GrillPro 15 in, chrome, 2-in-1

Because tongs cannot get under things, and that is their one real limitation. A pair of tongs grips — which is perfect for a sausage, a chop, a corn cob, anything you can pinch. It is useless for a burger, which has to be slid under and lifted flat or it breaks; and useless for fish. GrillPro publishes "1-side is flat like a turner to make picking up foods easy", so the same tool does both: pinch a sausage, or open the jaws and use the flat side as a spatula. That is why most proper sets include both a spatula and tongs separately — Weber’s two-piece set, Amazon Basics’ four-piece, Alpha Grillers’ four. This is the one-tool answer.

Over a few seasons, yes — and this is the only plated tool on this shelf. Chrome is a thin bright layer deposited over a base metal, and it does two things: it looks good and it resists corrosion while it is intact. The failure is mechanical. A grill tool gets scraped against cast iron grates and dropped on concrete, and plating chips — after which the base metal underneath rusts, starting at the chip and spreading beneath the plating. Everything else on this shelf is stainless steel through its thickness, which cannot fail that way: GRILLHOGS publishes 18/0, and the rest say "stainless". The identical objection applies to the chrome-plated grill grates elsewhere on this site.

They are the other material to weigh, and the concern is heat. PVC — polyvinyl chloride — is a thermoplastic that softens as it warms, and a grill tool’s handle is held a foot or two from a fire with heat rising past it. At fifteen inches the handle is well clear, which helps. But compare the alternatives on this shelf: GRILLHOGS and XUDAKAIXIN use wood, which conducts heat very slowly and does not soften at all; BLACKSTONE specifies "heat-resistant plastic handles" and says they are for "longer cooking hours"; Amazon Basics uses stainless steel handles, which are the most durable and the hottest to hold. For a ten-dollar tool PVC is unremarkable. Do not rest it on the grill.