Weber Spirit E-425 review: robust mid-sized gas grilling

BBQ season has officially kicked off! For successful outside cooking, you’ll need to invest in one of the best barbecues, and the best gas barbecues are faster to heat up and easier to clean than charcoal cookers.

Shopping for a new gas grill, Weber is a brand you’ll come across time and time again. In fact, it's arguably the most well-known BBQ maker there is.

New for 2025, the Weber Spirit E-425 is a four-burner gas barbecue suited to medium-sized family cooking or hosting small groups of people. It has a built-in lid thermometer, a clever sear zone and two useful fold-away side tables.

I’ve used it several times in the last month or so, and have been impressed by its cooking capabilities. Here’s everything you need to know from assembly and ignition to cooking and cleaning.

How much does the Weber Spirit E-425 cost?

You can get the Weber Spirit E-425 from the Weber online store for £699 in the UK or $599 in the US. It’s available to buy from other popular online retailers as well, like Amazon and John Lewis.

How easy is it to set up the Weber Spirit E-425?

When the box arrives at your door, the barbecue's components are packaged in a mixture of cardboard, fabric bags and plastic. There’s no polystyrene, and the majority of it is easy enough to recycle, although there is quite a lot to dispose of.

In the box, alongside the main barbecue unit, you’ll find the hose and regulator (already installed), the ignition battery, the owner's manual, two side tables, two wheels, four tool hooks and a built-in lid thermometer.

To start assembling the grill, you’ll just need a screwdriver. The paper instructions have step-by-step diagrams to help you put it together. It would have been great if there had been some written guidance or photos to go with that, but I still found it relatively easy to follow. In total, it took two of us about 1 hour and 40 minutes to assemble. Once built, you place the gas canister on the dedicated shelf in the bottom compartment and attach the hose.

Igniting the grill is made easy thanks to the Snap-Jet ignition, you can do it one-handed without leaning over the grill at any time. You just need to turn each knob and it ignites each burner by itself, no need for any matches or lighters.

The Weber Spirit E-425 is both aesthetically and practically well-designed. Each element is made from robust materials, and everything from the handles to the side tables feels high quality. It’s a mid-sized grill, so it'll suit medium to large gardens and cooking for the family rather than solo meals.

The black aluminium lid features a large thermometer and the Weber logo, with a silver heatproof handle that stretches across its entire width. It’s quite a sizable cook box, so it can be a bit of a stretch to open and close for shorter people, but it’ll be perfectly fine for most.

There are four dials to precisely set the temperature of each burner, two side tables that fold away, hooks to hold your BBQ tools, and a cupboard with a raised shelf to hold the gas or store your tools when not in use.

At the bottom, there are two wheels and two static feet that ensure it stays firmly in place, and there’s an area to place the included disposable grease tray underneath the burners.

The barbecue is safe to use on any surface, including decking and grass, because the body doesn’t heat up, and the gas canister is raised from the ground.

My only issue with the design is that there’s no handle to move the barbecue around. I needed to bring it in and out of a shelter, and there was nowhere to grip it to push or pull it into place. The two side tables both have a rail meant for snap-on accessories, but it feels a little risky to use those to lift the weight of the grill.

When you open the lid, you'll find thick cast iron cooking grates with a removable circular sear zone and a warming rack at the back of the grill.

Is the Weber Spirit E-425 a good grill?

With all four burners ignited, it took a speedy 13 minutes for the grill to reach 300 degrees. And having four dials means you can easily control the temperature of each area.

I cooked vegetables and meats in as many spots as I could, and found heat was reasonably well distributed across the entire cooking surface, even the far edges. I managed to get grill lines across my courgette slices in the corners of the grill.

Everything cooked through quickly and thoroughly, potato slices were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, burgers were succulent and meaty, sausages got a really lovely smoky flavour, and aubergines blistered across the entire skin but were perfectly juicy inside.

The two Boost Burners on the right-hand side whack the heat up to maximum intensity, creating distinct sear lines across steaks and burgers, all while cooking the meat evenly. It’s a cool feature that ensures smoky flavours and a lovely texture.

With the lid shut, the temperature stayed stable and consistent, and it builds back up quickly again after being opened. The lid gets a little warm on the outside, but you won't burn yourself if you accidentally brush past it.

Once you've finished cooking, the grates were easy enough to clean with a good scrubbing and the grease tray is replaceable.

There’s plenty of opportunity for versatile cooking if you buy optional extras for the barbecue like a pizza stone, wok or griddle. None of these come in the box, but they are available to buy from the Weber online store, along with its long precision tool set, which hooks onto the side tables, or a premium cover to protect the grill from the elements when you aren’t using it.

Weber Spirit E-425 review: verdict

For medium-sized families or small garden parties, the Weber Spirit E-425 is an excellent gas barbecue featuring a considerable cooking surface and convenient fold-away side tables.

Assembly is relatively straightforward, the design is both sturdy and sleek, and igniting it is incredibly easy and very safe, thanks to the one-handed Snap-Ignition on all four burners. You’ll also know exactly when to start cooking thanks to the built-in thermometer.

Preparing your meals, the temperature is consistent with the lid closed, and the two Boost Burners concentrate heat on the sear zone, creating thick lines to lock in the smoky flavour of your meats, fish, and vegetables. You’ll enjoy ample temperature control over other areas of the grill as well, ensuring thorough cooking across the cooking grates.

Alternatives to consider

If you want to cook lots of different types of food and plan to feed lots of people, the Broil King Baron 490 IR is a premium pick with a searing zone and rotisserie kit included in the box, and it has a side burner that can hold an optional griddle plate. It also comes with a cover to protect it when not in use.

A much more affordable option is the Char-Broil All-Star 120 B-Gas, suited to smaller families. It’s compact and easy to move around the garden, with a stylish design and a cast iron grill that ensures quick and even cooking of all kinds of BBQ favourites from kebabs to prawns.