I fired up Weber Traveler portable gas grill this week and wanted to share my first impressions after using it for two very different cooks. I have to admit, I am seriously impressed by this grill!
Let’s look at some of the features of this grill and hopefully you can see why it has the potential to be a game changer for Weber.
Weber Traveler Features
The first thing that I absolutely love about this grill is how incredibly easy it was to assemble.
All you need to do is install the wheels and cooking grates.
It took me less than 10 minutes from the time I opened the box to have the grill completely assembled and preheating for some hamburgers.
Seriously, I opened a beer before I opened the box and had flames burning before I took the first sip. I am used to a grill taking 2-3 beers to assemble.
The grill is designed to run on disposable one pound propane cylinders.
The cooking grate consists of two pieces of porcelain enameled cast iron and offers 320 sq inches of grilling space. The grates are nice and heavy and look just about identical to those you find on the Weber Q series.
From a size perspective, the Traveler offers a little more grilling space than the Q2200 and a little less than the Q3200.
The ignition is a “push spark” piezoelectric module. I like this ignition better than the battery powered electric ignition on my Weber Q1200 because it sucks when the battery dies and corrodes.
The burner tube is a single oval stainless steel tube that goes around the outside of the cooking grate and is rated for 13,000 btu/hr.
Designed for Portability
Weber designed this grill to take on the Coleman Road Trip grills and they have done an excellent job.
The stand/cart for the Traveler is extremely sturdy yet it can be collapsed with one hand and is easily transported. Weber did a great job in making something so incredibly easy to transport feel so study when in use.
The grill has a red latch on the front to keep it folded during transport and there is a lid latch that is pushed into place when the grill is collapsed.
A really nice but subtle feature is the use of grate guides that hold the cast iron grates in place. The holders keep the grates from bouncing and rattling around while you are moving the grill.
First Cooks on the Traveler
For the very first cook I set the Traveler to High and let it preheat for about 10 minutes. After the grill had preheated the lid thermometer was reading 550F and my IR thermometer was reading grate temperatures of 580F. The grill gets hot fast!
I threw some burgers on the grates and had a wonderful, uneventful grilling season. This grill can do high heat searing just fine!
For the second cook I had the grill set to Low and the lid thermometer was reading 350F. I threw on four pounds of chicken wings to see if I could overload the grill and get a grease fire going.
The three things I learned from this cook were:
- Flareups were not a problem
- I could have fit another pound of wings on the grill
- The Traveler can run at lower temperatures just fine.
Key Takeaways
I will keep this review updated as I do more cooks and learn more nuances of the grill but my first impressions of the Traveler is that it is an awesome grill.
I have really enjoyed grilling on my Weber Q grills but now that I have the Traveler I think the Q’s might have cooked their last burgers.
For more information check out these two articles about how the Traveler compares to some other grill:
What questions have you got about the Traveler?
Drop your questions down in the comments and I will do my best to answer them!