Weber Q300 or Spirit?


 

Drew G.

New member
My apartment management company freaked out on me when they found out I was using a charcoal grill. So, now it's time to get a gasser. I've only had crappy ones in the past and they made grilling life miserable. I have a small patio which could accomodate a Q300 or a Spirit. The Spirit 210 is $300, the 310 is $400, and the Q is $300. Besides the looks, and total grilling area, how are these three grills different? I am leaning towards the Q. Any thoughts?

Drew
 
Drew
That is one of the hardest questions to answer.
You have not selected a spirit with a side burner, which means that they are close to the same.

The spirit has a cabinet so that you can store your BBQ tools etc in there. However the Q300 uses less gas.

I suggest that you think about how many you want to cook for, what you want to cook and do you need portability?

The Q220 will cook for 6 - 8 people no problem at all. I have cooked for steaks and sausages for 15. my mate did Chicken wings, Chicken Fillets, Hamburgers, Sausages and Steaks for 10 last Saturday ( he had a lot of food left over). Whilst the Q220 is smaller, it has the portability to be able to take it anywhere and also store it inside for security. A 9kg (20 lb ) gas cylinder will last 36 hours on the Q220 I sell a lot of them to apartment dwellers here in Melbourne.
The Q300 and Spirit 210/310 will cook for 10-12and with some planning can cook for 20. A 9 kg (20 lb) gas cylinder will last about 20 hours on the Q300and E210 and about 15 hours on the E310. The Q300 can be left in the weather no trouble and does not need a cover. The Q300 looks modern and seems to blend into the area better and takes up less room. The E210/310 has the storage area and you can use a rotis with them which you can't with the Q300.
So Drew as I said it is a real hard one to answer, it all depends on what features you want and what you want to do with it.

My personal opinion would be to get the Q220 unless you were going to be continually cooking for a lot of people. If you want something bigger get the Q300. If you have a lot of power failures get the E320 (E310 plus side burner)

Regards
 
Drew
We did a commparrison cook on the Q120, Q220, Q300, Spirit 310 and Genesis 320. We cooked a porterhouse steak on each, we preheated them all for 10 minutes, the steaks came off the same slab and were the same thickness, we prepared each steak the same brushed with oil and seasoned one side. The steaks were put on together and turned after 2 1/2 minutes and cooked for a further 2 1/2 minutes. There was no distict differences with the steaks, however we did agree that the stek cooked on the Genesis was marginally better. The Q300 had slightly better grill marks. All were excellent, very moist and so tender you could cut them with a bread and butter knife.

I cook nearly everything on my Q including upside down cakes, muffins, quiche curries and stews. I know this is not going to help but you can do exactly the same on the Spirit - you just need to know how to set it up for indirect over a larger area of the grill. The parrallel sides enables you to put more and bigger joints of meat on the Spirit. You can use a rotis with the Spirit. (I do not use a rotis even on my Genisis).
It is easier to add smoke to a Spirit you just put one or two chunks of wet wood over the interconnect tube between the flavourizer bars.\

My preference is still the Q220.

I should add that I have a Genisis 320, Q220 (I just upgraded from a Q200 by replacing the lid) a Performer, 2 OTS kettles, a home made hot smoker and use a demonstration model of the WSM.

Again, I have probably made the decision harder for you, you need to list what you ideally want and check them off against each BBQ. Thats what I do with customers when I am demonstrating, I generally take the price out of the considerations and then look at what features the customer wants, the available room, the style of cooking that they want to do and the amount of people that they will generally cook for.

Hope this helps

Regards
 
Fantastic information. Thanks!

I still plan on using my WSM and kettle (which I have a rotis for) periodically when the situation calls for it. I just need a solid gas grill for burgers, chicken, steaks, searing tuna, blackening peppers, etc. It sounds like the Q300 would be perfect for my small patio. Thanks again.

Drew
 
Hey Drew

I just looked on the Weber (USA) site. You guys don't have the E320 Spirit. It is only available in Australia. Sorry for misleading you.

Regards
 
Drew, I had to make this same decision last month. I decided on the Q 300. I decided on it because a) it feels more solid than the spirit and b) it looks nicer on the patio and c) more cooking space (although no warming rack).

If I had to do it again I would get the Q 220 though. The Q 300 is just so enormous and if you look through my/phil's posts from last month, you'll see that doing indirect is cinch on the Q 220. The Q 220 would have been fine for my needs and it would have had the added plus of being more portable. Still I'm happy - the Q 300 makes the periodic big cook such a breeze (ie: the other night I was cooking for my extended family and it was nice to be able to grill lots of steaks, burgers, and dogs really quickly).
 

 

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