’s hot spot and there was another bonus in that there was a good overlap between the rim of the drum and where the grate actually sits, so we didn’t have to worry about losing our sausages over the side if we got overly ambitious with our tongs.