Barbecues

Kettle, kamado, gas cart or pellet grill:

the fuel decides how you cook more than the brand does. A charcoal kettle, the round Weber shape most people picture, is the simplest grill there is, and with the lid on handles burgers, chorizo and a slow-cooked chicken. A kamado is the heavy ceramic egg made by Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe or Weber: it holds heat for hours on very little charcoal and turns a pork shoulder into an afternoon’s project. A gas grill lights at the press of a button and suits a weeknight. Pellet grills from Traeger or Pit Boss feed wood pellets into a fire pot with an electric auger, so they need a plug, and they are smokers first. The flat-top griddle that Blackstone made popular is for smashed burgers and breakfast rather than thick steaks.

Grills for a tower balcony, the barbecue area downstairs or a house terrace:

in an apartment, the building’s own rules decide what can be lit on a balcony, so read them before buying anything that burns charcoal or runs off a gas tank. An electric tabletop grill is the usual answer upstairs, and a portable gas grill or a small kettle is what people carry down to the shared barbecue area. On a covered house terrace, a cart grill with a side burner or a kamado on its stand finally earns its space. Set it where the smoke drifts away from the table and chairs you picked from outdoor furniture, and well back from the vinyl wall of a frame pool from swimming pools.

What a kamado keeps and a cheap gas grill loses:

its value, mostly. A standard Weber kettle is about $100 to $160 new, while a full-size ceramic kamado from a known brand runs from around $1,000 to $2,500. Ceramic does not rust, only the gasket and internal panels wear, and a sound dome and base keep it worth a serious price for years. A budget gas grill goes the other way: after a few seasons its thin sheet steel and cheap burners mean the buyer is taking on a project, and it should be priced like one.

Cracked panels, tired gaskets and swollen pellets:

each kind of grill wears out in its own place. On a kamado, lift out the firebox and look at every ceramic piece: a cracked internal panel is a cheap part and a bargaining point, a crack through the dome or the base is not. Run your fingers round the felt gasket for gaps and hardened grease, and lift the lid, because a kamado left shut for months can be furry with mould inside. A kettle tells its story from underneath: chipped enamel at the bottom of the bowl rusts through, and a bowl with a hole in it is finished. Ask to see a pellet grill lit from cold. If it will not reach temperature, the igniter rod or swollen pellets jammed in the auger are the usual culprit, and both come off the price. On a gas grill, bend the hose to look for cracks and ask whether the regulator is the original.

A kamado or a cart grill ready for the buyer’s pickup:

say in the listing what fuel it takes and what comes with it: the regulator and hose on a gas grill, the stand, heat deflector and cover on a kamado. Photograph a kamado with its internals laid out on the ground and the gasket close up, not just the closed egg, and for a pellet grill post a short video of it lighting and coming up to heat. Say whether it lived under a roof, and why it is going: a grill sold because of a move usually has nothing wrong with it. When someone comes for a kamado, have the ceramic internals already out and boxed and a second pair of hands ready, so the egg rides upright and strapped in the pickup bed and the loose panels travel separately instead of cracking on the drive.