I\’ve owned grill after grill and I always find that I\’m buying a new grill (not just because portable gas grills are my favorite toys to buy) but because there\’s always something new that has a distinctive feature that I think would prove handy.

Today I\’m going to leave aside some of the practical stuff such as the power output and the technical issues and concentrate on some of the nice to haves – those things that make cooking on an outdoor portable grill a pleasure rather than a chore.

I guess that the first thing to consider is the portability outside of the car. If you\’re parking up and then moving a distance you might want to consider a portable grill with wheels – most portable gas grills weigh about 30 pounds so whilst it is definitely portable it isn\’t something that you will want to lift for a long distance. If wheels are your thing then check out the Coleman Road-trip or the Charbroil Grill 2 Go Ice. What I really like about the Grill 2 Go Ice is the way that the whole thing packs up onto a two level cart. The grill on the top level and two 30 quart cool bags on the bottom for your food (and maybe a beer or 2).

If you need your grill to be free standing and don\’t have any other tables with you then again both these two grills stand out because of the fold out shelves on either side of the grill. This make the final preparation of food easy. If however you are going to have a table with you then you might consider the Holland grill which you can use table top (albeit I would still have a fireproof board underneath).

How many people do you normally cook for? Working this out is going to determine the size of grill that you go for. It has to be said that with all portable gas grills there has to be a compromise and the cooking area is just that but with 285 square inches of cooking space the Coleman Road-trip really does excel.

Finally it\’s got to be about clean down. It\’s the bit that everybody hates but it\’s got to be done and some grills deal with this better than others. I\’m not sure about the Aussie though, it boasts a drip container that seals when the lid is closed to ensure that no grease drips when the unit is being carried. Whilst this sounds like a great idea I can\’t help but wonder whether all this is going to do is provide a lesser incentive to actually clean up. Surely it\’s better to clean up immediately after the cookout rather than waiting until you\’ve got home? Certainly when I\’ve just completed the drive home, I\’m really not in the mood to erect the grill again and clean it.

Clean up is usually made easier if your grill is just a straight forward hotplate grill as opposed to one with flavorizer bars, the Aussie fits into this category so maybe clean up isn\’t that difficult all?

Author Bio: Paul Yates has written detailed gas grill reviews including the Weber Q gas grill, the Adventurer Aussie gas grill and Holland gas grills too.

Category: Advice
Keywords: portable gas grill, gas grill review, charbroil, holland grill,