Weber One-Touch Charcoal Grill Review
The Weber One Touch Charcoal Grill is perfect for those of you who enjoy a simple backyard charcoal fired barbeque, but who also don’t need an elaborate, say, $1,500 to $2,000 grill.
This grill is a great choice that lands somewhere between high-powered outdoor gourmet cooking –and an easy-going cook-out of some steaks, burgers, kebabs or corn cobs.
That’s not to say you’ll necessarily be limited to just basic grilling with the Weber One-Touch Gold. It’s no more grill than you need, and so you don’t pay for more than you want.
However, the large cooking area still allows you to get creative with your backyard culinary creations. One gets the feeling they’re getting a little more for their money for a grill of this price range.
The Brilliant design features of the Weber One-Touch grill set
it apart from all the others
But what really made this product stand out for us are some clever and convenient functional design extras, which have also drawn some rave reviews from other users – and we’re going to tell you about those cool extras just a bit later in this review.
Of course, the One-Touch Gold is a Weber product, a company legendary for its superior customer service and support, as well as an almost obsessive commitment to quality. Indeed, the Weber philosophy is demonstrated in the design of this basic and affordable grill. The bottom line is that it will do exactly what you want it to do – cook up sizzling, mouth-watering steaks, juicy burgers, savory brats or even roast a bird to succulent perfection.
Classic design with strong and robust build quality
The Weber One-Touch Gold is constructed from high-grade steel enameled with porcelain. Porcelain is among the most durable and weather-resistant substances known to man. This grill is designed to handle all weather conditions. It would take years to show signs of rust and wear, even if left outside and uncovered.
Although a cover is never a bad idea, unless you keep inside a garage or shed – view the One-Touch cover hear.
Weber engineers bake on the porcelain enamel at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning the frequent use of high heat charcoal will never eat through the lower bowl or lid, and never peel or flake the finish. The porcelain-on-steel construction also allows heat to radiate evenly throughout the cooking area, giving you the best chance to get your food cooked to perfection, without a lot of turning or repositioning.
The Large Cooking Area – Perfect For Back-Yard Cook-Outs
The expansive 22.5-inch cooking area will accommodate six large steaks, or twice as many burger patties. You can also easily fit a good sized chicken or a decent-sized turkey on the surface and have room to cover it with a lid and brazing a dozen kebobs at once is easily possible with this grill. Needless to say, you’ll have room or can make room for corn on the cob, potatoes, and vegetables while you also grill meat.
Speaking of the grill itself, it’s nickel-plated, which helps keep food-stickage problems to an absolute minimum. The grills are easy to clean with a brass-wire brush or can be removed and cleaned with warm water.
Nickel-plated steel is highly resistant to rust and wear, giving these grates many years of maintenance free use. They’ll endure a rigorous scrubbing, so you can avoid health issues from leftover food or grease, or damaging your grill with an extra thorough cleaning. The grill also has two hinged side openings – this makes it super easy and convenient to add more charcoal briquettes while you are cooking.
When the lid is not is use, it can hang from a side hook – again, highly convenient because you don’t have to set the lid down somewhere else, such as on the ground or some other surface. The whole unit functions together as a singular unit.
The Weber One-Touch Gold is configured with aluminum vents which absolutely will not rust – ever – and which have smooth movement for opening and closing so you can control heat levels with ease.
This sturdy Grill Gives You Simplified Cooking Without It Shaking & Wobbling
Now, this is a classic tripod-base design, but it proves to be extremely study and stable, unlike some cheaper, generic tripod grills. Weber engineers have given the aluminum legs of this product just the right expanse to make it stay in place in rock solid fashion with no shaking while you’re cooking.
Because it is a tripod, it’s easy to simply tilt up the unit and wheel around for easy movement. The wheels themselves are all-weather and solid. They won’t jam up or fall off. Some have voiced the mild complaint that the wheels are plastic, rather than rubber, but they still roll along nicely and allow for easy maneuvering of your grill should you need to.
The Weber One-Touch Gold also sports an ingeniously-designed ash catcher made of aluminum, and even though it is handling hot ash deposits, users report that this ash bin is remarkably resistant to wear, damage — and simply will not rust!
Convenient extras that’ll make your life easier
The ash catcher brings us to some of the other handy extras of the One-Touch that make this a nifty little grill that’s a pleasure to use.
The “One-Touch” refers to the simple cleaning system. You know what it’s like with most basic grills of similar design – getting rid of the old ashes is a hassle.
You either have to scoop out the ash, or tilt the entire unit over to cast the burned remains of the charcoal in the trash, or some convenient out-of-the-way location on the ground. (You hope it’s not a windy day.)
Sometimes you have to knock on the vent with a trawl or other tool. You get ash on your clothing, maybe even a little dust flying into your face.
The Weber One-Touch system eliminates all that.
Simple and clean ash removal is a real winner for this grill
All you do is manipulate a lever system which sifts ashes with a set of dull blades. The ashes fall down and out into the ash catcher. All that’s left is to remove the ash-catcher and dump. You won’t even get your hands dirty, unless you really try to!
The One-Touch ash removal system eliminates one of the small annoyances of grilling with charcoal. The ash catcher is certainly a thoughtful and handy design feature, solves a huge clean-up problem and simply puts this grill into a class of its own.
You’ll also appreciate the handles – again, maybe a small thing – but attention to detail goes a long way with any product. The handles are glass-enforced nylon. The fact is, you’ll be using the handles a lot to move the grill or take the lid on an off. You won’t need gloves because nylon stays conveniently cool to the touch. They’re strong and not likely to break for any reason.
We already mentioned them briefly, but it’s worth mentioning again some of these extra design touches: the hinged grill grates come in handier than you might expect, the convenient lid hanger is a small joy, and the solid feel of this unit never makes you think the grill is going shake apart as you move it around – or transport it to a park or parking lot for some tailgating!
How does it stack up against similar grill models?
As you might guess, the Weber One-Touch Gold is similar to its sister unit, the One-Touch Gold 18.5-inch. How significant is the size difference? Well, in terms of pure numbers, what we have is a larger grill with a total of 363 square inches of cooking space compared to 240 square inches for the smaller model.
Does it make that much difference? The reality is that the seemingly small difference is quite significant. The One-Touch Gold 22.5, in effect, has 75% more total cooking space. That means you can get a much bigger bird to enclose completely in the larger unit, in addition to a few more steaks and burgers on the surface, longer kebobs, etc.
Is that the worth the price difference of about $20 or $30? We think most people will conclude that having the greater cooking surface area and overall volume is well worth the price. However, much depends on the individual needs of the griller.
Consider this: You may be in a situation in which you have less room. For example, perhaps you live in an apartment with only a small outdoor balcony to work with. In this case, you may appreciate the slightly more compact size of the Weber One-Touch Gold 18.5. This also makes it easier to transport – another important aspect to consider.
At 26 pounds, the 18.5-inch model is about 10 pounds less to lift than the 22.5 incher. It stands just over 20 inches high and is 14.6 inches wide. The larger unit stands 24 inches high and is almost 15 inches wide.
Both grills bear the same high build quality, sturdy construction, the convenient ash-removal system and all the rest. It’s basically the same grill, just smaller. One more thing: You can only get the smaller unit in black, whereas the Weber One-Touch Gold 22.5-inch model comes in green, dark blue and black.
Note: Neither of these grills has a thermometer as does the Weber One-Touch Gold 26.75-inch model. For some, this is a rather serious drawback to both the 18.5 and the 22.5 – to most, however, a thermometer on an outdoor grill is unnecessary. Also, the lack of thermometer can be remedied by using a hand-held or stand-alone thermometer which you can purchase in any hardware store.
These handy options will help you to get even more out of this grill
There are some optional accessories that don’t come with the Weber One-Touch Gold kettle grill, but you may want to consider a few of these because it will enhance considerably the pleasure of using this already simple product. In brief:
Chimney Starter
Don’t ever use charcoal fuel lighter again. It’s dangerous and can add a petroleum taint to the food. Consider the Weber Rapidfire Chimney starter to get your coals going fuel free, more safely and just as fast. You will definitely not regret switching to the chimney starter method. You’ll never need to buy fuel again. It will pay for itself easily in saved lighter-fluid cost.
Cover
The One-Touch Gold is one of the most weather-resistant grills we’ve ever reviewed. And even though it is a fairly low-cost product, you still may want to protect this gem with a Premium Kettle Cover designed specifically to fit this grill.
Work Table
Once you use the optional work table with the Weber One-Touch, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. It just makes it super convenient to set down tools, spices, plates which you are using to do your grilling.
Rotisserie
Weber makes a 22.5-inch rotisserie device designed to fit and work with the One-Touch beautifully. Many users report adding the rotisserie makes this grill “twice the grill” – they love it that much. It is an optional extra but definitely give the rotisserie strong consideration and purchase at the same time as the grill.
What others are saying about the Weber One-Touch Gold
An extensive and objective review of nearly 300 online reviews of the Weber One-Touch Gold reveals the highest 5-star rating among some 95% of all reviewers. The most frequent comments of highest satisfaction revolve around the solid, quality feel of the product, but the super-easy ash removal system gets a lot of mentions and rave reviews. Just about all agree that food cooks evenly, steaks and burgers don’t dry out, and birds and kebobs get cooked evenly and to perfection.
Most said assembly was super easy – about 15 to 20 minutes even for the mechanically challenged. It’s fairly light weight at just less than 36 pounds.
Most of the complaints surround ancillary aspects associated with the grill, such as parts missing when receiving the product after being shipped. Some complained of dented kettles or chipping/flaking on the finish –although Weber generally will agree to replace any flawed or missing part under its service/warranty plan. By the way, this product comes with a 10-year limited warranty.
SUMMARY
The Weber One-Touch Gold is your basic, simple, All-American backyard barbecue kettle grill. It may look more or less the same as generic brands that sell for a fraction of the cost in major retail stores, but the average price of around $150 is easily well worth the superior construction quality you get, the rock-solid stable design, the high-quality nickel-plated grills and the truly helpful extras — especially the easy ash removal — that round out this product.
This is a basic but affordable barbeque and sure to give you years of simple fun and effective back yard charcoal cooking.
