NEXCOVER vs Amazon Basics: Which Cover Actually Holds Up

I have a three-burner propane grill that sits on a concrete patio behind my house in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is out in the open all year, which means it takes snow, freezing rain, and July sun. For years I bought cheap covers and replaced them every spring. Then I tried the NEXCOVER 60 Inch Grill Cover, and I also ran an Amazon Basics cover through a full season to see how they compared. After a season on each, here is what actually happened.

Both covers fit my three-burner. Both kept the rain off for a while. That is where the similarity ends. The NEXCOVER is a 600D heavy duty polyester cover with a water-resistant coating and two adjustable straps. The Amazon Basics cover is thinner, lighter, and cheaper. I wanted to know whether the extra cost buys anything you can feel, and after a Michigan winter, it does.

	NEXCOVER 60 Inch	Amazon Basics Grill Cover
Material	600D heavy duty polyester with a water-resistant coating	Thinner polyester, no stated denier
Water resistance	Coated fabric sheds rain and snow; water beaded up through a Michigan winter	Sheds light rain at first, soaked through after a season
Straps	Two adjustable straps with buckles, held in 40 mph gusts	Single elastic hem, stretched out by August
Fit	60 inch size covered my three-burner with room to spare	Same claimed size, but cut tighter and pulled at the corners
Price	Costs more upfront	Costs less upfront
Best for	Grills that sit out in open weather all year	Covered patios or grills used only in summer

Where NEXCOVER Wins

The first thing I noticed was the fabric. The NEXCOVER's 600D polyester feels like a tarp, not a shower curtain. It has a coating that makes water bead up and run off instead of soaking in. I put it on in early November, and by January we had a stretch of freezing rain that left a sheet of ice on everything. The cover iced over, but the fabric underneath stayed dry. When the ice melted, the coating was still there. That is the test that matters for anyone who leaves a grill out all winter.

The straps are the other reason I kept it. There are two of them, each with a buckle, and they cinch down around the legs of the grill. One night in March we had gusts up to 40 miles an hour, and the cover did not move. I have stiff fingers from thirty years of machine work, so I appreciate that the buckles are big enough to work with one hand. The fit is generous too. The 60 inch size covered my three-burner with room to spare, and the corners did not pull or strain. It just sat there and did its job.

Cleaning is simple. Twice over the winter I brushed off a layer of snow and once I hosed off a collection of pine needles and grit. The coating makes most of it slide off, and a soft brush takes care of the rest. I did not need to bring it inside or dry it before putting it back on. That matters when you have a bad back and you do not want to wrestle a wet, heavy cover into the house.

One thing I did not expect was how well the coating held up to UV. My old covers would go stiff and chalky after a single summer. The NEXCOVER spent July and August on the grill too, because I did not bother taking it off when the weather warmed up. By September the fabric still flexed like new, and the coating had not turned sticky or flaky. I cannot promise it will look that way after five years, but after three years of Michigan sun and snow, it does.

The stitching is worth mentioning too. On cheap covers, the seams are the first thing to go. I checked the NEXCOVER's seams after the winter, and they were tight, with no loose threads and no places where the fabric had pulled away from the hem. The reinforced corners are double stitched, and that is exactly where the Amazon Basics cover failed. It is not a glamorous detail, but it is the detail that decides whether a cover lasts one season or four.

The handles on the NEXCOVER are another small thing that adds up. There are two fabric handles sewn into the top, and they are long enough to grab even with gloves on. When the cover is wet and heavy, you can lift it off the grill without dragging the fabric across the hot lid. The Amazon Basics cover has no handles at all, so you end up bunching the wet fabric in your hands. It sounds minor until you are standing in the rain trying to get dinner started.

The NEXCOVER also sheds snow better than I expected. Snow is light when it falls, but it packs down and freezes into a crust. A flat cover will hold that crust and the weight can bend a flimsy frame. The NEXCOVER has a slight slope to it because the fabric is stiff enough to hold its shape, so most of the snow slid off on its own. I still brushed it off after big storms, but I never worried about the weight crushing the grill lid.

Where Amazon Basics Wins

I am not going to tell you the Amazon Basics cover is junk, because it is not. It costs less, it is lighter, and it folds up into a smaller bundle. If your grill lives under a pergola, on a covered porch, or in a shed, that is probably all you need. I put the Amazon Basics cover on my gas grill in May, and through the summer it kept the rain off fine. The material is thinner, but it did not tear or fade in three months of sun.

The problems showed up when the weather turned. The Amazon Basics cover has a single elastic hem instead of straps. By August the elastic had stretched enough that the cover sat loose. By December, when the snow came, it pooled on top and soaked through in the spots where the fabric had thinned. The corners wore through first, right where they rubbed against the grill lid. If you are in a milder climate or you store the grill under cover, none of that will matter. If you are in Michigan, it will.

The Amazon Basics cover is also easier to store. It folds down to about half the size of the NEXCOVER, which matters if you keep your cover in a drawer or a small bin during the summer. I kept mine in a plastic tote under the grill, and it fit without a fight. The NEXCOVER takes up more room, but it also has more fabric doing more work. You trade storage space for durability.

I want to be fair about the Amazon Basics cover, because there is a version of this story where it is the right purchase. The fabric is lighter, which makes it easier to drape over a tall grill. The elastic hem grabs well enough on a calm day. For someone who grills a few times a month and keeps the grill in a garage or under an awning, it will probably last several seasons. My criticism is not that it fell apart. It is that it fell apart in the exact conditions I live in.

There is also the matter of how it fits over a larger grill. The Amazon Basics cover I used was the same claimed size as the NEXCOVER, but it measured tighter across the middle. On my three-burner, the corners barely reached the bottom edge, and the hem rode up a couple of inches on the windiest days. The NEXCOVER, with the same 60 inch label, hung down past the control knobs and stayed there. If you have a grill with a side shelf or a rotisserie, that extra inch or two of drop matters.

I should also mention that the Amazon Basics cover is not completely without merits in winter. Because it is thinner, it dries faster when you do bring it inside. I hung mine in the basement for a day after a wet spell and it was ready to go back out. The NEXCOVER takes longer to dry because the fabric holds more water. If you are the kind of person who brings the cover in after every rain, the lighter cover is easier to manage.

The Amazon Basics cover also wins on ease of folding. It is flimsy enough that you can roll it into a tight cylinder and stuff it into a small bag. The NEXCOVER is stiffer and bulkier, so it takes up more space in the garage. I keep my covers hanging on hooks, so it does not matter much to me. But if you store your cover in a drawer or a tote, the Amazon Basics cover is the one that fits.

Who Should Buy Which

The honest answer is that it depends on where your grill lives. If it sits in the open, on a patio or a deck, with no roof over it, buy the NEXCOVER. The 600D fabric, the coating, and the straps are worth the extra money because they are the difference between replacing a cover every year and replacing it every few years. If your grill is under a roof, or you only grill from May to September, the Amazon Basics cover will do the job and save you money.

I am not a person who buys the most expensive version of everything. But I have learned that a grill cover is a wear item, and a cheap one wears out faster than you think. The NEXCOVER has been on my gas grill for three winters, and it still looks like the day I put it on. The Amazon Basics cover went on the same three-burner the next May and came off the following spring with stretched elastic and thin spots. Do the math for your own situation and buy accordingly.

Let me be specific about the numbers, because vague advice is not useful. My gas grill has a cooking surface of about 560 square inches and stands about 45 inches tall with the lid closed. The 60 inch NEXCOVER covers it completely, with enough extra fabric to tuck under the drip tray. The Amazon Basics cover in the same size just barely covered it, and the hem sat above the bottom edge of the firebox. If your grill is bigger than mine, I would size up with either brand, but the NEXCOVER gives you more forgiveness.

I also want to say something about the smell. A new cover often has a chemical smell that takes weeks to fade. The NEXCOVER had a mild odor for the first couple of days and then it was gone. The Amazon Basics cover smelled stronger and it lingered for about a month. Neither smell transferred to food, and both faded eventually, but if you keep the cover near a door or a window, the difference is noticeable.

One more thing. I have a 22-inch charcoal kettle that has lived on the same patio for eleven years, and I used the Amazon Basics cover on it for a stretch. The round shape is easier to cover than a rectangular gas grill, so the elastic hem did a better job there. If you only need a cover for a kettle, the cheaper option is a lot more reasonable. The NEXCOVER is still the better cover, but the gap is smaller on a round grill.

One last observation. I have been using grill covers for thirty years, and most of them fail the same way: the seams split, the elastic dies, and the fabric goes brittle. The NEXCOVER is the first cover I have used that did none of those things in three years. That does not mean it will last forever. It means the extra money buys time, and time is the whole point of a cover.