Weber
Weber Master-Touch 22
The Weber Master-Touch 22 is the upgraded version of Weber's iconic charcoal kettle, adding a hinged Gourmet BBQ System grate, a built-in thermometer, and a Tuck-Away lid holder. It's a benchmark backyard charcoal grill.
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Specifications
Features
Pros
- ✓It's incredibly versatile - direct high-heat searing, two-zone grilling, and even low-and-slow smoking with the Snake method all work great in one inexpensive grill
- ✓The hinged Gourmet BBQ System grate lets you add charcoal mid-cook and drop in accessories like a sear grate, pizza stone, or wok
- ✓The One-Touch cleaning system sweeps ash into a sealed catcher, making cleanup faster and tidier than basic kettles
- ✓Porcelain-enameled steel bowl and lid resist rust and hold heat well, and routinely last 10-15+ years
- ✓At ~$235 with a built-in thermometer and Tuck-Away lid holder it's an outstanding value in charcoal
- ✓It reaches blazing searing temps that no pellet grill can touch, giving real charcoal flavor and crust
- ✓It's light and portable at 32 lbs, easy to move around the yard or take to a campsite
- ✓Weber's 10-year warranty and universal parts availability mean you can keep it running indefinitely
Cons
- ✗Charcoal cooking has a learning curve - managing vents and fuel for steady temps takes practice versus push-button gas or pellets
- ✗There's no app, probe, or automation, so long smokes require hands-on vent adjustments and refueling
- ✗363 sq in is modest, so cooking for a big crowd means batching or stepping up to the 26-inch model
- ✗Holding low temps for a long brisket is doable but fiddly compared to a dedicated smoker, with temps prone to drifting
- ✗Ash and charcoal handling is messier than gas or pellets, and you deal with lighting and disposal every cook
- ✗The lid thermometer is approximate, so serious cooks add a separate probe
- ✗Wind can swing temperatures noticeably, requiring vent babysitting on gusty days
- ✗It needs a chimney starter and charcoal on hand, adding small ongoing fuel costs and prep steps
Owner Insightssummarized from owner discussions
The Master-Touch is the version of the Weber kettle with the hinged grate, the ash sweep, the lid holder and a thermometer, and among owners it functions less as a grill than as a platform. What people actually discuss is what they have bolted to it: Slow N Sear inserts, spinning grates, cast iron drip pans, Vortex baskets for wings, aftermarket ash catchers, carts. Sentiment is close to uniformly positive, with the important caveat that the enthusiasm is for the kettle format generally rather than for this trim specifically. Owners deciding between a plain kettle and a Master-Touch are usually told the difference is the stance, the grate and the ash catcher, not the cooking, and buyers outside North America face a much harder call because European pricing is punishing.
In use it does the two things a kettle does and does them at opposite ends of the effort scale. Direct grilling is immediate: chimney, dump, cook. Low and slow works properly but is hands-on, with owners running snake fires for eight hours on pulled pork or a Slow N Sear for eighteen-hour briskets on the larger size, watching a probe rather than the lid thermometer, which reads high by a noticeable margin. The build complaints are consistent and small: grates that rattle in their supports, bottom vents that will not close all the way, and on the hinged-lid Premium a front seam that leaks smoke until the hinge springs are dealt with. Grates rust within a year or two even under a cover. None of it stops the grill working, and the platform's longevity is not in question.
It suits someone who wants one cooker that can do everything, has patio space for exactly one thing, and does not mind managing a fire. The comparisons owners make are to the SnS Grills kettle at roughly the same money, which some people switch to outright, to the Napoleon Pro 22 for buyers outside the US, and to a Kamado Joe Classic once accessories push the total past $500, where the kamado's fuel efficiency and cold-weather stability become the better buy. The honest caveat is that the used market is so good it undercuts the new one: complete kettle-plus-Slow-N-Sear setups regularly change hands for around $200, and patient buyers do better than new-box buyers.
What owners like
- +The accessory platform is the real reason owners stay on it. Slow N Sear inserts, a spinning grate, cast iron drip and griddle pans, a Vortex for wings, aftermarket ash catchers and rotisserie kits all bolt on, and long-time owners describe building the kettle up over years rather than replacing it.
- +The hinged stainless grate with flip-up sides and a removable centre is better than what much dearer cookers ship with. One owner's only real complaint about the Big Green Egg he bought as a retirement present was that it did not come with a grate like the one on his Master-Touch.
- +It genuinely does low and slow, not just grilling. Owners run snake-method pulled pork for eight hours, pork belly burnt ends at 260 to 280F, and eighteen-hour briskets on the bigger version, usually with a Slow N Sear doing the two-zone work.
- +It survives neglect. Five years of regular use with no issues is a common report, and owners in wet climates describe uncovered kettles picking up nothing worse than surface rust on the leg tripod.
- +The used market is exceptional. Complete setups turn up for about $200 with a Slow N Sear, spare stainless grates and an ash catcher included, and tidy bare kettles go for $100 to $150, which is how a lot of people end up with two.
- +The upgrades over the base kettle are the ones you touch every cook: the taller stance, the lid holder, the ash sweep into a sealed catcher and the built-in thermometer, rather than anything that changes how it cooks.
- +At around 32 lbs it moves easily and takes one patio corner, which is why it keeps winning the cases where someone has storage for exactly one cooker and still wants to grill hot and smoke slow.
Common complaints
- −Fit and finish on new units draws regular complaints. Owners find the upper and lower grates sit loose enough to wiggle and the bottom grate can drop out of its supports, and on the hinged-lid Premium the lid famously leaks at the front until the hinge springs are removed and the lid reseated.
- −The bottom vents on many units will not close completely, which is one of the most-asked new-owner questions. It matters most to people planning long low-temperature cooks, where a vent that cannot be fully shut makes it harder to choke the fire down.
- −The grates rust within a couple of years even on covered grills. Owners burn the rust off at the start of a cook and it cooks fine, but the cosmetic state of the grates is a recurring gripe and replacements are an ongoing cost.
- −Ordering direct rather than picking one up in a store has burned people. Single-parcel shipping produced two damaged deliveries in a row for one buyer, including a bent leg housing, and one new unit collapsed during cleaning on its third cook and dumped hot coals. Complaints about the direct sales and support channel show up alongside these.
- −You will not match a restaurant charcoal grill's char. The fire bed sits too far from the food for the close-contact heat that produces those flavours, and the workaround owners suggest is stacking coals high on one half and accepting constant attention.
- −Everything is manual. Long cooks mean the snake method or a Slow N Sear plus a probe, and owners who want to sleep through an overnight add a vent regulator or a blower fan. Several point out that once you have bought the kettle plus a full accessory set you are into Kamado Joe Classic money, and the kamado holds temperature better in cold weather.
Common Questions
Should I get the 22 or the 26?
Is the Master-Touch worth it over the plain kettle?
My bottom vents will not close all the way. Is that normal?
Can you actually smoke a brisket on it?
Which accessories should I buy first?
Why is smoke leaking out of the front of my lid?
Compare the Weber Master-Touch 22
The Weber Master-Touch 22 is one of 7 sizes in this line.
See every size, to scale →Related grills
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The Weber Original Kettle Premium 22 is the iconic charcoal kettle that started backyard grilling in America, upgraded with a built-in thermometer, hinged grate, and sealed One-Touch ash catcher. It's the single most-recommended first grill in owner discussions.
The base 22-inch Weber kettle and the entry point to the whole charcoal ladder. It has the same 363 sq in grate and One-Touch ash sweep as the Original Kettle Premium above it, but drops that model's hinged grate, built-in lid thermometer and enclosed ash catcher for an open ash pan. Against the 18-inch below it, the extra four inches is the difference between fitting a two-zone fire and not.
The smallest full-size Weber kettle, an 18-inch bowl with 240 sq in of grate against the 22-inch model's 363. It keeps the One-Touch ash sweep, enclosed ash catcher and the same porcelain-enameled bowl and lid as its bigger sibling, so the only real difference is diameter. Weber sells it as the apartment-balcony and small-patio kettle rather than a budget version of the 22.
Weber
Weber Performer 22
Weber redesigned the Performer for 2026: it is a 22-inch kettle bowl mounted on a wheeled cart with a fixed side table, a bottom storage shelf and the Weber Works side rail for snap-on accessories. The grate, at 363 sq in, is identical to the Original Kettle 22 — what the money buys is the cart, the hinged grate, the lid thermometer and the improved ash catcher. It sits above the 22-inch Master-Touch and below the Smart version, which adds a Wi-Fi airflow controller.
A rectangular portable charcoal grill with legs that fold up and lock the lid shut for carrying. The 160 sq in rectangular grate suits long items — sausages, corn, a rack of ribs cut in half — better than the round Smokey Joe's 147 sq in. It is the charcoal twin of Weber's long-running Go-Anywhere gas model.
The 26-inch Master-Touch is the largest kettle Weber makes below the Ranch, with a 508 sq in primary grate plus an 80 sq in warming rack. It carries the Master-Touch package — hinged stainless grate, Char-Rails, lid thermometer and Tuck-Away lid holder — on a bowl four inches wider than the 22-inch Master-Touch already in the catalog. Weber no longer lists a plain 26-inch Original Kettle, so this is the only way to buy the 26-inch bowl new.