Weber Family Q Premium (Q3200) LPG

Works well but suffers from average build quality After owning this Weber Family Q Premium for just over a year I thought I’d share a balanced review based on real use — what it does great and where it falls short. What I like - Cooking performance: Cooks brilliantly. Steaks get a great sear and roasts, chicken and veggies cook evenly. The… Read more

extra middle burner gives better searing and more consistent heat across the plate than the older single- or two‑burner Qs. - Fuel efficiency: Very economical on gas — I use far less LPG than I did with our old 4‑burner style grill. - Portability: Lightweight and easy to move around the patio or take to friends’ places. Handy if you don’t want a permanent, heavy barbecue. - Versatility: You can roast, sear and slow-cook reasonably well. There’s lots of community recipes and tips that make experimenting easy.

What I don’t like

- Build quality: Feels average for the price. Some parts (notably the side shelves and fittings) are flimsy and feel like cost‑cutting. I expected more robust hardware for a Premium model.

Verdict If you want an economical, portable BBQ that cooks very well — especially for steaks, roasts and everyday grilling — the Family Q Premium delivers. However, if you expect top-tier build quality for the price, or want minimal fuss cleaning and sturdier shelves, you may feel a little let down. I’d recommend it for the cooking performance and fuel savings, but factor in extra for accessories and routine maintenance to get the best long‑term experience.

An absolutely fantastic BBQ. Great quality grill and plate and fairly easy to assemble. It gets hot quickly with the lid down but is easy to control the heat via the two flame jets. Cooks everything to perfection once you get the hang of it. Show details ·  1

A great bbq - versatile, econimical and well supported – Pros: * Amazingly versatile. * Super cheap on gas. * Great community/recipe support. Great customer support Cons: * Heat output sometimes not quite enough when it's cold. * Everything needs to cook at the same temp. 3 and a half years ago we bought a Weber Family Q. We looked at similar alternative size/style (LPG kettle style), but decided to… Read more

go with the Family Q (premium) based on the build quality of Q against others and Weber's reputation for after sales support, even though it was a bit more expensive.

I'll come back to build quality and support later. Having lived with it for a while now, the two things that really impress me about this BBQ, versus others I've owned, is how much stuff it can do, and how little gas it uses.

I'll start with the gas. We've owned this for getting onto four years. We use it a lot - in summer 2-3 times a week pretty easily, and in winter normally 1-2 times per week. Mostly standard grilling (burgers, grilled chicken, sausages, corn etc), but also fairly regularly for slow cooks (pulled pork, brisket etc) and occasionally roasts. Just the other day I started what I think was my 5th 8.5kg cylinder (it might even have been my forth). You don't use much gas because it has modest burners, and food cooks fast due to convection.

This is also the one and only minor Achilles' heel - the burners are modest, so in unusual conditions (trying to roast pork outside on a chilly, windy, winter night in Canberra) you can find yourself a bit short of "oomph". For grilling the Q gets around this by preheating, which works very well, but if you are trying to grill a few separate dishes one after another you may find yourself waiting a little longer between each than you ideally want - but - it's only an issue rarely, and for the gas you save through smaller burners, is definitely a good tradeoff.

Onto the different types of food - the family Q will tackle all your grilling (burgers, chicken, snags etc), even for say 10 adults (and more with batches) - no probs. It can tackle roasts (although I find you can't quite squeeze enough roast veggies in) very well, and we've gotten the best pork crackling we have ever had off the Weber. Steak - buy yourself nice steak and cook it on the Q - it will be as good as anything you can buy (and better than most). Pork belly strips - yum. We don't really do seafood, but I'm sure it would go well. The other amazing thing - for the Family Q, with the middle burner only you can do low and slow for things like brisket and pork shoulder/pulled pork. Add a smoker tube and some pellets and you can deliver some pretty decent "low and slow" North American style BBQ.

The other day I did a tomahawk steak on the Weber - indirect until internal temp at 50 degrees (IIRC) before switching over to direct grill to finish it up.

The Q can handle indirect and direct cooking very well, although not really both at the same time. If you want to do it one way, and switch over to the other (like I describe above) buy a decent pair of heat resistant BBQ gloves so you can move the trivet and heat shield (used for indirect) on and off the BBQ without getting burned.

This leads to another Q strength that is also a weakness - no cold/cooler spots - good when you want everything cooked at the same temp, but if you need to cook stuff at different temps you will need to cook in batches. I find it is rarely a problem.

Part of what we have gotten out of our Q also comes down to the community support around them. Starting with the Weber forums/recipes and then building out from there - learning from others what they achieved with their Qs, tips on how to apply techniques, all combined with the Qs less intimidating setup and high tolerance for ham-fisted cooks. Just remember - use a timer and keep the lid down and it is hard to go too wrong. A meat thermometer helps too.

I see product review want me to say how hard to clean/how it performs in the wind/rain. We keep ours under the eaves of the house. It is somewhat sheltered from the wind. I understand others have problems with cross wind on the Q - never been an issue for us where it is setup. Cleaning is straight forward if you aren't a perfectionist. Pyro clean on the grill before you start and knock of the carbon with a grill brush. A couple of times a year I scrape out the base to stop fat fires and give grills a soak. Empty the fat trap when it is full.

On build quality and support - it's a sturdy unit, but, more importantly, it is well supported. A few weeks back we noticed some of the enamel coating on one of the grills started coming away and the iron bars within starting to rush. A quick photo and our serial number to Australian Weber support via their website and new grill plates were shipped out. Hard to ask for better support than that.

As a final testament to these BBQs - and noting we have no intention of selling ours - I know I could list it on Gumtree right now for 75% of what I paid for it, and have people knocking the door down to buy it, redback spiders and all. Punters know these BBQs are built to last.

That's our experience. It's an amazing little BBQ, it can do so much, it's not expensive, especially when you factor in running costs, and it's easy to live with.

Don’t but – If I could give it no stars I would. What a poorly built piece of junk. Doesn’t get hot enough, gas burner won’t ignite. Hood is so flimsy that it doesn’t retain heat. The plastic side shelves are so poorly built if you put anything on them they fall down. Hard to turn on gas bottle as hose is not long enough to spin bottle around to front. Really disappointing another company trading off its good name from yesteryear and now producing rubbish. Show details

The ultimate – The perfect family BBQ. I didn’t get the stand as I like the portability to sit at home on table and camping on trestle table. Consistent heat and results, easy to ignite and can’t live without it Show details

A great investment for Australians! – I've owned this BBQ for over a year now and have lots of positive, good memories and most of all quality tasting with the food I have cooked on this. It has cooked our Christmas Turkey, Lamb roast, chicken roast and beef roasts perfectly! Better than your standard kitchen over. The positives: -Heats up extremely well -Doesn't use much gas… Read more

-Most parts are good quality -No visible rust -Speedy cooking sessions -Great variety of food to cook besides typical meat -Unique cooking features -DVD and booklets provided with Weber purchase The negatives: -Parts are pricey -The 2 x heat knobs paint fads quickly -Doesn't come with a hotplate need t purchase this separately -Hard to move and needs to be mobile in one place. Overall, it's a great BBQ! I love cooking roasts on this! I most of all love cooking my steak, lamb, and sausages on this it brings out the flavour which makes it more enjoyable. Some accessories are pricey and since COVID this BBQ has gone up in price. I'd definitely will buy another once mine passes its used by date.

Best bbq we have ever had...EVER!! – We bought our 3200 for Christmas, it took maybe 4o minutes to easily assemble it, we cooked a variety of foods on it over Christmas and all turned out perfectly, Follow the temperature guidelines and you cant miss, all the recipes in the book just work , very easy to clean, a top machine. We should have got one earlier Show details ·  1

Fantastic product! – Little ripper! If you follow the instructions (cook with the lid down) you can’t go wrong. Only used this twice so far but the results have been outstanding. Cooked the best steaks I’ve ever had, excellent sausages, awesome kebabs. Do yourself a favour and read the manual and watch the YouTube or dvd hints on cooking using this BBQ and you… Read more ·  1

will love it. If you expect to have a typical six burner and charcoal the food then this isn’t for you. This is a more gentle BBQ but will still give you the seared to perfection steaks and snags if you just keep the lid down!

The only negative I would think about is the plastic frame, not bad looking but doesn’t speak super high quality. Also fiddly to put together but that’s only one hour out many years of awesome food.

People writing bad reviews either can’t read or refuse to read how to use the BBQ. Follow the instructions and you’ll enjoy the food. I wouldn’t trade this for any other BBQ, I’m hooked.