Weber Q 2400 Electric Grill Review

First Impressions of the Weber Q 2400

It arrives close to finished. The cookbox and its nylon frame come joined. Setup is mostly lifting, then plugging in.

The lid is cast aluminium and it announces itself. Tap it and the sound is a dull thud, not a ring. The grates come next, two pieces of enamelled cast iron. Lowering them in feels closer to loading cookware than fitting grill parts.

The control is one cylindrical knob at the back of the cookbox. Its face carries the Weber name, and a scale climbs round it to a plus sign. The cord plugs in directly underneath. There is no ignition sequence, no valve, no gauge set into the lid.

First cook was sausages. Sausages punish any grill that cannot hold a steady line of heat. Lid down, knob at the top of its travel.

The bars laid down proper dark stripes. Fat dripped, met the aluminium liner below and came back as smoke. Most electric grills never manage that. That smoke is why the food tastes grilled rather than baked.

Key Features of the Weber Q 2400

Most of what matters here is material rather than mechanism. There is one heating element, one knob and no electronics at all. So the grill lives or dies on what it is made of. And on how much of it there is.

• 280 square inches on two cast iron grates. The largest grate in Weber’s electric range. It is the whole reason to pick this model over the smaller ones.
• Cast-iron: enamel is fired over cast iron on both grates. Heat stays in them between openings. That matters more here than on gas, because the element cannot surge.
• 1,560 watts at 120 volts. No adapter, no propane, no special circuit named in the specification. The grill runs on the outlet already on the wall.
• Cast aluminium lid and body. The metal is thick enough to be part of the cooking. It is carried on a glass-reinforced nylon frame.
• Aluminium heat retention liners. They sit under the grates and spread the element’s output sideways. Dripping fat lands on something hot rather than something cold.
• Infinite heat control on one knob. Not three settings or four, but a continuous sweep. You can park the grill just below the point where fat burns.
• A removable grease catch pan. Reach under the cookbox and the pan comes away in one movement. The grill never has to be tipped to empty it.
• A 6-foot grounded cord. Generous for a kitchen appliance, short for a patio. It is the single biggest constraint on where this grill stands.

One absence is worth naming, because the Q shape suggests otherwise. Weber publishes 31.5 inches of width with the lid closed. With the lid open, it is still 31.5 inches. Nothing swings out.

The gas Q’s folding work surfaces are not part of this grill. Whatever you rest a platter on has to be furniture you already own. Plan the corner accordingly.

Heat and cooking performance

Here is the trade the whole product rests on. The Q 1400 puts 1,560 watts under 189 square inches. The Q 2400 puts the identical 1,560 watts under 280. Spread 1,560 over 280 and each square inch is left with 5.6 watts.

That is the loosest ratio in Weber’s electric line, and what it feels like is patience. With the lid shut the grill gets hot and stays hot. Cast aluminium and cast iron are both good at hoarding heat. Open the lid and it will not snap back.

There is no reserve to call on. So the cooking this grill rewards is lid-down and unhurried.

Sausages, chicken thighs, vegetables and burgers all come off well. A crowded grate of cold steak is where the arithmetic shows. No knob setting fixes that.

Build, handling and durability

The construction is the part nobody has cheapened. Cast aluminium lid, cast aluminium body, two enamelled cast iron grates. A glass-reinforced nylon frame carries the whole thing on low feet.

That frame is a tabletop base, not a stand. Like the Lumins, the Q 2400 needs a table or bench under it. On a balcony with nothing to put a grill on, budget for one.

Handling is a two-hands job, and Weber publishes no assembled weight for the US model. What the frame gives you instead are moulded side grips. They are for shifting it along a balcony, not for carrying it anywhere.

Durability has one soft spot, and it is the element. Cast aluminium, cast iron and plastic all sit under a 5 year term. The heating element gets 2.

On a gas Q, the short-warranty part is a burner tube anybody can order. Here it is the component that makes the grill a grill.

Running costs, upkeep and value

Nothing gets consumed except electricity and the occasional catch pan. There is no tank to swap, no charcoal, no chimney and no ash. The whole ritual of refuelling disappears, and so does the trip to the hardware store.

There is also no fuel to run out of halfway through a cook. The grill either has power or it does not, and a socket rarely surprises you.

Cleaning follows the same logic. Porcelain enamel wipes down once it has cooled. The grates lift out in two pieces. The catch pan slides away from underneath, and nothing has to be shovelled.

Value is where this grill turns strange, in a good way. Weber’s own US site asks $349.00 for the Q 1400 and 189 square inches. The Lumin Compact is $399.00 for 180. The Lumin proper is $499.00 for 242.

The Q 2400 offers 280 square inches near $299.00. The catch is where that price comes from. Weber’s US site no longer serves a page for 55020001. The Q 1400’s page is still live.

Parts and support exist today. But the maker has stopped putting this model in front of American buyers. A price that good is usually a sentence about the future.

Possible Weber Q 2400 Complaints

• Recovery is the price of the grate. At 5.6 watts per square inch, a full load of cold food pulls the cookbox down. The element cannot rush to catch up, and you feel it most when feeding a crowd. Smaller batches, lid closed between turns, keep the grill ahead of the food.
• The footprint never shrinks. It is 31.5 inches wide, and 26 inches tall with the lid up, and nothing folds. On a narrow balcony that space is allocated permanently, not borrowed. The 6-foot cord then decides which corner it goes in.