11 best gas BBQs to buy for every budget and garden

Score: 92/100

The ultimate gas griller for this summer is Weber’s latest model. The large, three-burner grill has a dedicated ‘Sear Burner’ – essentially a power booster – for when you want to achieve those all-important grill and sear marks on your meat.

This breezed through all our tests, delivering perfectly cooked, juicy burgers, steak that was finished better than anything we could manage in a frying pan, and a whole roast chicken that was moist and tender. The only thing we could fault was the sausages, which weren’t as evenly browned due to the size of the grill bars – but that’s us being picky. A built-in digital thermometer makes cooking easier too.

There’s no denying its size, and its weight means you’ll probably want to find a permanent home for it. However, considering its price and fantastic performance, it’s a grill you’ll want to show off and put to good use at every opportunity.

Score: 91/100

This BBQ aced our tests, impressing with its ease of assembly and four burners that allow you to create different temperature zones and cook various foods at once. The grills also have built-in infrared technology, ensuring even heat distribution.

Unsurprisingly, all our food was expertly cooked – it scored full marks for its moist-yet-charred chicken and speedy steak. It is sizeable but has a side hob that offers an additional cooking surface and in-built gas storage.

The lid’s temperature gauge is easy to read, as are the control knobs, and the handle remained cool to the touch throughout. But opening and closing the lid does require some strength, as it’s on the heavy side. Given its top-notch culinary skills, however, the effort is likely worth it.

Score 91/100

An excellent crowd-feeder, this five-burner BBQ has multiple cooking zones and uniform heat distribution, which produced pleasing results. It scored full marks cooking corn on the cob, vegetable kebabs and steak, and only dropped one mark on our sausage and burger tests. The accompanying rotisserie accessory also shone, cooking our chicken perfectly in under two hours.

This model requires mains electricity, as do its built-in LED lights, limiting where it can be positioned. Arriving pre-built, you can also choose to buy this BBQ integrated into one of Whistler’s outdoor kitchens. The stainless steel design shows up dirt easily and it can get fiddly to clean, but overall this is a premium buy.

Score: 90/100

Available in a variety of colours, this BBQ can match your garden furniture. But that’s not all, it’s versatile too – as well as four gas burners it has a charcoal basket, and you can remove the central griddle and cook with the likes of a wok instead. Because of this, you’ll need to take care when cleaning, as our tester found the plate could dislodge easily and fall into the burners.

We liked its large control knobs, removable cutting board, built-in shelves, tool hooks and the magnetic bottle opener. But note that you’ll need to store the gas canister separately.

The food itself? Well, its porcelain hood allowed for entirely even heat distribution across the grill, so everything cooked well. In fact, it produced the best vegetable kebabs of all the BBQs we tested.

Score 87/100

Another excellent BBQ, this portable design will work well for small gardens or avid campers. Fitting the gas canister was simple – it’s only compatible with Campingaz’ own canisters though – while the removable grill plates make cleaning easy.

Built-in handholds help with carrying its 13kg weight, while its small stature didn’t limit its cooking capabilities. Its large temperature gauge was clearly readable and although you can’t create cooking zones, its one burner was powerful enough to distribute heat evenly. Meat-free burgers, chicken and steaks cooked best.

Score: 84/100

This gas BBQ comes with a more affordable price tag than the other Char-Broil model on our list, but it deserves attention. Three burners, plus a side burner and side tables for preparing food, offer plenty of space for grilling a feast for up to six people. This model also features ‘TRU-Infrared Technology’, which the brand claims will make your food up to 50% juicier.

On test, we found cooking took some getting used to. The infrared technology involves a metal plate under the grill to distribute heat more quickly and evenly, but if you’re not used to the tech and don’t have one of our best smart meat thermometers on hand, you run the risk of overcooking your food. After a few goes, however, we achieved meat with good char marks that was also full of flavour.

Score: 82/100

A good choice if you’re after a medium-sized BBQ. This is big enough to feed a family and will fit in most gardens. The wooden-effect shelving will coordinate nicely with wooden outdoor furniture too, but it doesn’t fold down, so you’ll need a decent-sized shed or garage to stow it in.

With three burners, you can create different cooking zones and we found the grill had good heat distribution. That said, there were some inconsistencies with cooking on test. Our sausages didn’t brown uniformly, for example, suggesting some cold spots. Once you familiarise yourself with the grill, however, you’ll find where to place food for optimum results. It cleaned up nicely and is great value for money.

Note, its two wheels don’t lock, so we suggest giving it a miss if your garden slopes.

Score: 82/100

This large six-burner BBQ is a great piece of kit for summer entertaining. Its grill measures just shy of a metre wide, making it easy to prepare a feast’s worth of food – and to keep your meat separate from your veggies.

Speaking of the food, this BBQ excelled at cooking burgers (both regular and meat free), leaving great char marks and plenty of juiciness inside. Our chicken breasts were similarly tasty. Our testers also liked the handy side burners for preparing a variety of sides.

It wasn't all fine dining, though – sausages charred unevenly, while steak became fairly dry. A couple of practice runs before your first party should get you used to the grill’s quirks though. And cleaning was easy, so you can catch up with guests rather than standing over the BBQ for any longer than necessary.

Score: 79/100

Frequent campers, meet your new sidekick. This one-burner has a portable frame that pops up easily thanks to a pull and lock mechanism. Plus, the compact frame should fit into most car boots (although compare the measurements if you have a small car) for easy transportation to the great outdoors.

It cooks well too. Our beef burgers were nicely seared with moisture locked in, and our chicken breasts were deliciously succulent. Sausages were more inconsistent though; while they cooked beautifully inside, they didn’t char evenly. Our testers other cooking complaint was a lack of rendered fat on the sirloin steaks, but that’s a small niggle.

Note, the lid became quite hot on test, so watch your hands and always use the dedicated handle. Be sure to allow time for the BBQ to cool down before hitting the road again too.

Score: 79/100

Despite being one of the cheapest BBQs on this list, our testers were cheered by its easy-to-use controls and good cooking ability. Its most impressive performance came with our sirloin steaks which were seared and cooked to a beautiful medium-rare consistency, whereas sausages, veggies and chicken breasts were all succulent but lacking consistent colour.

Our expert also liked the side burner, which provided ample room for cooking sauces or preparing side dishes. However, there's no storage space for the gas canister when the BBQ isn’t in use and we’d recommend purchasing a cover if you're planning to store the BBQ outside to keep it in pristine condition for longer. A great buy for small gardens and households.

Score: 76/100

At under £220, this is a fantastic pick for an affordable family BBQ. Assembly took almost two hours and was a little fiddly, but once built, the burner was quick to ignite, and the grill quickly reached a good cooking temperature.

Meaty sausages and burgers cooked well but our veggie alternatives lacked crispiness. The temperature of the BBQ fluctuated quite a bit when cooking a whole chicken too, which meant we had to monitor its progress throughout the hour and 20-minute cooking time. We’d also have liked each of the four burners to have separate ignition points, but this isn’t a deal breaker.

Once we’d served up our feast, the removable three-piece grill was easy to clean, and the two castor wheels made it easy to store the BBQ away.