The Best Grill Lights

Originally made for camping, this durable, waterproof light can conveniently be left on the grill when not in use. Testers loved its sturdy, simple clamp, which took seconds to clip on to any grill handle and didn’t budge. It could also be configured to stand freely on a side table for grills without handles. Unfortunately, its brightness was concentrated like a spotlight in the middle of the grill, producing glare and making it hard to get a good look at the food.

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This light, which has two extending light panels, cast a wide spread of soft light that was fine for maneuvering food around the grill but a bit too weak for gauging char and doneness of burgers. It also didn’t fit on grills without handles, and its stubby neck had trouble extending past the lid on some larger grills.

For its tiny size, this lamp cast a moderately bright spread of warm light across most of the grill grate (though most testers said they’d need to use two of these for full illumination). Our qualms concerned its installation: The instructions were unclear and required a screwdriver and fiddling with a combination of four different brackets to get the right fit on your grill handle. Once it was installed on our favorite Weber gas grill, we were impressed by this light’s unobtrusive design and motion sensor, which automatically turned the light off when the lid was lowered. However, this light couldn’t be attached to our favorite charcoal grill (even though it’s a Weber) or gas grills with handles set an inch higher than the lip of the grill lid.

This light was almost blindingly bright, creating an intense spotlight smack-dab in the middle of the grill that washed out the burgers below it. This light didn’t spread to the edges of the cooking grate, however, so burgers were completely in the dark on the sides of the grill. Testers also struggled with the flimsy clamp, which took lots of unscrewing to adjust and struggled to grab a firm hold on most lid handles. Its wide clamp did fit the side tables of grills without handles, though, and it was the only light with a long neck that didn’t droop as we cooked.

This tripod light attaches magnetically to the metal portion of the grill lid, but we had trouble getting a sturdy fit; plus, this product was easily jostled when we moved the grill or lid. Its light was searingly bright in the center of the grill but failed to radiate to the edges, leaving most of the food in total darkness. We did like that it could stand on its own, however, which was good for side tables and grills without handles.

It took some adjusting to get this clamp to fit right, but once we did, this light was stable on almost any grill and had an acceptably bright spread of light on our winning Weber gas grill. But like other lights with stubby necks, this product had trouble illuminating bigger grills and didn’t fit grills without handles. Testers were also frustrated that it took just a soft tap to turn this light on or off, which meant adjusting, installing, removing, or storing the light was a frustrating battle with a flickering spotlight.

Despite its bar-shaped design, this product kept light concentrated in the center of the grill, leaving burgers on the sides completely in the dark. While this light was stable once on the grill, getting it installed was a chore, especially since the washer that holds the clamp in place often fell off during installation, leaving us rummaging around for it in the dark. It also didn’t fit our favorite charcoal grill.

Imagine five solitary Christmas tree lights hanging above your grill: That’s pretty much what you get from this light’s half-dozen tiny LEDs. The light concentrated directly in the middle of the cooking surface, leaving most of the food in total darkness. Though this light quickly looped on to most grill bars, its short neck was too stubby to see over the lid of some larger grills.

This two-pronged product did a decent job of spreading light out but still left corners of the cooking surface in the dark. Testers also thought this light seemed flimsy; it has a lot of plastic parts that twist and unscrew easily and left us feeling like we were breaking the light every time we tried to adjust it. While it fit sturdily on most grills, this light didn’t work on grills without handles.

This clip-style light, originally made for camping, can work as either a lantern or a spotlight and is capable of standing on its own. Unfortunately, its spotlight was too bright, casting uneven glare on the food, while its lantern was too dull and didn’t illuminate the cooking surface. We also had trouble getting the right fit on various grills, since this bulky light was hard to position around the grill bar and lid.

For such an oversized, aggressive-looking contraption, with a vice-like clamp and a bold name, we thought this light would pack more punch. Instead, all we got was a poorly spreading spotlight that could barely illuminate more than two burgers on a full grill. Though it attached sturdily to most side tables, this light was too oversized and heavy for grill bars and would slowly and precariously droop toward the grill grate as we cooked.

With a relatively bright spread of even light, this product illuminated the entire grill grate—that is, on the rare occasion we could get it attached to the grill. Its heavy, 4.5-inch-wide clip struggled to grab a sturdy hold on every grill bar we tried it on, and its unwieldy, 19-inch-long neck constantly threatened to pitch its heavy light onto the cooking surface.

This teeny little magnetic light produced an itty-bitty spotlight only big enough to light up one burger. You have to unscrew its battery compartment to turn the light on and off, and testers didn’t like that it only attached to the metal portion of the grill, meaning we often had to stick it on to the hot grill lid. For such a tiny light, this product also came with a hefty price tag.

This light was the brightest of the bunch, with an even, wide spread of warm light that allowed us to easily see char and gauge the doneness of the food. While this light stood freely on side tables and clipped on effortlessly to handles, it was easily jostled and displaced whenever we moved the grill or lid. We also noticed that many online reviewers complained that this light stopped working after just a few months of normal use (though ours was still functioning after more than two weeks of heavy usage).