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See why.The Best Charcoal Grill Rotisseries
These simple kits allow you to spit-roast chicken, pork, lamb, and more on your kettle-style charcoal grill.
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What You Need To Know
We tested three rotisserie kits for 22.5-inch kettle-style charcoal grills. Each kit was composed of a simple ring, a spit, and a motor that fit atop our winning and Best Buy charcoal kettle-style grills, both made by Weber. Our favorite kit, the Weber 2290 22-inch Charcoal Kettle Rotisserie, was the most reliable, easiest to use, and most powerful model we tested. It produced crispy-skinned, perfectly moist chicken as well as well-browned, juicy lamb.
What You Need to Know
Converting your charcoal grill into a rotisserie for spit-roasting meats is simple with a charcoal grill rotisserie kit. A metal ring (about 6 inches tall) that supports the spit sits on the rim of your kettle-style grill, while a small motor (which you plug into an electrical outlet) turns the spit continuously. You put the grill’s lid on top of the ring, forming an oven-like chamber, and your meat cooks. As the meat turns, juices and seasonings stay mostly inside it and on it, rather than dripping away, so the result is extra-juicy, crisp, well browned, slightly smoky, and flavorful.
We tested three models that are designed to fit kettle-style models with diameters of 22 to 22.5 inches, including our winning and Best Buy charcoal grills, the Weber Performer Deluxe Charcoal Grill and Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill, 22-Inch. One kit was made by Weber; the others were designed to fit any kettle-style model of 22 to 22.5 inches in diameter. While all three looked similar, we discovered that our winner has key engineering details that made it stand out.
What to Look For
- Powerful Motor: Our winner had a 9-watt motor; the others had just 4 watts, and the difference was apparent, especially when roasting heavier foods such as bone-in leg of lamb. One of the weaker motors soon began struggling to turn food, wobbling, hesitating, and jerking until the spit detached from the motor and stopped turning. While the spit was stopped, the meat scorched slightly on one side, and juices dripped out, hissing on the fire. The winner never hesitated, turning smoothly for upwards of 2 hours even with a large, irregularly shaped 7-pound bone-in leg of lamb.
- Fewer Pieces: Two models had tubelike pieces called bushings designed to make the spit rotate smoothly and stay in place, but they didn't help. On one model a piece of the bushing stuck up so far that it bumped and jiggled the grill lid as the spit turned. We had to stop cooking and make adjustments on the fly. Our winner’s spit simply had two deep grooves etched into it on either end, where it rested on the ring. This design not only worked perfectly but also gave us fewer parts to adjust, cle...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
We fell head over heels in love with rotisserie grilling after discovering how easy it was to produce extra-juicy, crispy-skinned chicken and beautifully roasted, juicy lamb with this kit. Key design elements made it perform better than its rivals and made it potentially more durable: Its motor has more than twice the wattage of the other models and never struggled. The food-securing forks on its spit have two (not four) prongs, which made it easier to center food so that it rotated smoothly. The all-important screws that anchor the forks to the spit have large heads that were easy to grab and turn and unique brackets that helped the screws stay firmly in place. We loved that this model had fewer parts: A simple pair of deep grooves on the spit held it in place horizontally on the ring and supported the weight of the food. By contrast, the others added extra pieces that didn’t work as well—one of these pieces even obstructed the spit’s turning, and both models’ motors supported the pointed end of the spit, forcing them to work harder and potentially wear out sooner.
Recommended with reservations
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 1.5 stars out of 3.
We made great food with this kit and loved the extra-long power cord that avoided the use of a separate extension cord to plug in the motor. Its rim fit snugly on the Weber kettle grill. The metal bracket supporting the motor was a bit thin and bendy, sagging away slightly when the grill got hot, which may have caused the spit to detach from the motor while we were roasting lamb. We also had some trouble with a part called a bushing on the spit; it’s meant to support the spit on the ring of the rotisserie kit near the handle end and reduce friction as it turns. But its protruding screw poked the grill lid every time the spit turned; we had to stop cooking and tweak it while the grill was red-hot. The forks that secure food to the spit each have four prongs, which we thought would be better than two but actually made it slightly harder to spear food evenly and firmly.
Not Recommended
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 1.5 stars out of 3.
This kit’s weak motor struggled to turn the spit when we roasted a heavy leg of lamb and kept struggling when we later roasted a 4-pound chicken, so we worried about its durability. Its spit didn’t attach snugly to the motor and came loose during cooking, so the spit stopped rotating the meat. Luckily, we soon noticed that the food wasn’t turning and reinserted the tip of the spit into the motor. The food eventually roasted well, but it was worrisome to babysit this model. When we washed its parts, some of the chrome coating on the forks and screws wore off, so they began rusting. In sum: There are better choices than this model.
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.