Should I Choose a Gas or Charcoal Grill?
Gas Grill benefits
There are many advantages to purchasing a gas grill. So, let’s go over the pros and cons of gas grills. Without further adieu, here are the top 5 reasons to choose a gas grill over a charcoal grill:
Convenience & Control
When you are deciding between gas vs. charcoal grills, oftentimes convenience is a major deciding factor. The fact is that gas grills can be lit much more quickly than charcoal grills. You simply need to turn on the gas grill whenever you are ready and the grill will be heated up rather quickly. You can also control the temperatures easily with the turn of the knob. With multiple burners, you can create multiple cooking zones. By contrast, a charcoal grill takes more time to get the charcoal hot and heated to the appropriate temperatures. Plus, it takes some finesse and planning to create a second zone.
Gas/Propane Is Cheaper
Another positive for a gas grill is that the fuel tends to be cheaper. If you use propane, for example, you can buy a new, full propane tank for around $15-25. This tank can last you many grilling sessions before you will need to refill it. Conversely, when you use a charcoal grill, you will have to fill your grill with charcoal cooking fuel each cooking session. Also, if you want to use your charcoal grill for a lengthy party, you may need to refill the grill with charcoal more than once.
Gas Grills Can Hook Up to Your Home
Another aspect to the convenience of the gas grill is its natural gas hookup capabilities. A lot of gas grills have model versions for natural gas that can hook directly up to your home’s gas line. This adds an extra level of convenience, where there is no need to add more fuel. Charcoal grills do not have this type of flexibility.
More Accessories
Many gas grill models can come with a wide range of accessories. Whether it is side burners, flavorizer bars, smoke boxes, or a lot of other things, you can probably find a lot of bells and whistles with a gas grill. Charcoal grills, on the other hand, have fewer accessories and are much simpler in how they function.
Simple to Use
Generally, gas grills are relatively easy to use. With some simple direction, anyone could get a gas grill turned on and start grilling. As we already mentioned, gas grills offer convenience at their core. This also extends to cleaning the gas grill too because there is no ash. Plus, they cool down quickly so you don’t need to wait to finish the post-grilling cleanup process. This is different than a charcoal grill, which has some more complexity in how you get the fire going. And, cleaning the charcoal grill is more involved due to the coals and ashes involved.
Charcoal Grill benefits
Now that we have finished going over gas grills, it is time to move on to talking about the pros and cons of charcoal grills as compared to their gas grill counterparts. Here are the top 4 reasons to choose a charcoal grill over a gas grill:
Smokey Flavor & Taste
The best reason for cooking with charcoal is its reputation for great taste when grilling thicker meats. Some people love charcoal grills because of the smokey flavor that you can get in the meat you are cooking. For example, a thick piece of meat cooked slowly on a charcoal grill will get a lot of extra flavor from the smoke. This is different from a gas grill, because of the exposed coals. You can also use wood chips, healthy charcoal briquettes, or other flavored cooking fuels on charcoal grills, for added and variety of flavors that will rival any steakhouse. As a result, some grill aficionados swear by charcoal grills for better taste on steaks and other thick red meats. If you’re mainly looking for this type of great, authentic taste, then a charcoal grill could be your best bet.
Less Expensive
Well, if the price was a disadvantage for gas grills, then obviously it is an advantage for charcoal grills. As you can expect, with fewer accessories, fewer mechanisms, and fewer parts, charcoal grills are usually less expensive.
Portability
Another one of the best reasons to buy a charcoal grill is the portability. A lot of charcoal grills are also portable grills. This is because a lot of them are smaller and easier to load into your vehicle or just move around in general. Of course, there are bigger charcoal grills out there that will be less portable, but for the most part, they are more agile.
Charcoal Burns Hotter Than Gas
When it comes to charcoal grills vs. gas grills, the coals of a charcoal grill will burn much hotter than the natural gas or propane of a gas grill. This means that a charcoal grill will out-sear a gas grill, helping you get steaks crisp on the outside while keeping them pink in the middle. This goes back to the first advantage of a charcoal grill, which was the taste. In addition, a charcoal grill can cook more meat at once at these high temperatures. For example, you could grill more steaks at a higher temperature for a large group of people. If this is important to you, charcoal will get you the most heat.
