The old charcoal B&Q BBQ didn’t survive the move to Guernsey so need to buy a new one.

What’s the consensus on Charcoal v Gas. I know gas will be easier, cleaner etc, but will food taste as good?

Also any recommendations on makes? I’ve only ever bought cheap ones in the past but expect to be cooking outside lots this summer, so don’t mind splashing the cash – if the quality is justified.

charcoal and get a webber
just doing a roast chicken in mine at the moment , and about to chuck the spuds in

Gas and get an outback!
since swapping to gas we bbq so much more cos its miles easier than faffing with charcoal

charcoal everytime.

I used a webber proper bbq for years and they are brilliant, but I used a webber gas bbq one year on holiday and well they are so easy and the results are not as er good as the charcol kettle but not far off and easyer mmmmmmmmmmmmmm spit roast chicken boootiful

Needless to say after 15 years when my old kettle finally fell apart I bought a gas webber

Webber….hmm beer can chicken!

There are some very cheap charcoal BBQ’s at B&Q, one for around £9 which doesn’t look too bad, although is made from quite flimsy metal. Actually having said that so are the Webbers, I made all the displays in the store I worked at, and after a week it started wobbling about (the three-legged ones), and bolts would not tighten properly as the metal was very thin and rounded off easily.

Heart says charcoal, brain unfortunately says gas!

I was dead against gas BBQs until we used a friend’s one. As above, we now have loads more coz it’s sooo much easier.

if you go with gas one, get some cherry flavoured wood chippings (and lava rock of course), at least it brings back some taste and flavour which is otherwise lost.

which ever way you go get a Webber they are the best honest

I have still got a small smokey joe after 20 years. My big Kettle was left outside for 15 years before it fell apart, and the gas one I have now I will have for years to come

Gas for me also. Check out bbq.co.uk for some goood quality kit. I also use it in the depths of winter and just stick on my bike helmet with light.

We had a gas, it is good, and as said easier and less faf. Plus you have more control over the temperature, but you just dont get the taste. So we’ve gone back to a good old mr charcoal barbie…

WEBER all the way (without the extra ‘b’ all the above posters have included). Great bits of kit – you get what you pay for. I’ve a Q220 & Genesis Gold B. Getting a smokey mountain next.

another vote for weber here – big enough for home small enough for camping trips and built to last forever

Webber Gas B-B-Q all year, all weather amazing performance

weber , gas , i am a convert from charcoal, and the advantages are numerous. Also avoid outback if you want to build it and use it in the same day! Webers are easy to assemble, easy to cook with and easy to clean and you could do all that in the time it would take you to build an outback! For me gas is now the way to go as you can be cooking on it within 10 mins and as the cooking is done with the lid down it does not matter if you suffer with british bbq weather! The burners work in two ways direct or indirect so you can even roast like an oven, but with bbq taste. Cant praise it enough, model is spirit approx £250 plus gas etc good luck and i’ll have a sardine!

c’mon, charcoal. homemade jobby. you dont need to spend loads of money and you’ll love it all the more. bbqing is about the whole experience, not just switching the gas on an off you go. mine’s an old metal sink with a grill that i found somewhere. have a stack of bricks on which it reside and can also chuck it in the car easily enough when i go camping.

£250 for a bbq 😯 no thanks…

I bought a gas BBQ after living in Oz for a year and figuring the only way to frequently use it was the convenience factor of gas.

Initially tried buying one from a website called flamingbarbecues.co.uk but would recommend you stay away as it seems to be run by IWH (show stock, take money, don’t deliver, excuses excuses). AVOID.

I eventually bought a Leisuregrow 3 burner flatbed from a place on the A414 near London Colney and I’m well pleased. EDIT – I’m pretty sure these are the ones that John Lewis sell as their own brand product.

Which reminds me – I need to clean the bugger 🙁

Weber gas here after years of charcoal. Not convinced it tastes any worse but have a lot more bbqs now and temp is much more controllable.

Charcoal. Using a gas BBQ is just like hauling your cooker outside. I’m an old romantic, it may be more hassle, but charcoal is always better.

>Charcoal. Using a gas BBQ is just like hauling your cooker outside<

Quite – here endeth the lesson…

Charcoal as it just smell better.

Charcoal, tastes and smells better. A gas one is just taking a gas grill outside.Half of the fun of a BBQ is setting it up, lighting it and the smell and feeling you just dont get when you use a gas one.

Weber charcoal, light it with a hot air gun (for paint stripping) – ready to cook with in 5 minutes.

so to sum up if you only want to talk about how good life was and spend 5 hrs cooking your food get charcoal if not get gas it works and its fast and controlable and cleaner Weber Q’s are good or just one of the big 4 burner jobs should do. A gas convert since coming to Oz.

BTW if you think cheap charcoal improves the flavour of your food try learning to cook nicer food!

Charcoal, I fail to see what the faff is.

We have a gas one because that seems to be the easiest option and over summer we cooked on it basically for 7 weeks ! Couldn;t be faffed with a charcoal one being used that much !

BTW if you think cheap charcoal improves the flavour of your food try learning to cook nicer food!

Excellent plan. I’ll remember to add a load of hickory flavoured chemicals into my burgers next time.

🙄

Well we had a webber charcoal for years and it was solid and reliable, then we got a cheap gas one that lasted about a year but was much simpler to keep clean etc, so when that went we got an outback and its still going strong 4 years later.

We started off with a gas BBQ years ago for home use, but after using some of those disposable “instant” charcoal BBQ-in-a-tray things on camping trips, we’ve gone back to charcoal. Got a good deal on a Weber kettle BBQ which shoudl last for years.

Gas just can’t compete on flavour with a charcoal BBQ, not even in the same league. Plus the challenge of not destroying your food is part of the charm of BBQing for me 😀

>so to sum up if you only want to talk about how good life was and spend 5 hrs cooking your food get charcoal<

Err no…

You’re obviously a failed charcoal barbecuer – no need to blame your shortcomings on the rest of us 😉

They both have their place. I use the Weber Charcoal to roast and when we have people over. During the week I use the gas for ‘cooking outdoors’ as it is faster and cleaner. Overall I use the gas more, but if you want a nice BBQ roast chicken or leg of lamb, nothing beats charcoal for flavour.

In short if the budget can fit it, buy both.

I don’t get the whole ‘tastes better’ thing with charcoal – the smokey flavour comes from the fat from the food dripping onto a hot element, or coals, and burning. So you get pretty much the same flavour from both. Food tastes great on both, and I doubt I’d be able to tell a steak cooked on coals from one cooked on gas, and I’d guess most other people wouldn’t either. If you can, good for you.

Anyway, I guess my views changed once I moved away from the UK. There, we only had BBQs a few times a year, maybe ten at most, and a big part of the fun is lighting the coals, and getting a satisfyingly smug feeling when you get a nice tray of perfect-for-cooking coals half an hour or so later.

But, here in NZ we tend to cook on the bbq most evenings in the summer, and do the odd breakfast and lunch too at weekends. Faffing with coals lost the novelty value it had back in the UK, it’s much easier to just fire up the gas.

Don’t get me wrong, I love lighting fires, I have the little pyromaniac inside me like most not-quite-as-mature-as-they-should-be blokes do 🙂 – gas is just less hassle when you’re BBQing most days.

As for the whole ‘drag your kitchen outside’ comment – yep, absolutely. On a gorgeous Saturday/Sunday morning, would you rather prepare your pre-ride bacon butties out in the garden in the sunshine, or in your kitchen, looking out of the window at the lovely weather outside? You certainly wouldn’t go to the hassle of lighting a charcoal BBQ to cook a couple of rashers, but you can do it with gas as easily as you could with the grill indoors.

So in conclusion, I reckon food tastes great on both, charcoal is more fun for once-in-a-while BBQs, but gas rules if you’re cooking outdoors regularly. Here endeth my 2p worth.

Spot on WillH. The other thing to mention is you should always BBQ with the lid shut so that the smoke from the burning fat gets infused back into the food.

“Fancy a barbie”
“Yeah go on then”
“You get the food ready and i will light it”
Into garage to get a bag of instant light charcoal
Throw match onto bag and relax.
“Foods ready”
Put food on barbie

Where is the hastle?

Charcoal for me but they have some amazing looking gas bbqs in Costco

Charcoal for me but they have some amazing looking gas bbqs in Costco

Oh hell yeah, huge shiny ****!

gas is’nt a bbq, its a cooker.

i use one of these and have done for years…

https://www.heritage-homeandgarden.co.uk/product_info.php?language=en&products_id=4944

but 32quid is silly, the same ones can be had for 8quid or so from morrisons etc.

Charcoal all day long. Weber, of course.

Christmas goose done in the Weber is a thing of utter joy.

willh is correct – the BBQ flavour comes from the hot fat on the coals smoking and drifting back up on to the food

lighting a “real” BBQ is fun – but the improvement in flavour is largely all in your mind I’m afraid people