Fuel: Natural gas or propane
Dimensions: 27"D x 52"W x 44.5"H
Burners: 3
Total cooking area: 450 square inches
Power: 26,500 BTU-per-hour input
Other features: Folding side table, warming rack
If you're researching the best grills to buy in time for summer, you'll have likely seen the Weber Spirit II E-310 in several online guides. One of the most enduringly popular gas grills on the market, this smart yet user-friendly three-burner option is ideal for those who want a great grill and don't want to spend much more than $500.
To make it that little bit more portable, it has a folding side table that can be lifted when cooking a selection of dishes and lowered again when preparing to store the grill. It also has a lower storage area which came in helpful when I was storing various trays. The two large wheels make this grill incredibly storage-friendly, ideal for taking in and out of a covered area of your yard or a shed.
You can buy a version of this grill that works with propane or natural gas, but I tested it with a propane tank in my yard, cooking up vegetables, hot dogs, and even grilling a whole chicken. Here's how it went.
Weber Spirit II E-310 review: Price and availability
The Weber Spirit II E-310 can be bought for $569.00 at Amazon and Best Buy and is available in Liquid Propane and Natural Gas. You can also buy a two-burner alternative, called the Weber Spirit II E-210, for $449. The Weber Spirit II E-310 can also be bought in the UK for £649 direct at Weber.
Weber Spirit II E-310 review: Design
Assembling this gas grill took two people just over an hour, and there were 49 assembly steps. These were very thorough and easy to follow, even for testers who aren't the best at following instructions!
Once built, it was easy to lift and move this grill thanks to the two large wheels on the right side of the grill. The foldable side shelf closes easily but it also proved relatively sturdy when we used it to rest plates and dishes. We also enjoyed that this grill comes with three hooks on the side, meaning you can hang your grill brush or other tools while not in use.
Weber Spirit II E-310 review: Ease of use
Lighting this grill is easy thanks to the ignition button. It's very similar to using the gas range where you press down your burner to release gas and then ignite the burner. Although you need to buy it separately, the Spirit II E-310 is compatible with Weber's iGrill 3. This can be mounted on your grill and acts as a meat thermometer that monitors up to four cuts of meat, notifying you on a smartphone when your food is ready.
We pre-heated this grill before our first test, allowing any residue from the manufacturing process to burn off. The three burners can be operated independently, so while there is enough cooking area to cater to a crowd, you can cook for two or three people by turning on just one burner. The removable inner ring also allows you to add accessories such as woks or poultry roasters.
Pre-heating the grill to 500°F took just under ten minutes, and we made use of the in-built thermometer to monitor while we prepared our dishes. The hinged lid was easy to lift and lower, but because it's made of quite thin metal it did get hot to touch quite quickly.
Weber Spirit II E-310 review: Performance
We first cooked hot dogs and burgers on the Weber Spirit II E-310. These achieved classic grill lines and we achieved some good blistering on the skin of the hot dogs, giving them that classic crunch you'd expect from a grilled hot dog. Once we had flipped the burgers and turned the hot dogs we closed the lid of the grill and observed how long it took for the grill to hit its original temperature once more. This only took several minutes which is a sign that the grill plates retain heat well. However, the grid on this grill is quite wide, so if you're cooking something smaller like shrimp or kebabs, you may lose some food between the cracks.
Another thing we noticed in testing is that the grill is hotter towards the center, which is pretty commonplace for a multi-burner grill as heat is lost around the back and side. We fixed this by moving food around to get an even cook across our hot dogs, but when we grilled a whole chicken we made sure to place it in the center of the grill to make sure it was cooked evenly throughout.
When flipping our chicken we lost some of the skin, but this is pretty commonplace when cooking marinade chicken on a grill. Even though some of the skin stuck to the cooking surface, we were generally impressed by how little sticking we experienced when moving food around this grill, which made it easy to clean when we were done cooking.
The chicken was cooked really well and although the remaining skin was nice and crispy, the meat was not tough and remained juicy once it hit our desired temperature, but it did lack the smokiness of a charcoal grill.
Weber Spirit II E-310 review: Verdict
Easy to assemble and use, we didn't have much to complain about with the Weber Spirit II E-310. You get what you pay for with this grill, and if you were to spend a little more on one of Weber's more premium models you would find more bells and whistles such as a realtime temperature display and side burner.
However, in terms of cooking quality, we were really happy with the food we made on this grill and the taste and texture of our chicken was the top-rated performance among all the grills we tested. We also enjoyed how stable this grill felt despite its portability, meaning you can tuck it away when not in use and move it around your yard without needing any help.
