Best Electric BBQ Grills for Apartments and Small Patios

How the Five Compare on the Numbers

Two listings in this pool were left out. One is a table top Korean barbecue and raclette grill with a griddle plate and three mini cheese pans, a dining table appliance rather than a barbecue grill. The other is a second George Foreman with a stand that publishes a serving count and no area, so it repeats an argument already on this page. What remains is five machines that measure their cooking surface three different ways, which is the problem this page is about.

Weight is published on four of the five. CUSIMAX is 14.66 pounds, the heaviest of those four, which fits a standing grill with a second rack. George Foreman is 8.68 pounds and Hamilton Beach 8.14. Elite Gourmet publishes the lowest figure, 1.43 pounds, and that is not credible for a 12 inch grill supplied with a grill base, a drip tray, a plate and a tempered glass lid, so no comparison here rests on it. Techwood publishes no weight.

What the table cannot tell you is how hot each grill actually gets. Two of the five publish a temperature and both name 450 F, which gives you a ceiling and nothing about the rest of the dial. A wattage figure is a draw, not a surface temperature, and a plate the size of a grill can be far cooler at the rim than over the element. None of the five publishes a preheat time except George Foreman, and none states an even heating figure of any kind.

Cooking Area, Measured Three Ways

Square Inches Against Servings

Hamilton Beach and Techwood are the only two to publish a cooking area in square inches, 118 and 240 respectively, and both also give a serving count. Hamilton Beach calls its 118 square inches six servings. Techwood calls its 240 square inches more than fifteen servings. That is roughly double the surface for more than double the people, so the two makers plainly do not mean the same thing by a serving.

George Foreman gives 15 servings in its title and no area anywhere, which makes its claim impossible to place against either. It is the only pick whose headline figure is a serving count with nothing behind it. If you are choosing on how much food fits, the square inch figure is the one to use, and only two of these five will give you one.

The Two That Publish Only a Length

Elite Gourmet publishes 12 inches and calls it the grilling surface, which in a round grill with a circular element is a diameter. CUSIMAX publishes a 15.15 inch cooking rack and an 11 inch warming rack, which are lengths across racks whose other side is never given. Neither figure converts into an area without knowing a second dimension that neither listing supplies.

That matters most on the CUSIMAX, because the second rack is the reason to buy it. An 11 inch foldable warming rack that holds cooked food while the next batch goes on is a genuinely different capability from anything else on this page. What the listing will not say is how much food that rack takes, and its size field says only Double Layer.

Heat: Watts on Three, Degrees on Two

Where the Element Sits

CUSIMAX and Techwood both publish 1600 W and Elite Gourmet publishes 1200 W, which makes three wattages across five listings. CUSIMAX goes further and describes the layout, a double U heating tube arrangement it says heats evenly. Techwood describes an interlocking hood and bowl that it says allows rapid cycle heating, which is a claim about the enclosure rather than about the element.

Elite Gourmet is the only other listing to say anything about element shape: a circular heating element, which it says heats faster and more evenly on a 12 inch plate. George Foreman and Hamilton Beach describe no element at all. Between them these five give you three wattages, two element descriptions and no way to compare any of it directly.

The Two Published Temperatures

Hamilton Beach publishes a number in degrees, searing at 450 F with an adjustable dial for lower heat, and Elite Gourmet publishes the same ceiling, five settings up to 450 F on a 1200 W thermostat control. Hamilton Beach is still the only listing to describe a hood that closes onto the food for grill marks, and the only one to state that its nonstick grate is PFAS free, the most specific material claim in this pool.

George Foreman is the only pick that publishes a preheat time, ten minutes, and the only one to count its heat settings, of which there are five. It also publishes the fat claim the brand is known for, a sloped surface that removes up to 42 percent of fat, and marks that figure with an asterisk its own bullet never explains.

Indoors, Outdoors and the Landlord Clause

Which of These Leave the Kitchen

Three of the five are sold for outdoor use and all three do it with a stand. George Foreman’s clips into place and detaches so the grill can move from patio to counter. CUSIMAX describes a detachable design and arrives pre assembled. Techwood says its packed size fits the trunk of a compact car, which is the only transport claim on this page.

Hamilton Beach and Elite Gourmet are indoor machines and neither pretends otherwise. Hamilton Beach publishes a height field of 6.81 inches, which is what a benchtop searing grill with a closing hood should be, and it is the one figure here that would slide under a wall cabinet. Elite Gourmet’s 9.17 by 12 by 11.1 inches describes something that will live in a cupboard between uses.

The Same Bullet Under Two Brands

George Foreman and Techwood publish the apartment argument in nearly identical words: the landlord will love it, the fully electric system gives high quality grilling, no charcoal, no propane and no flare ups. They are not the same product, since their dimensions, materials and area figures all differ, but that paragraph has been copied from one listing to the other.

It is worth noticing because it is the only claim on either listing that a buyer might act on legally, and it is boilerplate. No listing on this page names a building code, an apartment rule or a certification behind it. If your lease bans grills, the sentence in a product bullet is not the document that settles it, whichever of the two you read it on.

Which One Fits Your Kitchen

Indoor searing all year. Hamilton Beach publishes 118 square inches, a 450 F searing setting, a hood that closes for grill marks, and a PFAS free nonstick grate with the hood, plate and drip tray all dishwasher safe. At 8.14 pounds and 6.81 inches high it lives on a counter.

A patio crowd. Techwood publishes 240 square inches, the largest area on this page, over 15 servings, 1600 W and a porcelain coated cast iron grate. It publishes no weight, and its claim to fit a compact car trunk is the only portability statement here.

Grilling in batches. CUSIMAX pairs a 15.15 inch cooking rack with an 11 inch foldable warming rack, so the first round stays hot while the second cooks. It is 14.66 pounds, the heaviest of the four that publish a weight, and arrives pre assembled.

Draining the fat off. George Foreman is the only pick with a sloped plate and a stated fat reduction figure, up to 42 percent, plus five heat settings and a ten minute preheat. It claims 15 servings and publishes no cooking area to support the number.

Minimum cleanup. Elite Gourmet states that every part detaches and goes in the dishwasher, and names them: grill base, drip tray, grill plate, tempered glass lid and thermostat control. A 12 inch surface, a circular element on 1200 W with five settings up to 450 F, indoor only, and a published weight that cannot be right.

What We Could Not Verify

These six things decide how an electric grill cooks, and the five listings settle none of them.

• Cooking area on three of the five. CUSIMAX and Elite Gourmet publish a single length with no second dimension, and George Foreman publishes only a serving count.
• Temperature on three of the five. Hamilton Beach and Elite Gourmet both give 450 F. Adjustable and a temperature probe are controls rather than temperatures.
• Even heating. Two listings claim it in words, one through a circular element and one through double U tubes, and neither publishes a variation figure across the plate.
• Weight on one of the five, and a believable weight on another. Techwood publishes none, and Elite Gourmet’s 1.43 pounds is less than its own glass lid is likely to weigh.
• What is behind the apartment claim. Two listings say a landlord will approve and neither names a code, a rule or a certification of any kind.
• What the fat reduction figure is measured against. George Foreman publishes up to 42 percent with an asterisk, and the bullet carrying the asterisk never explains it.