Electric grill for almost 700 euros? The Weber Lumin is expensive, but our test shows: not without reason

Does electric grilling make such a big difference to gas and charcoal?

If you turn up your nose at electric grills because there is no real fire in them, then the Weber Lumin could clear up these prejudices – at least it did for me.

I am a regular griller. Not an absolute professional, but certainly advanced. I have many years of experience with charcoal and gas and now I wanted to try out a decent electric grill to see how good they actually are.

The Weber Lumin surprised me. Not only because of its versatility, but also because of how hot it actually gets. This test will tell you what I missed when grilling and whether, for me, electric can keep up with gas and charcoal.

Weber Lumin and Stand: Processing and appearance

Good news when first unpacking: There is no assembly or screwing required with the Weber Lumin (except for the stand, but I will cover that in a separate part of the article). The electric grill is available in three different colors:

• Crimson (Rot)
• Schwarz
• Mint Green

Weber is known for its quality and that’s what I expect for around 680 bucks. The Lumin lives up to its reputation: metal chassis, enamelled cast iron grill and the rather heavy plug-in power supply speak for themselves. At 16.5 kg, the Oschi also weighs a lot. All of this not only looks high quality, it is.

The Lumin comes with:

• Grill
• Grate consisting of two parts
• Plug-in power supply
• Garschale
• Steaming bowl
• Plastic spatula for cleaning
• Drip tray made of aluminium

The stainless steel bowls provided are used for steaming and cooking.

Basically, you can start right awaybecause you don’t have to do anything more than connect the Lumin. For the test I also received a stand that was made for this model. Even though the idea behind the stand is great, I’m not 100% satisfied.

The stand is made entirely of plastic and has a clever function: it can be folded up and taken anywhere. The disadvantage: it works with plug connections and only the legs are attached using screws.

Annoying: In the end, the stand was crooked and I had to first realize that a part of the pre-assembled plate on which the grill stands was not fully engaged – and that revealed the second problem: the undersides of the plastic parts are quite sharp. Ouch.

In the end, the stand cuts a solid figure. But is the stand stable with the 16 kg grill on it? Let’s put it this way: stable enough.

If you have a table or another stable surface at home on which the Lumin can stand, that’s completely sufficient. Nevertheless, wind and weather won’t knock over the grill and stand. So it’s fine.

Weber Lumin: How to grill

As already mentioned: Plug-and-play is the method of choice here. So I moved the Lumin to its place on the balcony, plugged in the power supply and was able to get started straight away.

I had concerns about the maximum heat of the grill – which were thrown into the wind after about 20 minutes.

Weber promises 315 degrees Celsius and a few squash on its website. The Lumin actually achieved that without any problems.

The analogue outside thermometer shows how many degrees it is under the hood.

I normally use a Weber gas grill with three burners and it takes a good half an hour, if not more, for it to reach 300 degrees Celsius. So I was surprised at how quickly it worked with the Lumin.

And then the barbecue began.

A short word about width: My balcony measures around 110 centimeters. The grill and stand, including the table (included with the stand), are 92 centimeters, so it just about fits comfortably. Keep that in mind if you want to get the Lumin for your balcony.

The grilling itself was quite unspectacular; the Lumin does what it is supposed to. You can use the dial on the power supply to set different heat levels, depending on how you want to use it. The rest is a matter of experience.

• Slow cooking
• Steaming
• Smoking
• The grill

Logically, since there is only one temperature for the entire device, you cannot work as granularly as with a gas or charcoal grill. But you don’t have to tell that to anyone who buys an electric grill, because only more expensive models have more than one grill zone.

Similar to gas, the taste of the food remains relatively untouched, even more so because no flames are created even when fat drips down – and I liked that. Of course, it doesn’t produce any smoky notes, but electric grillers are aware of that from the start.

Oh yes, I didn’t miss the fire for a minute. For me, the end result is what counts and this was extremely delicious (but I’m not a fire devil, either).

You already know what a new grill looks like compared to one after first use, but I still don’t want to withhold these pictures from you.

Here we see another advantage of the Lumin: If you remove the heating coil (which is only attached with two screws), the grease tray can be easily removed for cleaning. At least I have more trouble with that with my gas grill.

Finally, it was burned down, cleaned, the power supply was unplugged and the good piece was stowed away. The hood, which is also part of the test, does what it is supposed to do: protect the grill and stand from wind and weather. Thanks to the four Velcro fasteners for the feet, nothing comes off in stormy gusts, which is great.

This is how tidy the grill looks when not in use.

The bottom line is that the Weber Lumin is virtually flawless. The workmanship is great, assembly and operation are child’s play. Apart from the fact that there is only one grill zone for the whole device, I didn’t even notice while grilling that I wasn’t using any fire at all.

Should you buy the Weber Lumin?

Provided that you want to grill with electric or cannot grill with gas or charcoal, the Weber Lumin is recommended for you if…

• … you don’t want to compromise.
• … you have the necessary change.
• … you just want to grill as simply as possible.

Possible alternatives to the Weber Lumin:

• Weber Pulse 2000: If you want to get even closer to gas or charcoal, then the Weber Pulse 2000 is a good choice. It has two grill zones with different controls and connections for sensors. It costs 999 euros.
• Severin Sevo Smart Control GT: Looks less like a grill, has no cast iron grates (but stainless steel) and has a smaller grill surface, but the electric grill offers app connectivity and costs over 200 euros less.

If someone asked me for a recommendation for an electric grillthen I could recommend the Weber Lumin with a clear conscience. Yes, it costs a few bucks, but in return you get an all-round carefree package where you don’t have to worry about anything. Whether fire is better or not is something everyone has to decide for themselves, but in the end what counts is the feeling when grilling and the taste – and I really can’t complain about either.