The Portable Grill Challenge
What’s a good camping trip without some good grilled food? Right?! Well we love to eat and we especially love to grill; so when it came time to pick which grill to take with us on the road, selecting the right one was a “hot” topic (ok that was cheesy).
We started our RV journey with the Coleman Road Trip LXE Portable 2 burner Propane Grill – 20,00 BTU but during a recent shopping trip we purchased the Weber Q 1200 LP Gas Grill. Since we have owned and cooked on both grills we wanted to share our pro’s and con’s list for each, along with making the above comparison video because one maybe better for you!
Coleman Road Trip LXE Grill
Pros-
- Stand and grill are attached – makes for easy set up and easy stow
- Integrated utensil hooks
- Larger grilling surface (285 sq. in. cooking surface area) – cook more food at one time ~ great for BBQ parties
- Two separate grill areas (2 burners) that can be lit separately – can cook meat on one side and veggies on the other at different heat settings
- Slide out trays
- Optional replacement griddle rack – on one or both sides
- Comes in a variety of colors (e.g. blue, red, black, etc.)
Cons-
- Heavy – we find it hard to pull the grill in and out of our bay, especially with only one person
- Lid is shallow – hard to use grill accessories
- No external thermometer
- Hard to access and non-disposable cleaning tray – small and difficult to clean
- Gas connector not in ideal location – the connector sticks out of back causing it to be easily damaged by hitting things while stored and during the stowing process. It also blocks the cleaning tray, you need to disconnect gas to get to the cleaning tray.
- Wheels on grill stand are weak – the interior of one of our wheels broke while I was stowing the grill for travel
Coleman Summary
The Coleman’s cooking ability is great, the flame/heat range can be adjusted ever so slightly, letting you get just the right cook for your favorite meal. We found it a little bulky and heavy to constantly take in and out of our coach. In all a good grill for large families and parties, giving you the ability to cook a lot of food quickly. It is also cheaper, with stand and grill attached, a good camping grill for the cost. It is currently around $140 on Amazon and in Walmart.
Weber Q 1200 LP Gas Grill
Pros-
- Strong build construction – feels like a mini weber not like a camping stove
- Extremely light and portable
- Larger grilling volume – ability to cook a roasted chicken due to the high top lid
- Traditional grill designed lid – better for grill accessories
- Exterior thermometer (not available on Weber Q1000)
- Easy clean tray – easy to access and throw away tin
- Gas connector is located under grill to the left – out of the way but still easy to access for connecting propane
- Optional replacement griddle rack – on one or both sides
- Comes in a variety of colors (e.g. blue, green, pink, red, black, etc.)
Cons-
- Stand and grill are bought separately and Weber stand for grill is not very study
- More expensive – needing to purchase grill and stand separately
- No area to hang grill utensils
- Single burner – can heat entire grill to only one setting
- Heat range is subtle – meaning the low to high heating is very similar and it is difficult to cook something on a low setting
- Finicky regulator – sometimes the regulator will go into protection mode and block the propane flow
Weber Summary
The Weber Q 1200 is light weight and extremely portable. While it was a little more expensive, currently pricing at $199, we really liked the size and style of this grill. As it is easy to pull out of your coach and start cooking. While the regulator can be ‘finicky’ and you don’t get as much versatility in cooking (due to the single burner) it still cooks a delicious meal, and you have an external thermometer to assist in cooking food at the right temperature. We found this grill to be better for smaller crowds or great for your grill aficionado. As you can purchase all kinds of grill accessories to tailor to your specific grill needs or desires.
Want to get one too?
Below are the links to purchase one for yourself. We also included a few links on our favorite grill accessories.
- Coleman (Amazon link)
- Extended Gas Connector (Amazon link)
- Grill Cover (Amazon link)
- Griddle Option (Amazon link)
- Weber (Amazon link)
- Extended Gas Connector (Amazon link)
- Griddle Option (Amazon link)
- Disposable Drip Pans (Amazon link)
- Weber Grill Stand (Amazon link)
- Grill Cover (Amazon link)
- Our Suggested Grill Accessories
- Grill Utensils with Case (Amazon link)
- GCI Cook Station/ Grill Stand (Amazon link)
- Grill Vegetable Basket (Amazon link)
- Grill Matt (Amazon link)
Don’t like either? Here are a few other popular grill options that RV’ers and campers are also purchasing.
- Cuisinart CGG-180T Petit Gourmet Portable Tabletop Gas Grill (Amazon link)
- Coleman NXT Lite Tabletop Propane Grill (Amazon link)
- Char-Broil TRU-Infrared Portable Grill2Go Gas Grill (Amazon link)
Let us know your thoughts! What grill and grill accessories do you use?
Or better yet, have any good grill recipes? We love trying to cook new things on our grill.
Happy chillin and grillin!
How do you hook up the coleman to your on board propane tank. The insert & built in regulator are unique & have never seen one like it before?
We found that the onboard tank was more trouble than its worth since we like to move the grill around to different spots. That said, if you wanted to hook it up i believe you would need to find a way to remove the regulator as the onboard hookup to most RV’s are after the low pressure regulator that controls your entire rig. I’m not 100% sure but i think the goal would be to avoid a double regulator configuration as that would probably result in no pressure. Let us know if you have any other questions.
You had mentioned you found the regulator to be “finicky” on the Weber Q, I thought I would reply and share my findings on this issue. I had a Weber Q 2200 on board our Allegro Bus that we used all the time. One day just before cooking a meal for the family that we had with us on a cross country trip, the Weber would not light. I found a nearby Lowes and bought the Weber Q 1200. (after 30 minutes of troubleshooting)
After returning home and getting on the phone with Weber, I figured out what the issue was. At that time I was using the small 1lb. canisters of propane. I found when I removed the canister to store the grill back on our coach, there was still a pocket of propane left in the grill. I didn’t want this to accidentally escape into the basement so I would remove the canister, fire up the burner and let it drain off.
This is what caused the issue I was having. By doing this, the regulator thinks there is a gas leak and it locks out. It is a built in “safety” feature. Weber has a great warranty and sent out a new regulator and I was back in business. Now I use the Q2200 at home the Q1200 on the road. I love them both!! I hope this helps others not to end up stranded when you have dinner ready to cook!!
Thanks so much for the excellent information! Ours unfortunately stopped working after about 10 months and Weber sent us a new one that hasn’t had any of the issues so I think we had a defect. That said the safety feature you mention is what they had us troubleshoot in the beginning and is the solution 99% of the time I’m guessing. Thanks again!
We ended up getting an O-Grill 1000. Nice size for the two of us.
We have the Char – Broil grill…..have used it a lot over the last year, great grill for the money!