I love being able to share my favourite things with you in Australia, so it’s about time I told you about our amazing portable grill by writing a Weber Baby Q review!
A couple of years ago, we started going to the beach with friends who owned their own portable BBQ. That experience inspired me to do my own research into choosing a mini BBQ and I published this post about choosing the best portable BBQ as I was deciding which small BBQ to buy for ourselves!
This Weber Q review contains affiliate links. I bought the Weber Baby Q myself and it was NOT gifted. Opinions are my own.
After doing lots of research, we settled on the Weber Baby Q1000 for our small BBQ mainly because we love the brand as we have a large Weber BBQ on our deck already and we know how reliable it has been over the years.
I LOVE to cook BBQ food, and our mini Weber BBQ ticked all of my boxes. My hubby and I are research obsessives, and it can mean that sometimes we go around in circles not making a decision one way or the other because we want to make the right decision! We knew early on that we liked the Weber Baby brand but deciding which model number of mini Weber BBQ kept us arguing for a while before we finally decided that the Weber Baby Q1000 did everything we needed. We didn’t go for this version number because it was a cheap Weber BBQ (although it was the cheapest option from the range) – we just felt that the Weber Baby Q Premium versions weren’t really going to add much value to our experience with the product.
Let’s get into the Weber Baby Q review in more detail and then I’ll tell you how it compares with the other Weber Baby BBQs out there, and why we chose to buy one in the first place when there are loads of free public BBQs all over the place in Australia.
Weber Baby Q review: Let me share what the Weber Baby Q 1000 is like to move around, cook on and all the things!
Weber Baby Q review: Specifications
Here are the Weber Baby Q 1000 specifications:
- Stainless steel burner tube with powerful 8,500 BTU output/hour
- Heavy-duty single spark piezo igniter
- Durable cast aluminum lid and body
- Porcelain-enamelled cast-iron cooking grills
- Cool to touch lid handle
- Removable drip tray
- Weber 5 year limited warranty as a mark of quality
We opted to get the Weber Baby Q over other options like the Gasmate portable BBQ as we felt it was going to be much more durable and longer-lasting. We would rather pay more for a quality product now knowing we won’t need to replace it for many years to come. This Weber Baby really is a solid little item.
What I love about our Baby Weber Q1000
- It’s so easy to transport (you just turn the Weber Baby Q stand into a Weber Baby Q trolley and it wheels along easily).
- It’s really easy to clean. The grills are so easy to pop in the sink and wash (especially when you use the Weber scraper to loosen any burnt bits) It’s not awkward like our big Weber BBQ is to clean (as those grills are too big for the sink).
- Although the BBQ looks small, don’t be fooled! The Weber Baby Q is mighty. I was worried it might be too small for our (greedy) family of five. We can comfortably fit enough food on it for us in one go.
- It’s easy to light – the igniter button feels durable and easy to use.
- The food cooks quickly and evenly.
- The gas bottle has lasted for ages! We haven’t had to refill it yet.
- The BBQ cools down really quickly which is handy for packing up after a meal.
- I like the flexibility of it – the Baby Q1000 can cook you a full breakfast or even a full meal. I’m keen to buy the roasting rack next as so far I’ve only cooked chicken/steak/sausages etc. on it.
- It feels really solid – it’s not like a flimsy small BBQ – and I trust that it is going to last us for many, many years to come.
- It has a removable drip tray underneath which keeps the BBQ clean.
Why we chose the Weber Baby Q1000 over the Weber Baby Q 1200
The Weber Baby Q 1200 has a few extra features. It has a higher lid which would be handy for cooking larger roasts. It has an electronic igniter (rather than the push button ignitor our Q1000 has) and the lid has a built-in thermometer. The Q1200 is also a little heavier. For us, we didn’t feel those extras were something we particularly needed and we saw a Weber Baby q for sale for a good price so we snapped it up – either product would have suited our needs.
The higher lid might be useful for you if you intend to cook roasts on it (which we don’t), and ditto the thermometer would be handy for that too (as well as identifying when the gas has run out so you’re not aimlessly waiting for something to cook when the gas has run out!).
Sometimes the Q1200 comes with side tables although these can also be purchased separately for any of the Weber Baby Qs. My hubby is obsessed with wanting to get these as an add on but I went out an bought a folding table instead as that is much more helpful for food prep and also means we have somewhere to eat/make coffee on if we go somewhere there aren’t tables and benches. I think the thing to remember with all of this is you can add to your beach gear slowly – you don’t need to own it all right away!
The Weber Q 2000 range is much larger than the Q1000s. We did debate about whether it would be a better investment for our family (the Weber Q2000 range has 1800cm² cooking area and the Weber Baby Q1000 range has just 1200cm²). BUT we decided the Baby Q2000 was just too large to make it a portable BBQ for taking to the beach for days out. When we head out for beach days, our car is already stacked to the roof (body boards, a beach wagon, beach shade, rug, beach chairs, three kids and dog…) so we needed something we could fit in the car alongside all of that!
I’m so so glad we chose the Baby Weber Q1000 because it really is small and compact yet you can fit a lot on it. It was hard not to get caught up in looking at the Weber family Qs but you need to remind yourself why you’re looking for the best Weber BBQ in the first place!! Save the Weber Family Qs for your home, and choose something small and compact like the Weber Baby for your days out.
Essential Weber Baby Q accessories
An important thing to mention for my Weber Q review is that when you buy a Weber Baby from the Weber Q range you’ll also need to commit to buying at least some of the Weber Baby Q accessories too. There are certain things you’re going to need – the first of which is the Weber Baby Q stand so you aren’t cooking your Weber BBQ on the ground!
I know some people who take a folding table with them and put their portable BBQ on that to cook, but I felt it was important investing in the Weber Baby Q stand for convenience. It also makes transporting your Baby Q around easier as the Baby Q stand doubles up as a Weber Baby Q trolley you can pull your BBQ around on! You’re buying your small BBQ so that you can cook while camping or on beach days or whatever, so keeping it as portable and practical as possible is important so you get the use out of it.
To move it from the car to the beach/grass, we remove the heavy grills (otherwise they can fall out) and put them in our beach wagon along with the gas bottle (a beach wagon is another thing you’re going to need to buy when you get a mini BBQ as the small gas bottles are heavy and a wagon makes it easy to move your gear around). Then we pull the BBQ using the folded down Weber Q trolley on wheels. When you’re in place, the whole thing lifts up easily to become the Weber Q stand that you cook on.
Shop for the Weber Q stand on eBay
The other Weber Q accessories you’ll want to consider are:
- The Weber BBQ cover.
It’s not essential to get the Weber BBQ cover if you’re keeping your Weber Baby indoors, but if you plan on keeping your Weber Q in the shed or garage, you want to protect it. If it’s going to be outside under your deck you REALLY want to protect it as this little beauty can last for years and years if you take care of it properly.
>> Shop for Weber Q covers on Amazon (and be sure to get the right size for your BBQ) - A Weber half hotplate.
A weber half hotplate is an essential accessory if you plan on cooking breakfasts (eggs and pancakes), or for frying onions and small vegetables.
>> Shop for Weber hotplates on Amazon
Weber sells a wide range of Weber accessories from frying pans and roasting racks to pizza stones and cleaning brushes. They’re things you can add to your collection over time so you don’t need to buy everything all in one go. How many of these Weber BBQ accessories you need to buy depends on how you plan on using your Weber Baby Q. Will it be your main camping BBQ or your main ‘oven’ for taking on caravan trips? The more you’re planning on using it, the more extras you might want to invest in. Many of the Weber accessories are available from other brands too so don’t feel you need to only buy branded Weber accessories for everything.
Some things I personally love about the Weber Baby Q range (and the Weber BBQ brand):
- Weber BBQs are durable – we’ve had our main Weber BBQ for many years now and use it constantly. We don’t take care of it like we should – ooops (it’s kept outside and sometimes isn’t undercover) but it has stood the test of time!
- I love cooking on a Weber BBQ – the grills are fantastic and it’s just a lovely cooking experience and the food tastes amazing too.
- I love that there are loads of Weber Baby Q accessories available so you can add to the experience.
- I like that you can buy spare Weber Baby Q parts online if anything ever breaks.
- I like that there is a Weber Baby Q hotplate to make cooking on your Weber Baby Q really flexible.
Why do I prefer to cook on our own Weber Baby Q rather than the public BBQs
For years, we’ve cooked on the public BBQ hotplates (like the one pictured above) at the beach. I love that these are readily available in Australia. We didn’t NEED a portable BBQ as most places we go have public BBQs already. But there were a few reasons I’d been thinking that owning our own small barbie would add to our enjoyment of days out.
- A portable BBQ makes our days out flexible. We can go where ever we like and cook where ever we like. We aren’t tied by the availability of a BBQ point.
- We can relax after cooking and enjoy eating our food rather than rushing to clean up after ourselves.
- We know the BBQ is clean and ready to cook on when we’re ready – unlike public BBQs which might be dirty when we arrive or might not work (we’ve had instances when we’ve gone somewhere to cook with the kids only to find the public BBQ didn’t work and it’s so disappointing!)
- It means we can stay in our little family bubble and cook and eat together rather than one of us having to stand further back from the beach cooking – we get to set our BBQ up in the middle of the action so we don’t miss out on any of the memories.
- We can leave food keeping warm on the grill while we eat and come back for me (unlike a public BBQ where you need to clean up and move on in case someone else wants to use it.
- We get to cook whatever we like. As I have friends with severe peanut allergies, I’m conscious not to make satay chicken on public BBQs as you never know who might use it next. Now I can cook what I like!
- I love that we can pack up and go without cleaning up – that can wait until we get home and have access to a sink!
As the owner of a Weber Baby Q1000, I would definitely recommend the product to others and I hope you found my Weber Baby Q review useful if you’ve been considering investing in your own Weber Baby Q BBQ.
I thought I’d finish with a pic that sums up our experience of owning a Weber Baby Q! Sun, sea, sand and happy faces after eating about five kebabs and two hot dogs! (I’m not sure where they put it all!)
We love our Baby Q BBQ and it has added so much value to our family days out.
