Does a more expensive grill score better?
A little, and much less than the price tags suggest. We matched our scores for 133 grills to their retail prices. Grills over $1,000 average 8.3 out of 10. Grills under $200 average 7.8. The typical grill in the top group costs $2,599, about 26 times the $100 of a typical one in the bottom group, and that buys 0.5 of a point.
- 133grills with a score and a checked price
- 0.5points between the cheapest and dearest groups
- 42%of all 154 grills are weakest on long-term reliability
Average score by price
Each bar is the average Avid Griller Score of the grills in that price range. The number under each bar is how many grills it holds.
The bars start at 6, not 0, so the differences are visible. Every grill in this study lands between 7.1 and 8.9.
Every grill, price against score
Each dot is one grill. Price runs left to right on a stretched scale, so a $150 grill and a $3,000 one both fit. If price decided the score, the dots would climb in a tight line. They climb, loosely.
Where the extra money goes
Price does not lift every score. Comparing the grills over $1,000 with the ones under $200, the money buys more heat performance (up 1.2), build quality (up 1.1), long-term reliability (up 0.7) and maintenance (up 0.7), while ease of use (down 0.4) and value (down 1.3) go the other way. A big grill does more and costs more to get right, and it asks more of the person running it.
| Category | Under $200 | $200 to $500 | $500 to $1,000 | Over $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.8 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.3 |
| Heat Performance | 7.6 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.7 |
| Long-term Reliability | 7.2 | 7.3 | 7.3 | 7.9 |
| Build Quality | 7.9 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.9 |
| Ease of Use | 8.3 | 8.3 | 8.6 | 7.9 |
| Value | 8.6 | 8.1 | 7.9 | 7.3 |
| Maintenance | 7.7 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 8.3 |
The weak spot is long-term reliability
Across all 154 grills on our six-category scorecard, long-term reliability is the lowest average score, at 7.4. It is the single weakest category on 65 of them. Short warranties, thin steel where it rusts first, and electronics that fail before the firebox does are the usual reasons. It also improves with price more slowly than heat or build does.
- Build Quality8.4
- Ease of Use8.3
- Heat Performance8.2
- Value8.0
- Maintenance7.9
- Long-term Reliability7.4
Grills under $500 that hold their own
12 grills under $500 match or beat the 8.3 average of the grills over $1,000. The top five by score:
- Weber Spirit E-325 Gas Grill 8.6 Gas grill, $499
- Weber Original Kettle Charcoal Grill 22 8.4 Charcoal kettle grill, $149
- Weber Master-Touch Charcoal Grill 22 8.4 Charcoal grill, $289
- Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22 8.4 Charcoal kettle grill, $219
- Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker 18 8.4 Charcoal smoker, $419
Average score by type
How we did this
Every score comes from our six-category scorecard, the same for every grill. How we score grills. Prices are the retail price on each grill's listing at the retailer we check, recorded between September 17, 2026 and October 15, 2026. We only use a price when the listing is the exact model we reviewed and it was in stock, which is why 133 of the 154 scored grills are included. Prices move, so treat each one as a snapshot.
For readers who like the statistic: the correlation between score and the logarithm of price is 0.43. That is a real but moderate link. Price explains about 19% of the spread in scores, and the rest is the grill.
Use this data
You are welcome to quote these figures or use the data with a link to this page. The full table, one row per grill with all six scores and the price, is at avidgriller.com/data/grill-scores.csv. Every grill is also ranked on our ratings table.