Weber Summit Kamado E6 vs S6
The same 452 sq in cooker twice. The S6 adds a cart, a stainless worktop and a gas starter for $1,000. What the furniture is actually worth.
We pick the Weber Summit Kamado E6 Charcoal Grill
Buy the E6 unless you want the furniture badly enough to pay $1,000 for it. The cooking is identical: 452 sq in on one 24-inch grate, a dual-wall insulated steel body, and a fuel grate with high and low positions. The S6 wraps that same cooker in a cart with a brushed stainless worktop, a slide-out basket, three hooks and a gas burner that lights charcoal in 15 minutes — for $1,000 over the E6 list price of $1,399.
What actually differs
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Not one extra square inch of cooking
Same grate diameter, same area, same insulation, same two-position fuel grate. Our reviews put them 0.1 apart, and that gap is entirely about what the money buys.
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Push-button charcoal is the one real upgrade
The gas starter brings the fire up in 15 minutes with no chimney and no paper. If you cook on charcoal mid-week rather than at weekends, that changes how often you bother.
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The burner is a new failure point on a two-year tier
Ten years covers the enamelled shell on both. The S6 gas burner gets two, so the headline feature is the least protected part — and the worktop and cart are what you are mostly paying for.
The scorecard, side by side
Both reviews are scored on the same six weighted categories, each bar on the same 0–10 scale, and every cell carries the reason that review gave. A row is marked won only where the two differ by a tenth or more. How we score →
Dual-wall insulation plus a fuel grate that moves, so searing and all-day smoking come out of one setup.
Dual-wall body, a fuel grate with two heights, and a gas burner that lights charcoal in 15 min without a chimney.
Ten years against rust through on an enamelled steel shell that cannot crack, though hinge and gasket get two.
Ten years on the enamelled shell, but the gas burner is a new failure point covered for only 2 years.
Porcelain enamel, stainless grates and a rigid tripod stand, but Weber publishes no steel gauge anywhere.
Brushed stainless worktop and porcelain enamel over steel, though Weber publishes no gauge for any panel on the grill.
Three casters roll it anywhere, yet Weber excludes Summit grills from the $99 assembly booking it sells.
Push-button charcoal, a full worktop, a slide-out basket and three hooks, against an assembly job Weber refuses to book.
At $1,399.00 the cover is a separate $84.99 and the built-in fan port arrives without a fan.
The same 452 square inches as the $1,399.00 E6, for $1,000 more and a dearer cover.
A three-blade stainless sweep and a lift-out ash pan replace the scoop a ceramic firebox needs.
A three-blade sweep and a lift-out ash pan, with a stainless worktop to land the pan on.
Which one is for you
You want the cooker and already own a table, or would rather spend $1,000 on something else.
Check price →You want push-button charcoal and a stainless worktop built around the kamado, and the premium is affordable.
Check price →Every score and figure on this page comes from our own reviews of these two products, linked above. We have not tested them side by side in one place; the comparison is between two full reviews, each built from the maker's published specifications and documentation. Prices move, and the ones quoted are the ones each review checked on its own date.