BBQ Grill Buying Guide: Gas, Charcoal & Pellet

Fuel is not a preference, it is a set of obligations, and this is the decision that most people get wrong by choosing the cheapest grill on the shelf. Each fuel asks for a different thing from you in terms of prep, cleanup and how much control you get over the temperature.

Propane: speed, control, no mess

Propane heats in seconds and lets you turn a burner from high to low with a knob, which is the single biggest practical advantage any grill can have. There is no light-up, no ash, no charcoal bag. The cost is flavour: liquid propane burns clean with no smoke character, so you are seasoning the food rather than the fire.

The at $45.99 new is the clearest illustration of how much you can get for a small budget. The listing states a 178 square inch cooking surface accommodating up to nine burgers, with a porcelain-coated steel grid and a burner cover. That is a genuinely useful single-person or couple grill, and the grill grate material is the detail worth noting, because a coated grid is easier to clean and will not rust.

The is listed new at $49.95 with an 8000 BTU stainless steel burner, and it is a genuinely different animal because that burner output is a real number you can compare. A higher BTU figure means faster recovery when you put a large cold tray of food down on the grate, which is the difference between a sear and a slow grey steaming. Coleman is also a recognised name, and the seller describes it as compact and portable with simple assembly.

Charcoal: the flavour argument, honestly stated

Charcoal gets hot faster and hotter than a gas grill, which is what gives thin cuts like burgers, chops and chicken skin their sear, and the smoke is a flavour people describe as real rather than simulated. What you pay for that is a fifteen to twenty minute light-up, a can of lighter fluid or a chimney, and ash that has to be dealt with afterwards. There is also no fine temperature control; strong and indirect zones are the only control you get.

The is listed new at $59.99 and the seller quotes a compact 13 by 10.5 inch size with a carrying case included. That is a small, fast, deliberately portable charcoal grill for a campsite or a balcony, not a family cooker, and buying it for six people would be a mistake in both directions. The at $67.00 new is a step up in presentation, and the listing notes it comes with the grate, a charcoal sample, grill starter gel and a carry case, with the box opened but the grill unused.

If you want real volume in charcoal, is listed new at $164.99 and specifies a 303 square inch cooking surface, two handles for moving it and a convenient front charcoal access point. For a family of four that is a sensible target size, and the price is where budget charcoal grills stop being cheap. Below that point you are in the at $71.99 or the at $28.00, both new, both correctly described as mini.

Pellet: set and forget, at a price

Pellet grills burn compressed wood pellets. They hold a steady temperature for hours with almost no intervention, which makes them the practical answer to low-and-slow cooking for people who cannot stand at the grill, and they produce very little smoke so the neighbours stay friendly. The downsides are bulk, cost and the need to clean out a grease channel.

The listing that most clearly shows where pellet money goes on eBay is the at $275.95 new, which is described as a compact outdoor pellet pizza oven with a built-in thermometer, a stainless steel and steel construction, an eucalyptus finish and an included pizza stone. It is not a grill for burgers, but it demonstrates the entry point for pellet appliances and the reason they cost what they do.

Smaller pellet items are where hobbyist value lives. The is listed new at $38.76 and the seller states it delivers billowing smoke for up to 12 hours, with each row working for up to four hours of pellet burn. That is a portable, controlled smoke source rather than a cooking appliance, and it is useful if you already have a grill and want to add a flavour layer.

Electric: the indoor option people underrate

An electric grill has no flame, no charcoal and no propane, which makes it the only genuinely practical option for an apartment, a balcony with a fire ban, or a small space where a fire is illegal. What you get is a controlled, smokeless, drip-tray-collecting cook. What you give up is the open-flame char that half of barbecue cooking is actually about.

Two listings demonstrate the range. The is listed new at $19.99 with a 153.94 square inch nonstick cooking surface, a single heating element at 800 watts, and it is genuinely small, which makes it a burner-sized griddle for a couple rather than a family cooker. The is listed used at $29.99 with removable plates and a fat-removing design, and the seller notes there is no drip tray, which is worth confirming yourself before you buy.

Here is the rule that decides the purchase. Total primary cooking surface area, measured in square inches, is what determines how much food you can put down at once, and the number you should target is driven by how many people you regularly cook for.

• One or two people, or a camper. 150 to 200 square inches. This is single-burner territory and the whole category exists at this size.
• Three or four people, most weekends. 250 to 400 square inches. This is the sweet spot and covers most households without cooking in shifts.
• Five or more, or anyone who grills for a crowd. 450 square inches and up, or two grills. A side burner is not a substitute for main surface area, because a side burner is for potatoes, not for the steaks.

Two dimensions that buyers routinely confuse with surface area matter for a different reason. Hood clearance determines whether you can actually close the lid, which is how you cook indirect and smoke, and if the lid will not close over your food you are grilling in an open pan. Wheels and handle position determine whether you can move it at all, and a full propane tank plus a wet grate makes a portable grill a two-person carry no matter what the listing says.

For non-grill cooking, a griddle surface is measured the same way. The at $20.00 new is described as a 19-inch nonstick double burner griddle with metal handles, and the at $134.99 new is the same basic object with far more mass behind it. The roughly $115 gap between them is the gap between a thin stamped plate that heats the food and a heavy plate that holds temperature while you work.

Grill feature lists are long and mostly irrelevant. Four things measurably change what you can cook, and everything else is convenience.

• Grate material: cast iron or stainless over porcelain-coated steel. Cast iron heats hard and sears, and it needs seasoning. Stainless is forgiving and rusts less. Porcelain-coated steel is the cheapest and the easiest to clean, and it chips if you use metal tongs on it carelessly. There is no wrong answer, but do pick one deliberately.
• Heat distribution. The thing that actually causes hot and cold spots on a cheap grill is a thin, flat grate over a single burner tube. V-shaped or angled grates, or a diffuser plate under the burner, are the fix, and their absence is a legitimate reason to buy a different grill.
• A built-in thermometer. A lid thermometer is a nice-to-have, not a real thermometer. A grill can read 250 on the lid and be a hundred degrees off at the grate, which is why the next section matters more than any gauge on the box.
• Storage and assembly. A foldable frame that fits in a car boot, or side shelves that fold down, is the difference between a grill you use every summer and a grill you carry to the garage in 2029.

On that last point, a rotisserie is worth addressing directly, because it is a genuinely great addition for a specific cook. The is listed new at $209.99 and is designed for open-fire cooking with no electricity required, which makes it a camp mechanic rather than a grill accessory. A rotisserie earns its money for a large bird or a leg of lamb and does nothing at all for burgers, which is why we would never list it as a first purchase.

Here is where the money actually goes, tier by tier, using the eBay prices confirmed on the date at the top of this guide.

Under $50: the starter and the secondary grill

At this price you are buying one of two things: a genuinely small gas grill for one or two people, as with the , or a charcoal grill that is explicitly a miniature. Both are legitimate purchases. Neither is a mistake if you know which one you are buying. The sits here too and is the strongest of the three, because 8000 BTU is a real burner output figure and the brand is one people trust for portable gas.

$50 to $150: the family charcoal and mid-size gas zone

This is the most crowded tier on eBay and the best value in the category. The and the both fall here, as does the . The value trap in this tier is buying a large-looking grill with a small grate, so check the surface area figure rather than the overall dimensions.

$150 to $300: where the money earns itself

Above $150 you are paying for cast iron grates, a heavier gauge steel body, side burners, a proper cabinet and better lid insulation, all of which show up as the grill still being usable at hour six of a long cook. The is the clearest entry point in our list, and the is a good example of the top of the range, described as a CGG-180TB with 5500 BTU of heating power. Note that the 5500 BTU figure is lower than the $49.95 Coleman's 8000 BTU, and that is not a contradiction: burner output and cooking area trade against each other, which is exactly why you should read both numbers.

The indoor and countertop tier

A separate market exists below $50 for electric and press grills, and it is not a compromise if your constraints are a fire ban or a small flat. The , the and the all live here. The at $34.99 is the same hardware with a themed housing, listed as a 520 watt cast aluminium panini press.

A $60 grill with a $26 thermometer will outperform a $250 grill without one, and this is the least glamorous part of buying a grill. The failure mode of an inexpensive grill is not usually uneven heat; it is the cook not knowing when the food is done, opening the lid constantly, and letting all the heat out.

There are three tiers of thermometer. An instant-read probe is the essential one: the is described as a digital display unit in black and red with an auto-off and fast reading, which is everything you need. The is listed with cook modes and USDA preset temperatures for specific foods, which is more useful for beginners than the raw reading. If you are cooking on a grill for more than an hour at a time, a wireless probe changes the experience entirely: the monitors from up to 300 feet, and the is the cheaper version of the same idea with a ceramic and stainless steel probe.

Beyond temperature, three things earn their price. A heavy cast iron press gives you a hard sear on thin cuts that a spatula cannot replicate, and the is the standard shape, sold here as a two-piece lot with a meat pounder. Heat-resistant gloves are not optional when the lid is red hot, and the are rated at 260 mm length with a 130 mm palm. And a wire grate brush costs almost nothing and is the only reliable way to get carbon off cast iron without ruining the seasoning.

One last category worth naming: campfire cookware, for the nights you are not using the grill at all. The is a classic double pie iron that cooks a filled sandwich trapped between two iron halves over a fire, and it is the most reliable outdoor cooking device ever manufactured for the price. The same logic applies to the nesting cookset in our cooler guide, which is induction-ready and packs into a fraction of the space.

Grill terms you will see in every listing

Grill listings are written in a small vocabulary and half of it is confusing on first contact. A short glossary is worth reading before you spend anything, because these are the terms in every single listing:

• BTU. British thermal units, a measure of burner heat output. It tells you how hard the grill hits and how fast it recovers when cold food hits the grate, but it says nothing about the size of the cooking area, which is why two grills with very different BTU figures can be equally good.
• Porcelain-coated, aluminized and stainless grate. Three materials. Porcelain-coated steel is the cheapest and smoothest, and it chips if you abuse it. Aluminized steel is a mid-grade coating over heavier steel. Stainless steel is the most forgiving and the least likely to rust, at the cost of not heating as aggressively as cast iron.
• Cast iron grate. The heaviest and best-searing option. It is also the one that rusts if you leave it wet and that needs seasoning, and it is why a cast iron grate justifies a higher price.
• Hood and lid insulation. A well-insulated hood is what makes two-zone indirect cooking possible, because it holds the temperature high enough to roast a whole chicken with the burners off on one side.
• Offset smoker. A firebox offset to one side so the heat runs past the cooking chamber rather than straight up through it, which is the classic low-and-slow design. Do not confuse it with a heat deflector plate, which achieves a similar effect in a cheaper grill.
• Griddle versus grill. A griddle is a flat surface for burgers, eggs and pancakes with no gaps for juices to drip through. A grill is an open grate for searing. A combined appliance does both and is heavier because of it.
• Ignition. Piezo igniters click and need no battery; battery igniters need a replaceable battery and are the most common reason an older gas grill will not start.

If you want the decision without the theory, it comes down to three questions, and the answer to the first one determines the rest.

The single best-value grill on this list for a typical household is the at $164.99, because 303 square inches is the right number for a family of four and the price is where the material upgrade actually starts. The single best-value starter is the with its 178 square inch surface and coated grid, provided you know it is a two-person grill and not a family one.

And buy the thermometer. The is the least expensive item in this entire guide and the one that changes your cooking the fastest, which is a strange thing to say about an object with no moving parts.

One last time on pricing, because it is the thing that invalidates a buying guide: eBay prices change daily and vary by seller and by condition. These figures were confirmed on September 29, 2026, and a used grill can be half the price tomorrow or double if a season of demand hits. Check the current listing, read the full condition description, and confirm the return policy before you commit.