Grills & Smokers

The choice between fuels is really a choice about weeknights. Gas lights in a minute and is what most people actually use on a Tuesday; charcoal and offset smokers give the flavour and ask for the time; pellet cookers split the difference with thermostat control and a hopper.

Size to how you cook, not to how you entertain twice a year. Around 400 square inches of primary cooking area feeds a family of four comfortably; past 700 square inches you are buying hosting capacity.

Check the burner BTU figure against grate area rather than in isolation — a high total BTU spread over a huge surface is not a hotter grill — and look for a firebox thickness and lid seal that will still close properly in year five.