Weber

Few names have shaped barbecue culture the way Weber has. If you have ever spotted a round, dome-lidded grill on a terrace, in a film, or in a neighbour's garden, you were probably looking at the silhouette this American company turned into an icon. What interests us, though, is something more specific: how Weber distilled decades of know-how about live fire into a single kamado, the Summit Kamado E6, and how it built an ecosystem of accessories and tools that genuinely deliver.

Origins and philosophy

The story starts with a simple, slightly improvised idea. In 1952, in Palatine, Illinois, George Stephen shaped the first kettle barbecue by welding together two sheet-metal half-spheres meant for marine buoys. That domed lid, which shielded the coals from the wind and spread the heat by convection, founded what is now Weber-Stephen Products. From a sideline at a metalworking shop, it grew into the dominant force in charcoal and gas grilling across the United States for more than half a century. Weber still operates out of Palatine as a private company, having been taken private by the BDT Capital Partners fund in 2023.

What sets the Summit Kamado E6 apart

Here it pays to be candid, because this is exactly what a reader cross-shopping kamados needs to know. The Summit Kamado E6 is a kamado, but it is not ceramic: the body and lid are double-walled steel with a porcelain-enamel coating, with a pocket of air between the two walls acting as insulation. In practice, the insulated steel heats up and cools down far faster than ceramic without giving up heat retention: one charcoal load holds hours of stable low-and-slow cooking. The trade-off is the deep thermal mass and inertia that win over fired-clay purists. Anyone who wants versatility and quick response without sacrificing long smokes has a strong case here, governed by the lid's Rapidfire damper, the same airflow logic Weber has been refining since the original kettle.

Our assessment

At mikamado we select Weber for how coherently its range hangs together, not because we have tested it piece by piece: our only real live-fire benchmark remains the Big Green Egg Large. That said, in the light of the specifications and a reputation built over decades, there are choices we recommend with conviction. The Rapidfire chimney starters are among the cleanest, fastest ways to get coals ready with no chemicals; the Gourmet pizza stone is designed for the kamado's enveloping heat, and the Precision tongs and spatula are a reference point for weight and balance among those who use them. Where the consensus is almost unanimous is on its iGrill thermometers: the Bluetooth-connected iGrill 2 and iGrill 3 turn a guess-by-eye roast into real internal-temperature control, and that completely changes the slow cooking of a lamb or an Iberian pork cut.

What you will find from Weber here

That is why we bring together the Summit Kamado E6 as Weber's reference kamado and, around it, the ecosystem that truly gets the most from it: the Precision tools, the roasting basket and the holders for ribs and chickens, the charcoal rake for managing coals without scorching your knuckles, and, for smoking, briquettes plus hickory and apple chunks and chips. It is not the brand for the ceramic purist, but it is the one for anyone who wants a fast, reliable steel kamado surrounded by accessories that simply work.