The Outback Barbecue Buyers Guide

If you're looking for a new or first-time barbecue, then you may need some help in choosing just what's right for you, here we go through the various models, look at gas and charcoal in order to give you as much help as possible so that you buy the perfect BBQ for your cooking needs.

The first thing to ask is how many people you cook for under normal conditions, if your only cooking for 1 or 2 then there is no need to be looking at anything over a 2 burner gas BBQ, in charcoal you can go for any model and regulate the heat and cooking area by only using a small amount of charcoal, gas barbecues can be regulated by only using one burner.

If you have a family that enjoy a regular grill-up then you can look at 3 and 4 burner gas barbecues, again you can limit your cooking area by only using 1 or 2 of the burners, but have the space when you need it.

If you cook for parties or regularly cook for an army, then the large 4 burner and 6 burner gas BBQ's are perfect for you, huge cooking areas, and high output ideal for the serious outdoor chef!

Today's barbecues have had research and design incorporated into both gas and charcoal units to provide an equal cooking and flavour experience, gone are the days where charcoal wins on the taste test, so really it is purely down to you what is best, however there are a couple of points worth considering:

• Generally Gas Barbecues are used more frequently than charcoal, this is purely down to convenience, gas is on and ready in seconds, whereas charcoal takes a little more planning.

• Charcoal, depending on what fuel you burn tends to be cheaper than gas, but only by a small margin.

• Charcoal BBQ's are smaller and generally more suited to cooking for up to 4 people and a time, perfect for the average family, but may not be practical when cooking for more.

• With Outback's use of Lava Rock on gas barbecues, the days of charcoal tasting better are gone; the Lava Rock does exactly the same thing as hot coals on a charcoal grill.

There are pros and cons for each type of barbecue, so that choice really does depend on you. Another really important thing to give careful consideration to is placement, where will your barbecue go? if you have a nice space at the end of your garden then you are more likely to stop using the BBQ after a while than you are if it is positioned closer to the house, so a patio area outside the back door is a better place for the grill to be, plus the house will offer more protection for it when not in use, on top of this a cover is a must have accessory and with Outback we give you this free with all our barbecues*