Why this order
1. The chimney starter. Nothing else on this list changes the experience as much. Fill it, put a wax cube underneath, light it, and fifteen minutes later you have evenly lit coals with no lighter-fluid taste and no half-lit pile that dies when you close the lid. It is the single upgrade that most improves a cheap grill, and there is a full page of picks at best chimney starter.
2. Wax fire starters. The thing that goes under the chimney. Newspaper works in still, dry weather; a wax cube works every time, which is what you want on the first few cooks when your confidence is still being built. More on the types at best charcoal fire starters.
3. An instant-read thermometer.The USDA is blunt that color and time do not tell you when food is safe — only a thermometer does. An instant-read is the cheap version and the one to start with: touch it to the thickest part of the meat, get a number in a couple of seconds, serve with confidence. A leave-in probe comes later when you start doing long cooks, and both are compared at best grill thermometer.
4. Long heat-resistant gloves. The first time you carry a lit chimney across a garden you find out why an oven mitt is not enough. Long cuffs protect the forearm, which is the part that meets the rim of the grill. They also let you pick up a hot grate, move a charcoal basket or rearrange coals mid-cook, which quietly makes you a better cook because you stop avoiding those jobs.
5. One long pair of tongs. Not a set. One pair, at least sixteen inches, that locks closed for storage. Long tongs are how you turn food without leaning over the fire and how you hold an oiled paper towel to wipe the grate. Our tongs page explains why length beats every other spec.
6. A cover.Boring, and mathematically the best purchase here. Rain collects in an uncovered bowl, sits under a layer of wet ash and rusts the grill from the inside. Ten dollars against a grill you would otherwise replace years early is the best value on this site — see best grill covers for sizing.
If you can only buy two things
Buy the chimney and the starters. Together they cost less than a bag of premium charcoal and they fix the two failures that make people give up on charcoal: the fire that will not light, and the food that tastes of fluid.
Everything else has a free workaround for a few cooks. Kitchen tongs will do if you keep your sleeves rolled up and your wits about you. A folded towel is not gloves, but it is something. A tarpaulin is not a cover, but it is better than nothing. There is no free workaround for a badly lit fire.
What to skip, and why
Twenty-piece tool sets.You get a spatula you will use twice, a fork that pierces meat and loses its juices, four corn holders, a basting brush that melts, and a wire grill brush that is the one thing on this list we actively recommend against — the reasons are on our grill brush page. The case is nice. The tools are thin.
Lighter fluid and self-lighting briquettes. The chimney makes both unnecessary, and both are why charcoal has an undeserved reputation for tasting of chemicals.
Grill baskets, mats and gadget trays. A perforated basket for vegetables is genuinely useful if you cook a lot of small vegetables; buy it in year two when you know whether you do. Grill mats prevent the direct contact with hot metal that makes grilled food taste grilled.
A rotisserie, at first.Rotisserie kits for kettles are good fun and they cost more than several items on this list combined. Learn the two-zone fire first — a chicken cooked indirect is already excellent.
The other half of the budget: fuel
The kit is not the whole first shop. You also need charcoal, and the choice matters more than any tool here. For a first grill, buy briquettes: they are uniform, predictable, burn at a steady temperature and cost less per cook — the picks are at best charcoal briquettes. Lump burns hotter and is more exciting to cook on, but it is less consistent, which is a lot to ask of someone who is still learning to read a fire. The full argument is at lump vs briquettes.
Buy one bag, not four, until you have somewhere dry to keep it. Damp charcoal behaves like a completely different fuel, and storing it properly is free.
As a gift
This list also happens to be the best charcoal gift you can assemble, and it beats the gift set every time. A chimney, a box of cubes, an instant-read thermometer and a pair of gloves in a bag says something quite specific: it says the person receiving it is going to cook well, rather than own a case of thin steel.
If they do not own a grill yet, the pairing we would choose is anything from our budget grill picks plus the first two items here. That combination gets someone from nothing to a properly cooked steak in one afternoon.
