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See why.The Best Grill Tongs
What qualities separate the best grill tongs from the pretenders?
Last Updated Apr. 27, 2021. Appears in Cook's Country June/July 2010, America's Test Kitchen TV Season 21: Back to Grilling Basics
The design of our favorite grill tongs, the OXO Good Grips Grilling Tongs, has changed slightly, but we like these new tongs just as much as we did the original version. For more details, see below.
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See Everything We TestedWhat You Need To Know
The best tool for grilling is a great pair of tongs. Grill tongs let you deftly grab, lift, and turn food without piercing it, and because they have long handles, they keep your hands far from the heat. But too often grill tongs have one of two big problems: They look like they were made for Paul Bunyan—huge, heavy, and chunky—or they’re too lightly built for serious grill work, with misaligned, flimsy arms and pathetic pincers. Either way, bad tongs make grilling harder than it should be, as they force you to fight for control over the food you’re cooking.
Since we last tested grill tongs, many new styles have come on the market, so we tested six pairs, priced from $14.93 to $29.02, including our longtime favorites, the OXO Good Grips 16" Locking Tongs ($14.93). We took them outside and tried them on a variety of tasks that tested their agility and strength, grilling delicate asparagus spears, chicken parts, and full slabs of ribs. We used them to open and close hot hinged grill grates and vents and to arrange glowing coals into a banked fire. We also asked testers of varying heights and strengths, some left- and some right-handed, to use the tongs while handling and flipping corn on the cob, a whole butterflied raw chicken, and a pound of slim asparagus. We opened and closed and locked and unlocked them 100 times each, and we left them covered with sauce and spice rub overnight and then noted how easy they were to clean. We also washed them 25 times in the dishwasher or by hand and left them wet to see if they’d rust, stiffen, or break. To push the boundaries of their precision, security, and strength, we also tried to pick up single wooden toothpicks and lift heavy glass jars of salsa.
The testing wasn’t pretty: Before it even began, one pair of tongs arrived with a pincer snapped off, a poor omen of its durability. Sure enough, the replacement pair wasn’t much tougher; while both pincers stayed attached, they quickly became misaligned, making it difficult to do precise work like turning individual asparagus spears. Another pair had the opposite problem: Its heavy-duty construction will likely last until the end of time, but this single bent slab of steel weighed nearly 2 pounds, and most testers had to use both their hands to press its pincers closed. It could not grab asparagus, it struggled not to crush hot briquettes into dust, and flipping a batch of 10 assorted chicken pieces made us adopt a sideways, two-handed “shovel and throw” motion that was anything but deft. Two more models of tongs performed moderately well once we’d adjusted to their slightly ungainly handles and pincers. But when we picked up the final t...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Agility: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup/Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
Long, comfortable to grip and pinch, and easy to open, these grill tongs are almost identical to the ones we originally reviewed. They’re just as agile, durable, and easy to use—sturdy enough to maneuver heavy racks of ribs but also capable of more precise work, such as turning delicate asparagus spears and pieces of chicken. The arms of the tongs are slightly wider than in the previous incarnation. As a result, the tongs are a touch heavier, though they are still lightweight and agile. And because the arms are wider, it’s actually easier to clean their interiors. The pincers are virtually unchanged; their shallow scallops ensure that you’ll never accidentally tear any food that’s in their grip. Two small bonuses: a big loop at one end for storage and a built-in bottle opener.
- Agility: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup/Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
Our former winner took top marks again, with just the right combination of light but tough construction, precise pincers that stayed aligned throughout testing and could pluck up the tiniest toothpick or hoist the heftiest slab of ribs, and an easy locking tab that opened and closed simply and smoothly. At 16 inches, they are just long enough to be safe from the heat but short enough to give great leverage and control. The tension of the arms is well calibrated to be springy but not hand-straining over the course of cooking, such as when we grilled a big batch of barbecue chicken.
Recommended
- Agility: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup/Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
These tongs are sturdy, sleek, and well constructed, with precise pincers that stayed aligned throughout our testing. The only downside? A slightly too-clever locking system that works automatically, depending on whether the tongs are gently squeezed while pointing down to unlock or up to lock. This never became fully natural; we had to keep stopping to reposition them as we cooked. (One tester’s family likes to ask unsuspecting guests to try unlocking these tongs for amusement.)
- Agility: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup/Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
While these tongs were moderately lightweight, they also seemed a bit flimsy to our testers, especially when lifting heavier foods. A little longer and heavier than our winner, they required a bit more work to use. The unusual curved-in pincers were surprisingly effective at grasping larger foods, though their shape made the position of the tip visually ambiguous during precision work such as picking up slim asparagus spears and the cupped shape tended to scrape off and collect rubs and sauces. The locking mechanism was a little uncomfortable to push in for unlocking, but a big metal loop made it very easy to grab and pull out when locking.
Recommended with reservations
- Agility: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup/Durability: 2 stars out of 3.
While these tongs were not exactly bad, there are better choices. Just a bit too heavy, too long, and too stiff, with slightly excessive tension in the spring, they were sometimes fatiguing to use. The bare metal locking mechanism on the handle had a sharp edge, which was a little painful to push in, especially if we did it one-handed by popping it against a hip. And finally, we’d much prefer to toss tongs in the dishwasher, but these should be washed by hand, the instructions warn, probably due to the wooden handle inserts (which were a bit uncomfortable for some testers and emerged slightly roughened after being washed 25 times).
Not Recommended
- Agility: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup/Durability: 2 stars out of 3.
These oversize, overbuilt tongs made everyone crack jokes—until we tried to use them and our laughter turned to bitter complaints. So stiff that they took two hands to pinch closed, they were clumsy, heavy, and ineffective—and quickly became painful to manipulate. The misaligned pincers completely missed toothpicks and let the glass jar slip and drop onto the counter. The final blow? Despite their macho build, they’re too delicate to go in the dishwasher.
- Agility: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup/Durability: 1 stars out of 3.
The first pair arrived broken, and the second, equally flimsy pair became floppy and misaligned within a few uses, making us sweat and curse as we struggled to pick up asparagus or move briquettes to set up the fire. The toothy pincers hooked into chicken, snagged on grill grates, and tore off bits of sponge when we tried to scrub them clean. The gimmicky, bulky heat shield, which was supposed to swing freely on the handle to stay between your hand and the heat, didn’t always work, and over the course of testing, it became too stiff and creaky to swing freely. Finally, a hook designed to lock the tongs for storage often engaged while we were working—clamping them shut miduse.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Lisa McManus
Lisa is an executive editor for ATK Reviews, cohost of Gear Heads on YouTube, and gadget expert on TV's America's Test Kitchen.