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A good BBQ is a must-have in the Aussie backyard (or balcony). We lab test and review gas, electric and charcoal barbecues to find the best performers that are also easy to use and clean.
Stuck on what type you need? Our BBQ buying guide will help you decide, while how we test explains our testing rigour.
Our test covers electric and gas barbecues (including those that run on natural gas), and small and portable models through to large models.
Our expert testers fire up every BBQ to help find the models that:
Our interactive comparison tool helps you see at a glance good and bad points for each model, we tell you the running cost of each BBQ over five years, and our Recommended list will help you see quickly which models come out on top.
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List of brands we tested in this review.
Recommended retail, as of October 2018.
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 150 and 2500
We recommend models with an overall score of 80% and above (70% and above for electric). We only recommend currently available models.
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Gas, charcoal or electric.
The scores for evenness of temperature (cooking steak), evenness with high fat (sausages), low temperature cooking (marinated chicken wings) and roasting a chicken are weighted equally.
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 0 and 0
Suitability based on size and features.
Made up of cooking (40%), mobility (20%), using the controls (20%) and cleaning (20%).
We cover the hotplate and grill with steak to see if any areas aren't heated enough, or get too hot and burn the meat.
We cover the hotplate and grill with sausages to see if areas are prone to flare-ups from burning fat, which could lead to burnt food.
We test at moderate temperatures over a long period by roasting a chicken on a baking tray in the centre of the plates with the outside burners on medium heat. The hood is down and the chicken is turned once.
A Similar model is identical in most aspects except for a few. This means that a majority of its test results are identical so you can reasonably expect to get the same results from the model we tested, but for those aspects which aren't identical, we'll note these as "Not Tested" in the Compare tables.
A Tested model refers to a model that is still current and available in the Australian market. You should be able to order this model through your local retailer, or find it online.
These models can't be found in retailers or online or are no longer manufactured. You may still find these models on second hand websites, or in second hand dealers. Test methods may change over time, so criteria which can't be directly compared will contain an N/A.
An Identical model is exactly that. Performance characteristics will be identical and the only difference will be something trivial such as colour, which won't have an impact on performance.
These are models we haven't yet tested but that are available.
