Weber Genesis vs. Heston Blumenthal Everdure Grill: Which three

The Everdure Furnace is a new three-burner gas grill created by Everdure in partnership with chef Heston Blumenthal. It’s meant to give enthusiasts a true live-fire experience. It competes squarely with the Weber Genesis E-325s, a longtime favorite of serious backyard cooks that topped our previous tests of the best grills.

To find out which one deserves a spot on your deck, balcony or patio, we used them head-to-head over the course of a month. We assembled both grills and then fired them up for a series of real-world cooking tests to measure their preheating abilities, evenness of cooking (using hot dogs and boneless chicken breasts) and ability to sear food (hamburgers). Read on to find out which three-burner gas grill will turn you into a grilling enthusiast.

The versatile, adapatable Genesis is easy enough for beginners but can produce results that will satisfy expert grillers.

A minimal gas grill designed for live-fire cooking, the Furnace hits high temperatures and is perfect for the most dedicated grillmasters.

Grills are big and heavy, so building a grill is usually a two-person job. While one person can typically get started, inevitably there’s something that needs to be lifted or fitted that will require more than two hands. Assembly isn’t something you’ll need to do more than once (unless you move) so we don’t consider difficulty at this stage a deal breaker, though it’s good to keep in mind.

The Weber Genesis had much clearer instructions, plus access to rotatable 3D walkthroughs of the process via the Bilt app, but it’s heavier and slower to put together. Realistically, you’ll need two people for every step: The cabinet and legs need to be held steady while they’re being fastened together. Once the base was built, there were a few connections that required some finesse but aren’t hard to figure out. In the end, it took us about 90 minutes to get grill-ready.

The Everdure Furnace is lighter, though the directions were less clear (a video manual is available), but overall it was slightly faster to put together (by about 15 minutes) and some of the task can be accomplished by a single person. The grill arrives assembled, and you’ll remove the top before building the legs and shelves. The base is then attached and the top of the grill is bolted back on. We ran into a few tricky moments when lining up screwheads with openings and needed to rewatch the video a few times to confirm we were getting the steps right.

Both grills fired up instantly, but the Everdure was quicker to preheat, hitting 500 degrees Fahrenheit in seven minutes. The Weber Genesis E-325s was ready to go in 10 minutes — not a massive difference if you’re prepping or waiting to put burgers on the grill.

The Weber Genesis shone when it came to setting and holding a target temperature. The dials were clearly marked and the center dial made it easy to quickly add heat to the dedicated sear zone in the center of the grill.

The Everdure dial isn’t marked with any measurements, and this made it harder for us to adjust the burners or tweak the temperature. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out how to keep the grill at the temperature we wanted, shutting off the left or right burner to adjust the internal temperature under the hood.

Both of these grills did a great job, but the cooking experience was decidedly different. For the majority of backyard grillers, we think the Weber’s consistency and ability to hold steady at low and high temperatures give it the edge. It’s easier to control, and the results are more predictable. The smaller Everdure can get hotter — think of a great charcoal grill — and you’re basically putting your food in contact with the fire so it can get you an impressive char, which is great if you’re an experienced grillmaster but difficult for occasional cooks to manage.

With the Weber, our burgers got a nice crust without a lot of flare-up from fat drippings in the center of the grill. It was then simple to nestle a quartet of chicken breasts — another four would have fit easily — near the hottest zone but over a burner at a lower setting to cook them a bit slower and keep them from drying out. The Weber’s sear zone — a dedicated area in the center for browning your steaks — made it easy to map out the cooking surface. Over on the left side of the grill, hot dogs browned evenly until we transferred them off the grill grate to the foldable shelf above to stay warm without getting overdone.

With the Everdure Furnace, you’ve got to be willing to geek out, work overtime to get the best results and accept some failure. Live-fire cooking requires you to figure out where the hot and cold spots are on a grill to get the right amount of char on your burgers without leaving them overdone and dry or to keep your chicken juicy, not rubbery. We were able to hit higher temperatures on the Everdure, and that, along with the flame-kissed grates, meant we could more quickly induce the Maillard reaction (more commonly known as browning).

The Everdure’s temperature kept wanting to spike, so we were forced to open the lid more and adjust burners in an attempt to hold the temperature steady during cooking. (One note of caution: There were a bit more flames than with the Weber, and the outside of the handle got hot when the grill top was open.) The center of the grill tended to run hottest but wasn’t as easy to control independently as on the Weber. Once we got the hang of it, we got great results: We were able to hit higher temperatures than we could on the Weber, and burgers were outstanding even as they flirted with too much char. On the other hand, the Everdure struggled to hold steady at lower temperatures, which could be frustrating if you were trying to cook a brisket or pulled pork for several hours.

The chicken was moist, although it would be easy to overcook if you stepped away for too long. The zig-zag shape on the grates made it easier to flip the chicken breasts and would help tighten up skin if you were cooking skin-on chicken thighs. The hot dogs were browned without too much shriveling, but they needed to be held in foil or served before the burgers and chicken were ready because the Everdure doesn’t come with a warming shelf (you can, however, add a matching warming shelf later). Overall, the Everdure is better suited to an experienced cook who’ll be able to time when food goes onto the grill and manage proteins that require different cooking times.

The Weber gets the nod in utility, while the Everdure is more striking and minimal (and lighter and smaller, making it a bit easier to move around).

The Weber Genesis E-325s has more functional storage and lets you tuck your propane canister inside a cabinet, plus you get a handy visual indicator that shows you how much propane is left in your tank. The side shelves on the Weber are larger than the Everdure’s, which is helpful if you’re cooking for a crowd, plus it offers more enclosed storage and prep space. Overall, it’s just a tidier package, with an additional layer of protection from the elements.

The Everdure is lighter and has a slightly smaller footprint (it’s also available in a range of fun colors). While it only has two casters — the Weber has four wheels — the grill is still easier to tilt and move around a patio. We found that the Everdure’s left shelf can pop off when you’re lifting it up to move, so make sure to grip it from the edges to avoid popping it out of its brackets.

The Everdure also has a pair of open shelves and a ledge and strap for securing the propane tank. The shelves have more storage space than the Weber, but you’ll definitely want a cover to protect it from the elements if you leave your utensils and other grilling accessories outside with the grill.

The Weber Genesis offers a range of additional tools and add-ons that let you customize your grill to your needs (so long as you are willing to spend a few hundred dollars more). Everdure hasn’t made quite as large a range of accessories available for the Furnace yet, so at this point, you’re buying the Everdure Furnace for the grill.

We tested the base model of the Weber Genesis E-325s, but you can expand the size of the sear zone, add on a side burner or grill lights (knobs and under the hood) or get it equipped with the Weber Connect smart sensor system, which monitors temperature and can send you notifications via a connected app, at an additional cost. If you decide you want to expand after the fact, a huge range of gas grill accessories is available for the Weber Genesis, including the modular Weber Crafted Outdoor Kitchen Collection that lets you swap in a frame for the right-hand grate, which you can use with a flat top, baking stone or rotisserie spit.

The Everdure Furnace comes with three enamel-coated cast-iron plates. You can replace the central plate with a Teppanyaki plate kit, a flat stainless steel cooktop with raised edges and a handle for taking it on and off after use. It’s perfect for fish, vegetables and meats, and the kit comes with a pair of spatulas.

Everdure also sells a Gas Rotisserie Kit, which slots in a rotisserie spit behind an oversized glass window between the top and base of the grill. You can also purchase a matching cover or grill tools (spatula, fork and tongs).

We tested both grills using liquid propane, though both manufacturers offer a natural gas option or an aftermarket conversion kit if you want to go in that direction.

27 inches x 62 inches x 48.5 inches

29.25 inches x 57 inches x 42.1 inches

513 square inches

463.5 square inches

Cast iron

Cast iron, enamel coated

3

3

175 pounds

85 pounds

4 (2 swivel, 2 locking)

2

12 years (cookbox and lid), 10 years (burner tubes. cooking grates and flavor bars), 5 years for other parts

10 years (cookbox, burners, hood and cart), 5 years (exterior paint and finish)

For most home cooks, the control and consistency of the Weber Genesis E-325s win out over the pure power of the Everdure Furnace. With an included warming shelf, clear hot spots and dials that can be adjusted in small increments, you can master this grill right out of the box. The Weber is a lot less work than the Everdure, its more predictable temperature control makes it easier to handle multiple proteins for even vegetables at the same meal and it’s nice to know you can produce excellent burgers, hot dogs and chicken breasts without a lot of fuss. The easily controllable sear zone can even give you an excellent crust on your steaks or burgers.

If you really know what you’re doing, you enjoy optimizing the cooking experience and you’re confident in your grilling skills, you’ll want to consider the Everdure Furnace. It will take longer to master and you’ll need to keep tabs on your meats as it has less precision than the Weber Genesis E-325S, but it will reward your vigilance with nicely seared burgers cooked over the powerful burners. It is the embodiment of barbecue: Cooking is less consistent, yet the results may be sublime.