Weber Original Premium 22” Kettle Review

When you think of a backyard barbeque with food sizzling on a charcoal grill, you’re probably thinking of a Weber Kettle.

Weber hasn’t modified its design in decades since it is simply the greatest. Its design delivers a perfect grilling atmosphere with plenty of room and airflow.

In our roundup of the top charcoal grills for 2018, we chose the Original Premium Weber Kettle as the best value choice.

This grill has a few features that have been upgraded over the original backyard icon, and with such a low price tag, it undoubtedly provides the most bang for your dollars.

Weber Original Premium 22” Kettle Overview

The Weber Original Premium 22 Kettle weighs little more than 32 pounds and has 363 square inches of cooking area. To put that into perspective, youre looking at being able to fit thirteen burgers at a time on this grills plated steel cooking grate. The grate is hinged for convenient access to the coals.

The porcelain-enameled cover is 7.5 inches tall, giving you plenty of area to cook beer-can chicken or other large meats. On the top of the lid is a built-in thermometer. When you remove the lid, you’ll notice an angled lid hook that enables you to hang the lid on the side of the grill rather than on the ground.

The Premium model has the One-Touch cleaning system and an enclosed ash collector, which are not included in the original model. This feature is a significant improvement over the original’s open tray, which enabled ash to fly everywhere during cooking. The Weber Original Premium 22 Kettle comes in black, copper, red, and green.

What we like:

• Simple to Clean As previously said, the One-Touch enclosed ash collector is a significant enhancement, and we were pleased to see it. It can store a large amount of ashes and is simple to remove and reconnect using the spring-loaded handle.
• Design That Is Convenient Not only is cleaning simple, but there are also additional features intended with the user in mind, such as the heat protection on the lid, the hinged cooking grate, a lid hook to keep your cover off the ground, and a tool hook for tongs and spatulas.
• Portability The Weber Original Premium 22 Kettle comes with a set of heavy-duty, sturdy wheels designed to endure the weather and boost the grill’s mobility. With a weight of just over 32 pounds, you can easily transfer this barbecue about your yard.
• It’s a Classic Weber grills are famed for their durability. The Premium Kettle has a few updated features that make it superior than the original kettle, but once you’ve cooked on a Weber kettle, you’ll understand why it’s been one of the most famous grilling brands for generations.

What we don’t like:

• Thermometer on the Lid The lid thermometer is perched high above the sizzling meat on the hot grate, and being that far away from the coals means you’re not receiving an accurate read on the grill temperature. Invest in a high-quality digital thermometer to solve the issue.
• Design with Three Legs The Weber Original Premium 22 Kettle’s mobility and good quality wheels impressed us, but the legs themselves may be a little shaky at times, giving the impression that the grill is top heavy.
• Positioning of the Lid Hook If you can get the lid to latch to the lid hook and hang correctly (which might be difficult), it blocks part of the grill, making cooking on that side impracticable and cumbersome. We often found ourselves just laying the lid on the ground, which is exactly what this hook was designed to prevent.

Build Quality

The Weber Original Premium 22 Kettle epitomizes little yet powerful. It measures 38.5-inch by 27-inch by 22.5-inch when fully completed and may look modest to some. This grill is larger than it seems due to its design and 363 square inches of cooking area.

Everything about it is made to endure, from the rust-resistant metal damper on top to the tough, heavy-duty wheels.

The tight seal between the lid and the body keeps temperatures under control. Because of the great insulation, you may use your Kettle grill as a smoker.

The hinged plated steel grate provides easy access to the coals for replenishment during cooking.

It’s also worth mentioning that Weber used to advertise their Kettles as 22.5. While the new moniker simply represents the number 22, the actual product dimensions remain 22.5 in diameter.

The removable ash collector is a feature that distinguishes this model from the original. We were blown away by how much ash it could contain and how easily it could be removed, emptied, and reattached.

It’s remarkable that the Weber Original Premium 22 Kettle has so many features while being so affordable.

It’s an excellent entry-level grill for those who don’t want to spend the money on bigger versions with additional amenities.

The Weber Original Premium 22 Kettle performs an excellent job and is well-constructed, making it an excellent choice for the casual backyard grill master.

Ease of Use

The Weber Original Premium Kettle is simple to put together and should take less than a half hour.

When it came to grilling, the hinged grate made it easy to replace our coals, and the tight seal of the lid ensured uniform heat distribution.

As previously said, there were some difficulties with the lid, namely the hook it was supposed to hang on. While we found the lid hook to be more of an annoyance, we do like the ability to remove the lid without having to deal with the inevitable rust and wear of a hinged lid.

The best way to show how simple the Kettle is to use is to watch someone else use it! This video from BBQ Pit Boys depicts a common Weber kettle setup well.

With unexpectedly excellent results, the Weber Kettle may also be utilized as a grill smoker combination.

Weber MasterTouch Kettle

We believe the Weber Original Premium is already a terrific value, but if you’re searching for a less costly model, the Weber Original Kettle provides the same high-quality grilling and cooking experience as the Weber Original Premium, but without a few more features.

The One-Touch cleaning mechanism and removable ash collector are not available with the Weber Original Kettle. The movable cooking grate and lid thermometer are also missing from the Original.

Looking for something more than the Weber Original Premium Kettle? The Weber MasterTouch Kettle is a more sophisticated model.

It has two charbasket charcoal containers, the well-known Weber Gourmet BBQ system, and a warming rack. It is also somewhat taller and more expensive than the Weber Original Premium Kettle.

Should You Buy the Weber Original Premium 22” Kettle?

This is an excellent starter grill. It is simple to put together and use.

It doesn’t have a lot of additional features, yet that might be a benefit. It is a flexible barbecue that can cook almost anything, so your grilling options are really limitless.

The cooking area is ample and capable of far more than its little size would suggest. Cleaning is more faster and easier compared with other models.

Overall, we thought the Weber Original Premium 22 Kettle was a good buy and a solid backyard BBQ mainstay.