Electric grill or barbecue: choose by where you live

You have a flat, a balcony the size of a table, and a plan that looks like a garden cook. Someone says a smoke control area allows a barbecue, so a kettle on the ledge seems enough. An electric grill or barbecue is a choice of room. One appliance plugs into the kitchen. The other burns charcoal or gas on open ground you are allowed to use.

Products Compared checked the NHS carbon monoxide page, London Fire Brigade's barbecue guidance, the GOV.UK smoke-control rules, and the comparisons in this hub, in October 2026. We did not run a lab or a taste test. A purchase through our links can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

In short

Choose a mains indoor grill when the lease or the balcony rules out a flame. Choose a charcoal or gas garden cart when you have open ground you may use, and keep that fire outside. The NHS warning names barbecues and camping stoves. Smoke-control permission for an outdoor barbecue does not clear a balcony.

Two appliances that share a verb

An electric grill and a garden barbecue both cook with direct heat, which is why a shop can file them on one page. A contact grill sits on a worktop, closes plates on the food, and runs from a UK 13 amp plug on 230 V mains. A garden barbecue stands outside, burns charcoal or gas, and lets smoke leave in the open air. Ask only which one grills, and you can buy the picture, then find the room will not take it.

The indoor machine has no cylinder and no regulator. You clear a patch of worktop, confirm a BS 1363 plug, and cook once the plates are hot. Grease still needs a wipe, and a small kitchen still has to store the body.

A gas cart needs the regulator and the appliance plate to state the same pressure. Charcoal uses no regulator, but ash, a cover and a dry store for fuel come with it. The limit is the room. A good contact grill still withholds an open fire, and a good cart still stays out of the kitchen. Compare models after you know which one you are allowed to light.

When the garden is not available

Buy the indoor grill when you have no garden you are allowed to use. A balcony, a lease that forbids flames, or a house rule against outdoor cooking closes the cart before you price charcoal or gas. London Fire Brigade tells you not to barbecue on a balcony. The note is about fire and the flats around the ledge. A small kettle does not rewrite it.

GOV.UK allows outdoor barbecues in a smoke control area. That permission does not grant a balcony. When the balcony is the only outdoor space, the mains grill in the kitchen matches the rule you live under.

Read the lease before you pay. A neighbour's photo is a memory. The clause is the rule.

An electric grill in a flat needs room for the body, a socket you can reach without a block across the sink, and space to open the lid. Grease and the smell of meat are part of grilling indoors. The extractor and a wipe are the answer. They are a poor reason to carry charcoal inside. This page cannot read your lease for you. If you are unsure about the balcony, leave it empty and cook indoors until the person who holds the rule says otherwise.

When you actually want fire

Buy the garden cart when you want fire and you have open ground you may use. A contact grill browns food between plates. It lacks the taste of a kettle, because no fuel is burning under a grate. You may mind that gap. You may not. A star rating on a mains listing rates that plug-in grill, not a charcoal flavour.

Charcoal needs a start in the open and a wait until the coals are ready. Gas is quicker at the burner and still depends on a cylinder, a regulator and a data plate that agree. Both stay outside. A wet evening needs a cover, a dry store for fuel, and a plan for the ash.

On open ground, GOV.UK's outdoor permission can apply in a smoke control area, and it still leaves a balcony closed. A hot, short burn is cooking. A smoky heap until midnight is how a permitted cook annoys the terrace. Wanting a charcoal taste does not create a garden, and a garden does not force a cart if you cook outside twice a year. The kitchen grill covers a weeknight. The cart covers an afternoon outside.

Safety lines that do not swap over

Each safety line belongs to a fuel. The NHS page on carbon monoxide poisoning warns against barbecues and camping stoves indoors or in a tent. An indoor electric contact grill is a different appliance from the ones that sentence names. The warning does not invite you to drag a kettle inside because the plates felt dull.

Keep charcoal and gas barbecues out of the kitchen, the garage, the awning and the tent. A gas trolley is still a barbecue, so the NHS wording still points at it. A contact grill on the worktop still throws off fumes from food, fat and marinade, so use the extractor and wipe the plates when they are cool enough to handle. This page does not claim an electric grill emits nothing.

An electric grill needs no gas regulator, because it has no cylinder. That empty fitting does not turn a garden gas trolley into a worktop appliance, and it does not make a charcoal kettle acceptable on a balcony. If you think carbon monoxide is already affecting someone, use NHS guidance and emergency care.

Where to compare each one

Keep the indoor and outdoor comparisons as separate doors. The Tefal electric grill comparison is the indoor door for plug-in grills. Its top pick in that set is the Tefal OptiGrill+ XL GC722D40, listed at £129.99 with 4.7 from 2,766 reviews on amazon.co.uk. Treat the price as the comparison extract, because shelf prices move. The figure is a listing for a sensor contact grill with plates that come off. It is not a taste ranking against a charcoal kettle.

The Tefal contact grill comparison is the other indoor door, for a Tefal contact grill set beside other contact grills. Plate size and whether a lid opens flat belong there.

For ground you may use, the Taino gas barbecue comparison covers gas trolleys, where the fitting and the cylinder have to match. The Weber barbecue comparison covers the charcoal kettles. A balcony rule is unchanged by either listing. We did not re-test those listings here, and we did not build one score for every grill in the hub. Buy the appliance you are allowed to light where you live.