Weber Spirit EX-325 Turns $599 Grilling Into a Safe Bet

The Weber Spirit EX-325 matters because it adds smart cooking help without raising the $599 price above the older Spirit model Tom’s Guide reviewed in 2024. That’s the whole case. Weber didn’t reinvent grilling here. It made its most broadly recommendable gas grill easier to trust, easier to control, and harder to mess up.

According to Tom's Guide, the Spirit EX-325 keeps the familiar Weber formula: three burners, 360 square inches of cooking space, a 90-inch warming rack, and a compact patio footprint. Then it adds the parts that actually help: a WiFi-enabled thermometer display, an included meat probe, SearZone, and the WeberWorks modular accessory setup.

“I've been reviewing the best grills for six years, and even though I've tested countless models in that time, the Weber Spirit line is the one I've recommended to the most people.”

That sentence is the anchor. The Spirit line already had the credibility. The EX-325 makes it smarter without turning it into a gadget shrine.

Weber Spirit EX-325 is the smart gas grill most backyard cooks should buy

The best product upgrades are boring in the right way. The Weber Spirit EX-325 doesn’t ask you to learn a new cooking religion. It gives you a more readable grill, better temperature feedback, and enough burner control to cook for a group without performing backyard triage.

The specs hit a practical middle: natural gas or propane, 60.5" H x 48.3"W x 30.97"D, 3 stainless steel burners, 31,000 BTU, and room for 24 burgers, according to Tom’s Guide’s spec box. That’s not a luxury outdoor kitchen. It’s a serious everyday grill.

The buyer it serves best

Analysis: The EX-325 is strongest for people who want fewer surprises. If your grilling failures usually come from timing, temperature, or opening the lid too often, Weber’s smart display and probe solve a real problem. If you already cook by feel and own a thermometer you like, the upgrade is less urgent.

The Spirit EX-325 fixes the real problem with home grilling: guesswork

Most grill mistakes aren’t caused by laziness. They come from uncertainty. Is the lid temp stable? Is the chicken actually done? Did the burger need one more minute or did you just dry it out?

The Spirit EX-325 attacks that uncertainty with a side-mounted, real-time thermometer display. Pair it to the Weber app, and you can monitor grill temperature remotely. Plug in the included meat probe, and both the app and the grill display show the meat temperature.

That matters because the Tom’s Guide test shows both ends of the problem. Plant-based sausages and burgers needed controlled, consistent heat because they “don’t sizzle, they just burn.” Beef burgers needed high heat and probe-based doneness. Chicken needed patience and lower cooking than the reviewer expected from a conventional grill.

Could you do all this with a basic grill and a separate thermometer? Yes. But the EX-325 reduces the number of moving parts.

Weber’s three-burner setup gives the EX-325 enough power without overbuilding the grill

The three-burner layout is the quiet strength of the Weber Spirit EX-325. It gives you direct heat, indirect heat, and zone control without forcing a huge grill station onto the patio.

Tom’s Guide cooked for six people and found that the 360 square inches of cooking space plus the warming rack had no trouble keeping everyone fed. The grill also allows indirect cooking by firing the two external burners and placing food in the center, or using individual burners for smaller groups.

Here’s the useful comparison from the supplied review:

Analysis: For most buyers, the EX-425’s extra burner only makes sense if they routinely need more cooking surface. The EX-325 already handled a six-person test meal without strain.

The EX-325 smart display earns its place because it stays out of the way

Good grill technology should lower the cognitive load. It shouldn’t make dinner feel like software administration.

The Spirit EX-325 mostly gets that balance right. The smart thermometer is built into the grill rather than bolted on as a visual centerpiece. You can use the onboard dial. You can use the app. You can use the meat probe. None of that prevents the grill from acting like a normal gas grill.

There is one warning sign. Tom’s Guide says setup took two people around two hours, and “a significant portion” of that time was spent updating the software when pairing the grill to the app. That’s the trade. The intelligence is helpful once working, but the first-run experience still includes the oldest smart-device tax: waiting for an update.

Still, during high-heat cooking, the remote temperature display made it easy to let the grill come back up to heat for another five minutes. That’s exactly where smart features belong: in the background, removing doubt.

Weber Spirit EX-325 makes the strongest case for less confident cooks and casual hosts

The Weber Spirit EX-325 is not only for people who obsess over grill marks. It is better understood as a consistency tool for people who cook normal food under normal pressure: burgers, sausages, plant-based alternatives, and chicken for a group.

Tom’s Guide’s testing matters because it wasn’t a lab-only performance script. The reviewer cooked with friends, tested low-heat control on plant-based food, used SearZone for beef burgers, and used the app and probe for peri-peri chicken breasts.

That spread tells us more than a maximum temperature claim. The grill retained heat well enough that sausages cooked at the same speed regardless of their position on the grates. The SearZone produced the grill lines people expect. The burner shields limited flare-ups enough to avoid burning or uneven cooking, according to the review.

Analysis: The biggest benefit lands with cooks who want repeatable results without memorizing every burner behavior. Experienced grillers can still use the EX-325 well, but the leap is larger for people who want the grill to confirm their instincts.

The case against the Spirit EX-325: smart features add cost and another thing to maintain

The strongest counterargument is simple: plenty of excellent food has been cooked on gas grills with no app, no WiFi, no smart display, and no connected probe.

That argument holds. The source itself shows some friction. Setup included a software update. The Weber app did not notify the reviewer when a six minute chicken timer finished. The modular WeberWorks insert also comes with the grill whether or not you plan to buy accessories, and the tested meal prep trays or condiment containers were separate add-ons. The reviewer said they would personally spend $40 for the convenience, but that is still an upsell.

Skip the EX-325 if you don’t want electronics in your grill, already own a thermometer you trust, or mostly cook foods where precision doesn’t matter to you. Also skip it if you want charcoal flavor above all else. Tom’s Guide liked the burgers’ smoky finish, but said it was “nothing that could rival a classic charcoal grill.”

That caveat strengthens the recommendation. The EX-325 isn’t pretending to be everything.

Against older Spirit value, the EX-325 wins on features without a price jump

The sharpest value point is not that the EX-325 destroys every cheaper grill. The supplied source doesn’t prove that. The real point is cleaner: at $599, Tom’s Guide says the Weber Spirit EX-325 does not depart from the older Spirit line in price, while adding features the Spirit II E-310 lacked.

That is the ownership argument. You get Weber’s familiar build quality, a thorough manual, a solid post-assembly feel, and warranties of 10 years on the cookbox, five on the grates, and two on remaining parts. You also get practical cleanup help from Weber’s Flavorizer bars, which channel grease into an easily removed drip tray below.

The upgrade math is straightforward

Performance: 31,000 BTU, up from the Spirit II E-310’s 26,500 BTU, according to Tom’s Guide.

Control: Three burners, SearZone on two of them, and indirect cooking options.

Confidence: Built-in temperature display, app monitoring, and included meat probe.

Compromise: No side burner, app hiccups, accessory costs, and gas flavor that still won’t beat charcoal.

Buy the Weber Spirit EX-325 if you want better dinners, not another gadget

My recommendation is firm, with the “almost” intact: buy the Weber Spirit EX-325 if you want a gas grill that helps you cook more consistently without taking over the experience.

Don’t buy it for the app. Buy it because the app, probe, display, burner layout, and SearZone all point at the same outcome: fewer ruined meals and fewer anxious lid checks. That’s useful intelligence.

The practical watch item is durability of the electronics over years of outdoor use, because the review can’t prove that yet. But based on the tested cooking performance, unchanged $599 price versus the older Spirit reference point, and Weber’s restrained approach to smart features, the EX-325 looks like the rare connected appliance that remembers the job is dinner.

Key Takeaways

• Weber added smart cooking features without increasing the $599 price versus the older Spirit model.
• The EX-325 targets everyday grillers who want better temperature control and fewer cooking mistakes.
• Its three burners, 31,000 BTU output, and room for 24 burgers make it practical for most backyard cooks.