How Does a Portable Barbecue Grill Work?

There are several basic types of barbecue grill, and each has a version that is designed to be easy to carry, hence, portable. Grills, for the most part, differ mostly in what they use for fuel, which is what determines how the grill works. The most common fuels for grilling food are charcoal and propane gas.

Hibachi grills
Hibachi grills are among the most portable grills due to their small size. They are flat, usually rectangular, and light. They consist of a charcoal pan and 2 grids. The charcoal is placed into a chimney and ignited before being poured into the charcoal pan, or it is lit in the charcoal pan with the use of starter fluid. Once the charcoal is completely ignited, the grids are placed over the coals and the food that is to be grilled is placed on them. Hibachi grills have no lid.

Kettle grills
A fixture of American backyards for decades, kettle grills are portable because they are compact, light and easy to carry. They are comprised of a charcoal pan, similar to the hibachi, a grid for cooking and a lid. Once the food is placed on the grid over lit coals, the lid is used to cover the food as a means of controlling the heat and retaining the smoke that provides the food with the distinctive grilled flavor. Some models may have a second grid on which the charcoal rests and below this a pan for catching ashes.

Cart grills
These can be either gas-fueled or charcoal fueled. These are grills with wheels attached to make them easily moved from one place to the next and thus portable. Gas-fueled cart grills usually have a holding-rack for a tank of propane below the body of the grill. The propane is used to fuel gas burners in the body of the grill. Gas cart grills will have a lid for keeping in smoke so as to flavor the food.