The Best Grill Tongs

Since we last tested grill tongs, many new styles have come on the market, so we tested six pairs, including our longtime favorites, the OXO Good Grips 16" Locking Tongs. We took them outside and tried them on a variety of tasks that tested their agility and strength, grilling delicate asparagus spears, chicken parts, and full slabs of ribs. We used them to open and close hot hinged grill grates and vents and to arrange glowing coals into a banked fire. We also asked testers of varying heights and strengths, some left- and some right-handed, to use the tongs while handling and flipping corn on the cob, a whole butterflied raw chicken, and a pound of slim asparagus. We opened and closed and locked and unlocked them 100 times each, and we left them covered with sauce and spice rub overnight and then noted how easy they were to clean. We also washed them 25 times in the dishwasher or by hand and left them wet to see if they’d rust, stiffen, or break. To push the boundaries of their precision, security, and strength, we also tried to pick up single wooden toothpicks and lift heavy glass jars of salsa.

The testing wasn’t pretty: Before it even began, one pair of tongs arrived with a pincer snapped off, a poor omen of its durability. Sure enough, the replacement pair wasn’t much tougher; while both pincers stayed attached, they quickly became misaligned, making it difficult to do precise work like turning individual asparagus spears. Another pair had the opposite problem: Its heavy-duty construction will likely last until the end of time, but this single bent slab of steel weighed nearly 2 pounds, and most testers had to use both their hands to press its pincers closed. It could not grab asparagus, it struggled not to crush hot briquettes into dust, and flipping a batch of 10 assorted chicken pieces made us adopt a sideways, two-handed “shovel and throw” motion that was anything but deft. Two more models of tongs performed moderately well once we’d adjusted to their slightly ungainly handles and pincers. But when we picked up the final two pairs, we were astonished at how natural and comfortable each felt in our hands. Hand strain was gone; they felt like an extension of our fingers on every task. They picked up single toothpicks and didn’t give us a moment’s worry as they lifted a 1-pound glass jar.

What did these successful tongs have in common? First, they were the lightest pairs we tested, at 8 and 9 ounces, which made them far less fatiguing during sustained work. By contrast, the worst tongs weighed two to three times as much. But while they were light in weight, our top tongs weren’t lightly built—both pairs were tough enough to securely lift and flip heavy whole chickens and slabs of ribs. Both had pleasing tension in their arms that let them spring back gently when squeezed, rather than flopping flat or fighting back like other pairs we tested. And while grill tongs are sold in lengths ranging from 16 to 21 inches, at 16 inches, our two winners were the shortest models we tested: This length was enough to keep us safe from heat but provided better control than longer pairs. Both pairs had shallow, scalloped pincers with narrow tips for precision work and curving sides that gently but securely grasped a variety of foods. Less-effective tongs had pincers shaped like rough teeth that inadvertently hooked into meat and snagged grates, tightly curved-in pincers that scraped off rubs and sauces, or pincers with too-smooth edges that let food slip out. Furthermore, both our top performers were durable and remained neatly aligned—with arms that operated smoothly and locks that closed securely—even after many rounds of testing and multiple trips through the dishwasher.

Finally, both offered locking mechanisms that could be opened with one hand—a useful feature when you’re headed to the grill bearing a heavy platter of food in your other hand. But one of the two, the Rösle 16-inch Barbecue Grill Tongs, had an invisible locking system that was operated by gently squeezing the arms while pointing down to unlock or up to lock. This seemed like a great idea in concept, but in practice the tongs sometimes popped open or locked shut at the wrong moments, and even after lots of practice we often had to pause and reposition them so they could open or close before use; it never became fully natural. And at twice the price of the other pair, which opened simply by pushing in a soft grippy knob at the end of the handle, the Rösle tongs slipped into second place. That left our former winner, the OXO Good Grips 16" Locking Tongs, as champion again. Tough, precise, intuitive, comfortable, and agile, they’re what we’ll grab next time we head out to grill.