Everdure FORCE gas grill: the only good looking gas grill?

Jun 14, 2023

There's no grill better suited to garden design than the Everdure FORCE gas grill, and it cooks well too, despite some minor hiccups

Looks beautiful

Easy to set up and use

Great results on taste test

Basic

Tricky to clean

Gas grills are ugly. You can achieve an utterly pristine patio, but when it's time to feed a crowd there'll be an hunk of black-gray metal right in the middle of it. That's the problem that the Everdure FORCE aims to fix, and it knocks it out of the park.

This gorgeous grill can suit almost any space. Mid-century modern-inspired, it wouldn't look out of place in a Le Corbusier apartment, and this makes it versatile. The retro lines of the grill hood can slot into a more traditional space, but the clean, simple steel control knobs are right at home in contemporary gardens, too. It's available in five colors, but I recommend the orange. There were gasps when we took it out of the box - after a couple of days staring at drab steel grills, this burst of color was just what we needed.

But it isn't just a pretty face. Endorsed by 6 Michelin Star-winner Heston Blumenthal, the Everdure delivered reliably tasty food in every one of our test recipes. It's also incredibly easy to use, taking all the machismo out of grilling for a straightforward set of controls. I'm not a fan of the cleaning process for this grill, and it's perhaps a little basic, but if you need one of the best grills to elevate your garden design instead of stunting it, this is the grill for you.

The grill arrived in a fairly compact cardboard box. We moved it pretty easily between two of us, but in a pinch you you could probably move it by yourself. The instructions were refreshingly brief, with only 12 steps, and lots of detail. However, we felt that these instructions were in an order that didn't make much sense - we found ourselves having to switch around the sequence of some of the steps in order to build the barbecue.

However, it was a pretty speedy build, finished in an hour and 5 minutes. The hood, base, and grills were already assembled, so the process was mostly attaching various legs, side tables, and handles. The bottom tray didn't quite fit, but it was easy to fix this by adjusting some screws.

Once built, it looks incredibly high quality and robust. At first glance, however, you have to concede that it's fairly spartan. It has two burners, but that's it - there's no side burner or warming rack. As a two-burner, you might struggle to make the indirect heat needed for slow cooking.

However, I was really taken by the diagonal grills on this barbecue. These thin grills, arranged in a V formation, increased the total grill surface area while reducing the chance of food falling through the gaps. It's a clever piece of design that helps with cooking quickly.

We always test burgers and sausages. They're standard grill fare which show how well a grill can cook while maintaining moisture, as well as revealing the capacity of its surface.

The grill came to temperature in about five minutes, which demonstrates good efficiency. In fact, it was more of a challenge to keep the temperature down than to bring it up. We found a huge amount of grill space, enough to easily accommodate 20 burgers and 25 sausages. The Everdure website says it can fit 24 burgers, which is feasible.

It was also incredibly comfortable to cook on this grill. It sits at a great height for most users, and the grill itself is slightly elevated above the main body of the barbecue, which means that you never feel like you're reaching into the grill, which is great for confidence.

The results were delicious - not the best on test, but still very good. Both the burgers and the sausages were evenly cooked, and neither were too dry. My guess is that the increased surface area of the diagonal grill design dissipates heat more evenly. There was some minor sticking, but not enough to be a worry, and it ultimately turned out good food.

We also test vegetable skewers. This isn't only for our vegetarian and vegan readers, but because grilled vegetables can reveal a lot about a grill. Vegetables on a grill should have crispy skin but juicy flesh, and poor grills will dry them out. Char-lines are also more easily visible on vegetables, so it makes it clearer for us to tell a bad grill from a good grill.

We cooked courgette with excellent charring, particularly on grill courgette. They were succulent but still had a delicious crispy exterior.

We also found here that the lid can be opened to any position. It doesn't only open and close, but can be opened exactly as wide as you need for your recipe.

We test an entire grilled chicken because not only is it a classic on the grill, but it shows us if a grill can handle low-and-slow cooking. Overpowered grills with variations in temperature will dry out meat when cooked over a long period, so this is a good way to test more involved cooking.

There was plenty of room and you could easily fit another whole chicken onto the grill. However, on this test we found that the same efficiency which makes this grill great for burgers is a hindrance for cooking slow. It was hard to keep the grill under 480°F, which meant that the chicken was ultimately overcooked. We had some patches with excellent crispy skin, but the overall mouthfeel was too dry, which was a little disappointing.

One of the side tables can fold down, and it has handles either side to hold as you move it around. The legs have two wheels, which is handy for moving it around the garden, and they also remove, so you can take this grill camping or tailgating. It's perhaps a little large for this, but if you've got a big enough truck bed it should fit fine. The only problem is that the wheels are a little small - they're low profile, which is good for design, but means it might be a little trick to move this grill over flagstones or a deck.

Cleaning is by far the worst aspect of this otherwise excellent grill. When I was cleaning up after testing, I found that the diagonal grills that look so good in the garden are tricky to clean. Because they all run at right angles, you can't just run a scraper straight along the edge - you have scrape a few inches at a time before changing angle, which is a little frustrating.

Worse than that, however, is cleaning up grease. The shallow body of this grill means that grease from meat and vegetables pools at the bottom and doesn't run down to the grease tray. In other grills it's pretty easy to slide this out, but it the Everdure it just sits in the bottom. You have to go in by hand and to scoop up fat and oil, which is a gross job and pretty time consuming. If you hate the chore of cleaning, you will find this grill frustrating.

There simply isn't a gas grill out there that looks as good as the Everdure FORCE. A sleek, ceramic Kamado Joe II could perhaps come close by aesthetics, but as that's a charcoal grill it isn't a fair comparison. In truth, every grill I've ever tested looks boring when pitched against this. It truly brightens a space, and even the small finishing touches like the sleek control knobs, thermometer and handles look and feel high-quality. It's less like a grill and more like a statement piece of outdoor furniture.

However, I think there are better grills out there for the price. For example. The Weber Spirit II E-310 is also a gas grill with no side burner or extra features. However, it simply tastes better, and not only that, it's hundreds of dollars cheaper. It doesn't look as good, but if all you want is a good grill, there are many better options that won't set you back $800. While I think you most users can do without a side burner, it should be included for this kind of money.

On average, reviewers on Best Buy gave this grill four stars, reflecting our score. Just as we found on test, users love how well this grill can cook, how easy it is to use, and how beautiful it looks on a deck or patio.

However, the reason it has four stars instead of five is because of the poor instructions. Where we had the grill ready to go in an hour, it took some people double that or more. Others found, just as we did, that some of the tolerances in the screws are off, so need a little adjusting to fit. On Amazon, one user shared our difficulties in cleaning out the bottom of the grill after use.

Yes, but with a few caveats. If you're an obsessive about garden design, this is the grill for you. I can't overstate how much better it looks than most other grills. It shows a eye for design that other manufacturers have either failed to consider or have ignored in favor of pure performance. You can plan whole sections of the garden around incorporating this beautiful statement piece into your space.

However, if you don't mind how your grill looks, there are much, much cheaper options with better results. It's a good grill, and we used it to make some pretty good food, but there are much better value grills out there.

As Head of eCommerce, Alex makes sure our readers find the right information to help them make the best purchase. After graduating from Cambridge University, Alex got his start in reviewing at the iconic Good Housekeeping Institute, testing a wide range of household products and appliances. He then moved to BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, assessing gardening tools, machinery, and wildlife products. Helping people find true quality and genuine value is a real passion.

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