Garden Last updated · owner ratings verified July 2026
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Side by side
| Our pick Weber Weber Q1200 Liquid Propane Portable Grill Better overall $260-330 Check price | Weber Weber Q2200 Liquid Propane Grill Bigger Weber $330-420 Check price | Weber Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill Best folding Weber $400-500 Check price | Coleman Coleman RoadTrip 285 Stand-Up Propane Grill Best value $200-280 Check price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What owners rate it | ||||
| Owner rating | 4.8 / 5 (8,257) | 4.7 / 5 (2,809) | 4.6 / 5 (1,568) | 4.5 / 5 (6,912) |
| Specifications | ||||
| Burners | 1 stainless steel burner | 1 stainless steel burner | 1 burner | 3 independently controlled burners |
| Output | 8,500 BTU | 12,000 BTU | 13,000 BTU | 20,000 BTU total |
| Cooking area | 189 sq in | 280 sq in | 320 sq in — the largest here | 285 sq in |
| Grates | Porcelain-enameled cast iron | Porcelain-enameled cast iron | Porcelain-enameled cast iron | Porcelain-coated cast iron, interchangeable cooktops |
| How it travels | Tabletop, folding side tables, no stand | Tabletop; cart sold separately | Folds onto its own wheeled cart | Folds onto its own wheeled stand |
| Fuel | 1 lb cylinder; 20 lb with an adapter hose | 1 lb cylinder; 20 lb with an adapter hose | 1 lb cylinder; 20 lb with an adapter hose | 1 lb cylinder; 20 lb with an adapter hose |
| Parts and service | Extensive Weber parts network, long warranty on major parts | Extensive Weber parts network, long warranty on major parts | Extensive Weber parts network, long warranty on major parts | Limited parts supply; older units are hard to service |
| Who it suits | ||||
| Best for | Two to four people, camping or a small balcony, cooked properly | Four to six people, where the Q1200 runs out of grate | Tailgating and camping where a stand has to come along | Tailgates, campsites and cooking for a crowd on the move |
Ratings are aggregated Amazon owner ratings, not our own testing. Figures verified July 2026.
Pros and cons
Weber Q1200 Liquid Propane Portable Grill
- Porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates hold heat, so meat sears instead of steaming when it hits the grate
- Cast aluminum body and lid retain heat well enough to cook with the lid down like a real grill
- Highest owner rating of anything on this page, across a large and long-standing review base
- Weber's parts supply is the deepest in the industry — burner tubes, igniters and grates stay available for years
- One burner means one heat zone, so there is no cool side for indirect cooking
- 189 square inches is genuinely small once you are cooking for more than four
- No stand in the box: it sits on a table or you buy a cart separately
- Runs on 1 lb cylinders unless you add an adapter hose for a 20 lb tank
Weber Q2200 Liquid Propane Grill
- 280 square inches is roughly half again the Q1200, which is the difference between two rounds and one
- 12,000 BTU across the same cast-iron grate system, so recovery after opening the lid is quicker
- Same build and the same parts availability as the smaller Q
- Fits a full chicken with the lid closed, which the Q1200 cannot manage
- About 43 lbs, which is heavy enough that portability becomes theoretical for one person
- Still a single burner, so still a single heat zone
- Costs more than the Coleman while cooking for a similar number of people
Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill
- Folds down over its own cart and rolls on two wheels, which is the one thing the Q series cannot do
- 320 square inches, the largest cooking area on this page
- 13,000 BTU with the same porcelain-enameled cast-iron grate as the rest of the Weber range
- Sets up in about ten seconds with one lever
- The most expensive grill here, and by a clear margin over the Coleman
- About 50 lbs folded, so lifting it into a trunk is a two-hand job
- Single burner again, so no independent heat zones
- Smallest owner-review base of the Weber machines here
Coleman RoadTrip 285 Stand-Up Propane Grill
- Three independently adjustable burners give real heat zones, which no Weber on this page offers
- Twenty thousand BTU across 285 square inches, more raw output than any grill here
- Collapses onto a wheeled stand and rolls like luggage, then sets up in under a minute
- Interchangeable cooktops let you swap a grate for a griddle, so breakfast and dinner run on one machine
- The only portable propane grill Coleman fields, so there is no larger or smaller model in the range
- Lighter-gauge body loses heat faster in wind and cold than Weber's cast aluminum
- Parts availability is nothing like Weber's — a failed burner assembly on an older unit is often the end of it
- Owner rating is respectable but sits below every Weber here
Decision factors
What you actually pay
Coleman undercuts Weber at every point, and it does it while offering more burners and more BTU. On the specification sheet the RoadTrip 285 looks like the obvious buy: three heat zones, 20,000 BTU, a folding cart included, for less than the cheapest Weber Q.
Where the Weber money goes. Into materials and into the parts network. A cast aluminum firebox and heavy porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates hold heat rather than radiating it away, which is why a Weber Q cooks well on a windy campsite and why a lighter grill struggles. The rest goes into a parts business that stocks burner tubes and igniters for grills long out of production.
Running costs are mostly fuel, and the 1 lb cylinder is the trap. Every grill here ships set up for disposable 1 lb canisters, which cost several dollars each and last a couple of hours. An adapter hose to a refillable 20 lb tank costs about the price of four canisters and pays for itself almost immediately. Buy the adapter with the grill unless it will only ever be used in a park.
The cost nobody counts is replacement. A grill that lasts twelve years at Weber money is cheaper per season than one replaced at year four, and the used market treats the two brands accordingly. That is the whole long-run argument, and it only applies if you actually use the thing. A grill that comes out three times a summer will outlast its warranty either way. Our guide on how long a gas grill lasts covers what fails and when.
Which one fits you
- Camping and cooking for two to four Weber Q1200 Cast-iron grates and a heat-retaining body mean it cooks properly in wind and cold, where lighter grills stall.
- Tailgating for a crowd Coleman RoadTrip 285 Three independent burners, a griddle option and a stand that folds and rolls — the whole design is built for the parking lot.
- Feeding six from a portable grill Weber Q2200 The extra grate area and BTU are what let you cook in one round instead of two, without losing Weber's heat retention.
- Wants a Weber that folds and rolls Weber Traveler The largest cooking area here on a one-lever folding cart, which is the gap in the Q series it exists to fill.
If neither is right
- Char-Broil Grill2Go X200 Portable Propane Grill An infrared cooking system in a genuinely rugged case with a carry handle, aimed squarely at people who throw a grill in a truck bed. Infrared runs hotter and more evenly than an open burner and is far less bothered by wind, at the cost of a smaller cooking area.
- Weber Smokey Joe Portable Charcoal Grill If flavor is the point and convenience is not, charcoal on a 14-inch kettle costs a fraction of anything here and travels more easily than any propane grill. Slower to light and messier to pack down, which is the whole trade.
- Weber Spirit II E-310 3-Burner Liquid Propane Grill Worth naming because portable grills are frequently bought by people who actually want a patio grill. Three burners, real indirect cooking and a full cart, for around the price of the Weber Traveler. Only relevant if the grill can stay put.
Which should you actually buy?
Buy the Weber Q1200 if the grill is there to cook well: it holds heat, it sears, and Weber will still sell you a burner tube for it in eight years. Buy the Coleman RoadTrip 285 if the grill has to travel, set up in a parking lot, run three different foods at once and fold back into a trunk. Both are the right answer to a different question, and the question is whether transport or cooking is the constraint.
A range against a single design
Weber fields several portable propane grills: two sizes of tabletop Q, plus the Traveler, which folds onto its own cart. Coleman's portable propane line is the RoadTrip, one folding-stand design in a couple of trims. That asymmetry shapes the whole comparison, because with Weber you choose a grill to fit the job and with Coleman you take the design as it comes.
It is not automatically a criticism. The RoadTrip design is genuinely clever, has been refined over many years, and does the tailgate job better than anything Weber built until the Traveler arrived. But it does mean there is no smaller Coleman for a two-person camping trip and no heavier one for someone who cooks in cold weather.
Why does heat retention beat BTU here?
The Coleman produces more BTU than any Weber here, and it is still the Weber that cooks more consistently outdoors. That sounds contradictory until you think about where the heat goes. BTU measures how much fuel the burner can turn into heat; it says nothing about how much of that heat stays around the food.
A cast aluminum body with heavy cast-iron grates behaves like a thermal battery. It takes longer to come up to temperature and then holds it, which is why a Weber Q recovers quickly when you lift the lid and keeps cooking when the wind picks up. A lighter body radiates heat outward as fast as the burner supplies it. On a still summer evening the difference is small; on a cold, breezy campsite it decides whether dinner is grilled or steamed. This is also why BTU figures are the most over-read number in grilling.
Where Coleman genuinely wins
Three burners, independently controlled. Every Weber on this page has one, which means one temperature across the entire cooking surface. You can cheat it by moving food to the edge, but you cannot run a hot searing zone and a low holding zone at the same time, and you cannot cook indirectly in any real sense.
The RoadTrip does all of that, and its interchangeable cooktops go further: swap a grate for a griddle and you have a breakfast setup that no Weber Q can match without buying a separate accessory. For anyone cooking varied food for a group, especially at a campsite where the grill is also the stove, that flexibility is worth more than heat retention. Be honest about which describes you.
How does each one actually travel?
The Q1200 and Q2200 are tabletop grills. They need a table, a tailgate or a purchased stand, and at 28 to 43 pounds the smaller one is genuinely liftable while the larger one is a chore. There is nothing to fold.
The RoadTrip and the Weber Traveler both collapse onto their own wheeled carts and roll. That is a different category of convenience: no table required, no second trip, and setup measured in seconds. Coleman got there first and does it for less money; Weber's version is larger, better built and considerably more expensive. If a stand has to come with the grill, those are your two options and the choice is essentially budget against build.
What happens in year six?
This is Weber's quiet advantage and it is worth more than the specification sheet suggests. Weber runs one of the deepest parts operations in the industry: burner tubes, igniters, grates and control valves remain available for grills long out of production, and the major components carry a long warranty. A Weber Q with a dead igniter is a ten-dollar repair.
Coleman's parts supply is thinner, and on older RoadTrip units a failed burner assembly frequently ends the grill's life because sourcing the part costs more effort than it is worth. That is the real reason the long-run cost picture favors Weber despite the higher entry price, and it is the same argument that plays out in our Weber vs Monument comparison of full-size gas grills.
What is it like to clean and pack down?
This decides whether a portable grill gets used, and it is the question nobody asks in the store. Weber's Q design drops fat through the grates into a catch pan under the firebox, which slides out and empties. Porcelain-enameled cast iron cleans with a brush while it is still warm and does not need seasoning like bare cast iron, though it does chip if you attack it with a wire brush and a hard hand.
The Coleman's advantage is that the cooktops lift out entirely, so a grate can go in a sink or a tub rather than being scrubbed in place. Its disadvantage is the folding mechanism: grease and ash find their way into the hinges and the stand, and a grill packed away dirty at a campsite gets messier every trip.
Either way, the rule is the same. Burn off with the lid closed for ten minutes after cooking, brush while warm, and empty the grease catch before it travels. Our guide on cleaning a gas grill covers the deeper annual clean both need.
The call
The Weber Q1200 is the better grill and the overall pick: the highest owner rating on this page, grates and a body that hold heat properly, and a parts network that keeps it running long after the warranty ends. The Coleman RoadTrip 285 is the value pick and the honest choice for tailgating, with three independent burners, a griddle option and a fold-and-roll stand that Weber only matches in a grill costing nearly twice as much.
Everything here is ranked from aggregated Amazon owner ratings and published expert consensus rather than first-hand trials, as set out in how we rank. The full field is in best portable propane grill. If the grill might stay on a patio after all, best gas grill is the better starting point, and gas vs charcoal settles the question underneath all of this.