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We tested three rotisserie kits for 22.5-inch kettle-style charcoal grills. Each kit was composed of a simple ring, a spit, and a motor that fit atop our winning and Best Buy charcoal kettle-style grills, both made by Weber. Our favorite kit, the Weber 2290 22-inch Charcoal Kettle Rotisserie, was the most reliable, easiest to use, and most powerful model we tested. It produced crispy-skinned, perfectly moist chicken as well as well-browned, juicy lamb.
Converting your charcoal grill into a rotisserie for spit-roasting meats is simple with a charcoal grill rotisserie kit. A metal ring (about 6 inches tall) that supports the spit sits on the rim of your kettle-style grill, while a small motor (which you plug into an electrical outlet) turns the spit continuously. You put the grill’s lid on top of the ring, forming an oven-like chamber, and your meat cooks. As the meat turns, juices and seasonings stay mostly inside it and on it, rather than dripping away, so the result is extra-juicy, crisp, well browned, slightly smoky, and flavorful.
Converting your charcoal grill into a rotisserie for spit-roasting meats is simple with a charcoal grill rotisserie kit.
We tested three models that are designed to fit kettle-style grills with diameters of 22 to 22.5 inches, including our winning and Best Buy charcoal grills, the Weber Performer Deluxe Charcoal Grill and Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill, 22-Inch. One kit was made by Weber; the others were designed to fit any kettle-style model of 22 to 22.5 inches in diameter. While all three looked similar, we discovered that our winner has key engineering details that made it stand out.
Rotisserie chicken is simple to make with a grill rotisserie kit, and it's mostly hands-off. The trussed chicken turns on the spit over indirect heat, so it roasts evenly and bastes itself (left). The finished chicken can be removed from the spit by loosening two screws that secure the forks (center). Juicy meat and crispy skin make a delicious meal (right).
What to Look For
- Powerful Motor: Our winner had a 9-watt motor; the others had just 4 watts, and the difference was apparent, especially when roasting heavier foods such as bone-in leg of lamb. One of the weaker motors soon began struggling to turn food, wobbling, hesitating, and jerking until the spit detached from the motor and stopped turning. While the spit was stopped, the meat scorched slightly on one side, and juices dripped out, hissing on the fire. The winner never hesitated, turning smoothly for upwards of 2 hours even with a large, irregularly shaped 7-pound bone-in leg of lamb.
Our favorite rotisserie kit had a more powerful motor than its rivals, and it never struggled, even when roasting a 7-pound bone-in leg of lamb for upwards of 2 hours.
- Fewer Pieces: Two models had tubelike pieces called bushings designed to make the spit rotate smoothly and stay in place, but they didn't help. On one model a piece of the bushing stuck up so far that it bumped and jiggled the grill lid as the spit turned. We had to stop cooking and make adjustments on the fly. Our winner’s spit simply had two deep grooves etched into it on either end, where it rested on the ring. This design not only worked perfectly but also gave us fewer parts to adjust, clean, and keep track of. Functionally, the grooves on the winner’s spit also served another important purpose: to support the weight of the food, lightening the load on its motor. The tips of the other two models’ spits were supported by their motors only, which required these motors to work harder to turn the spits, potentially shortening their life spans.
Our winning rotisserie kit uses fewer pieces. Here it has a simple rounded groove in the spit where it meets the metal ring, which helps it turn smoothly and supports the weight of food. The other kits had rounded tubes called bushings that had to be fastened on with a screw. The head of the screw bumped the lid as the spit turned unless it was carefully adjusted.
- No Wiggling: In the rotisserie kits we tested, you insert the tip of the spit into a hole in the motor, which makes the spit turn. On our last-place kit, we noticed that there was a lot of wiggle room at the connection between the spit and the motor. This resulted in the spit jiggling out of place as it turned, making it stop rotating. For our winner and Best Buy, the connection had no wiggle room; the end of the spit slid snugly into its motor and stayed put. All the motor’s power was directed into turning the spit, not jiggling it.
With rotisserie kits, you insert the tip of the spit into the motor, which keeps it turning. Our winner's spit (left) fit snugly, putting all the power of the motor behind its rotation. A rival kit's spit (right) fit loosely. This allowed it to wiggle out of the motor and stop moving—which happened while we were roasting lamb.
- Two-Prong Forks: All the spits came with forks to hold the food in place. These forks had either two or four horizontal prongs apiece. Surprisingly, we preferred the winner’s two-pronged forks (with both prongs the same length) to the models with four-pronged forks (with prongs of varying lengths); it was easier to spear, center, and balance the food with two equal-size prongs.
- Fork Fasteners That Hold Tight: The all-important screws that anchor the forks (and hence, the food) on the spit were not created equal. The winner’s were better designed. While the other models relied only on the tip of the screw touching the rod to hold everything in place, our winner had three points of contact: The screw passes through a bracket whose two ends also press tightly against the rod as the screw tightens. Even better, tabs for turning the screws on our winner were bigger and easier to grab, bare-handed or with pliers, an important consideration when you’re tweaking the forks’ position or removing cooked food from the hot spit.
The winner's all-important fastening screws, which keep food anchored on the spit, had large heads that were easy to grab and went through brackets that provided three points of contact with the spit along with an extra-snug fit. Other models had screws with small heads that were harder to turn and relied on just the tip of the screw to hold tight against the spit.
- Protective Motor-Holding Brackets: Each kit came with a metal bracket to attach the motor to the ring when it’s time to cook. We preferred models with strong brackets that both supported and protected the motor.
Nice to Have
- A Long Power Cord: We loved the 13-foot power cord on one model, which reached an outdoor outlet without an extension cord. Our winner’s cord was 3.5 feet long, and the last-place model was even shorter. If you use an extension cord, be sure that it’s rated for outdoor use and is heavy-duty.
What to Avoid
- Weak Motors: Weaker motors (just 4 watts compared with our winner’s 9 watts) were more prone to struggling with heavier, more irregular foods, which made us wonder whether they would burn out before long.
The weaker motor on this rotisserie left it struggling to turn lamb smoothly. Later, it also faltered with just a small chicken on the spit, leaving us wondering about its durability.
- Bendy Brackets: One model’s thin, bendy motor-holding bracket sagged outward as the grill heated up, which may have helped the tip of its spit fall out of the motor, so the spit stopped turning.
Minor Flaws
- Ill-Fitting Ring: Surprisingly, even though Weber designed its own rotisserie kit, its metal ring didn’t quite match the top rim of its grill as snugly as the two lower-ranked models from other manufacturers did. We’d noticed online advice from users suggesting ways to plug the small gap, including placing foil around the top rim of the grill, but we made no adjustments. We found that the gap had no impact on our cooking results or roasting times or in handling the rotisserie kit, which stayed neatly in place. Smoke and heat also stayed in just fine.
Other Considerations
- No Handles Needed: We expected to prefer the stay-cool wooden handles on the ring of our last-place model, but we didn’t need handles: The rings didn’t require much handling when hot, and their lightweight metal cooled quickly once cooking was done.
- Spit-roast a whole 4-pound chicken
- Spit-roast a 7- to 8-pound bone-in leg of lamb
- Clean the washable parts by hand after each use
