Weber Original Kettle 22-Inch Charcoal Grill

A classic design that gives one many options to cook with; direct heat, indirect heat, smoke, low and slow, or hot and fast. This grill can do it all. 10 year warranty is a nice touch. With proper care I hope to get twenty years of service. It’s like the one my dad had with only a few minor differences such as polycarbonate handles rather than wood. Easy assembly and ready for a trip down memory lane.

Bought in 2004. Kept grate clean, but otherwise never pampered. Works as well as when we first bought it. We are moving from CO to AL and the Weber Grill will be coming with us.

Easy to setup. A must have for anyone grilling with charcoal. Best charcoal grill 22” size fits a dozen burgers no problem

It’s good

Arrived quickly and easy to assemble. Have used it a number of times last year. Easy to clean and is good quality.

I bought myself this grill for Christmas when nobody else got it for me, and now I've had it almost three months and have used it quite a few times. I bought it based on the Amazon recommendations, and the recommendation of FoodTV host Alton Brown in his book, GEAR FOR THE KITCHEN. Also, in perusing the internet, I found the "Blue's BBQ" web site from Australia. One reader asks, "How did the Weber become the icon for the Australian BBQ?" Blue had to disappoint the reader by informing her that the Weber is actually American. But if it has that kind of reputation in Australia, is must be good.Judging from the reviews here, I'll have to wait 20 years to see how it holds up. It does live on my back porch, but with the Weber cover.It is fairly easy to assemble, and in my humble engineering opinion, seems well-made and designed with few exceptions. The Silver model has an ash catch-pan hung between the legs. The pan sits on top of spring clips clipped to the leg. After how well everything else went together, this seemed really cheesy to me. If you're a prefectionist, you'll go nuts trying to level the pan.I guess that the "one touch cleaning" feature is the vanes on the bottom that also act to adjust the temperature in the grill by adjusting the airflow. If you swish them back and forth, opened and closed, it'll push some ash through the vent in the bottom. The problem is that the vanes themselves are wide and flat, and half of the ash just rides back and forth on them. I think Weber overstates this "one touch cleaning" feature.The vanes closely fit the bottom shape of the grill when assembled, but after a couple of uses, one warped. I don't know if this is from heat, or something I lodged under it. I had to disassemble the vanes, and bend the offending blade a bit, and it's been perfect since.I am a bit disappointed in some of the accessories, like the tool rack and little side table. They hang on the edge of the grill, and compromise the otherwise pretty good seal between the lid and grill. They also sell a lid rack, but note that the lid does comes with a hook in it so you can hang it on the edge of the grill, although it is certainly not as easy as using the optional rack.Based on recommendations here, I got the 22" (larger) model. I can't disagree with that. Unless you just don't have the extra 4" of storage space or REALLY need a good grill, but just don't have the money, get the bigger one. It doesn't use that much more charcoal.The other thing I scratched my head over was whether to get the Silver or Gold model. The differences were not completely clear to me until I actually got the grill. First, the Gold model adds a catch can that fits closely to the bottom of the grill instead of the pan I complained about. That would be nice. Maybe when you're grilling, hot specks of charcoal won't fall out the bottom and burn your legs, and if you grill somewhere where you don't want a lot of ash, this might be worthwhile. But the Gold is almost twice the price of the Silver, and I had a hard time justifying the additional cost.The other feature added by the Gold is a grate with folding sides to allow you to add more charcoal when doing a long roast. A handy feature for sure, if you're cooking includes that, but I found those replacement Weber grates locally for twelve dollars, so wouldn't pay for the Gold model to get them.And I guess that's another advantage of the Webers in general: They're so popular, replacement parts are easily found locally.Sometimes, I long for the built-in side table of the Platinum, but that's a lot of money.The grill came with a small cookbook that has proved useful. I don't know getting burgers and steaks done right has been such a hit or miss, trial and error, proposition that most people make it out to be. You look up in the little book, "Beef, 1-1/2 in thick, well-done (I know, Alton Brown wouldn't like me), 10 minutes first side, 9 minutes second side" and they come out perfectly.DEFINITELY pick up a Weber charcoal chimney if you don't have one yet. It's the best way by far to start the grill - no kabooms, no fumes, no smell, no dangerous fluids stored in your house, and a good use for Florida Today newspaper. If you want to try something different, pick up the book AMERICAN PIE by Peter Reinhert and try the grilled pizza.

The name Weber speaks for itself. I owned one back in the day but left it behind during a move. I’ve had cheaper grills that rusted through in a few seasons. You don’t get any better than Weber, and I prefer charcoal grills too — you just can’t get that flavor with gas.This 22-inch grill is HUGE! I had the 18-inch one previously, and boy do those 4-inches make a big difference. I barbecued 10lbs of chicken quarters (8 quarters in all) with room to spare! HUGE!Now, about assembly, sheesh! The wordless instructions were deceiving at best, and incorrect at worst.The instructions tell you to install the main leg first — no problem — and then the right leg (with the kettle upside down and handle facing you - although deducing this wasn’t easy as the drawings inexplicably change the orientation of the kettle from the initial drawing); they indicate that after you install the right leg that you can easily attach the triangular shaped tray that sits at the bottom of the grill assembly. The problem is, once the leg is in place it is impossible to thread the end of the triangle tray through the hole of the leg once it is “pinned” to the main leg first by way of a hook. After several attempts to do it the way they instructed (slightly damaging the primary leg as I tried to position the tray to fit - the hook that you feed into that hole barely fits, and turning it extends and bends the metal around that hole), I finally decided to take the right leg off, thread the end of the tray through the hole on the leg, and then install the leg, sort of like how they instruct you to do for the third leg.The third leg was difficult to install because of an incorrect instruction as to which hole to use for the clip; you have to use the opposite one they indicate to accommodate the third end of the tray.Even the instructions for the installation of the handle wasn’t as straightforward as they should have been.Weber needs to grab ten people and watch them individually try to assemble this grill using these instructions so they can modify the drawings to make more sense.But, once it is assembled, what a grill!One issue I have is with the metal tray/cup that is suspended below the bottom of the kettle to catch the ashes when they fall during cooking and cleaning; those clips just do not keep the tray attached securely. It keeps falling off.The other issue is with the metal fan-like device that is supposed to help scrape the ashes out of the kettle and send them through the gaps into the unsteady tray/cup below; because it only moves a few inches back and forth instead of all the way around the bottom of the kettle, you can’t adequately clean the ashes from the kettle they way the design intended.I’m super pleased that I finally have a Weber grill again, the Cadillac of barbecue grills!