Weber grill owners--need your advice

[Matt Meiser]

We got married and bought our first house in 2001. I went through a grill a year until we bought a Genesis Silver B in 2004. About a year in the wind blew it off the deck and I called to order a new lid side because it broke. Lady from Weber asked a couple times for me to confirm that I actually didn't know how it got broken before I got the gist and they sent me a whole new lid under warranty. After about 5 years it needed flavorizing bars and grates and burners. Then I found out the burners were still under warranty so they sent me those which I still have in a box. Did the grates again at 10-ish and its about time to do the flavorizor bars. If I was keeping it I'd buy the stainless flavorizor bars and grates (when it needs them), but, I bought a Big Green Egg last fall so I think I'm going to clean up the Weber and put it on Craigslist.

[roger wiegand]

I bought a Big Green Egg last fall so I think I'm going to clean up the Weber and put it on Craigslist.

Better make sure you like it better for your cooking style first. Hard to beat the Webers.

[Matt Marsh]

I use my grill year round, and very often. I'm on my third Weber gas grill. I think they are the best grills on the market for your money. My first one was a Genesis Silver B that I bought in 1992. It had wooden lathes for the work surfaces, porcelainized grates and flavorizer bars, and it had the side burner. I loved the grill, and it was still going strong 12 years later, but it was weathered to the point that it needed some serious cleanup. I sold it for just a few dollars on Craig's list, and bought a Genesis Gold (stainless everything). It was also a great grill, although it didn't heat as evenly as the Silver B did. It was starting to corrode on the inside heat deflector, but otherwise it was still going strong in 2014, when the bear came up on the deck and tried to crawl through it. After he got hung up in there, it went flying over the handrail, and landed into a bent up pile. I bought a new E-330 last summer (2014), and couldn't be happier. It heats very evenly, the temperature controls right down to where you want it, and I love the new stle igniter. Mine has the cast iron grates, which after being seasoned, I consider to be superior over both the stainless and the pocrelainized steel ones. I also bought two triangular shaped smoker boxes that sit on the flavorizer bars, for when I want the added smokey flavor. I'll probably buy the rotisserie for it this summer. I use to buy the cheapie $200.00-$300.00 ones, but I could only get 2 or 3 years out of them before they gave up.

[Neil Gaskin]

I picked up a 310 series late last year to supplement my charcoal grills. I've been very happy with it so far. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles and is not constructed as well as the genesis though.

[Matt Marsh]

It doesn't have all the bells and whistles and is not constructed as well as the genesis though.

See now I don't get this. I assembled all three of mine, and the E-330 seems to me like it is the best built one of all of them by quite a bit. The enclosed cabinet is much stiffer and sturdier than the open design of the Genesis models that I had, and what bells and whistles? The E-330 has a sear burner, the Genesis models did not. The E-330 has a battery operated igniter, the Genesis did not. The Genesis models had either wooden or plastic work surfaces, the E-330 has stainless steel. The only thing I wish they had done differently on the E-330, was to put the large wheels on the one end like the Genesis had.

[Jim Becker]

Matt, have you had the same rusting issues with the grates that I have had with the E330?

[Matt Marsh]

Not at all Jim, but I do regularly spray mine down with vegetable oil when I light it, to season it like a cast iron frying pan. I have one of the pump-up sprayers that I use. The original Weber cast iron grates should actually be porcelainized also. Did you get a bad set? Or maybe somehow brush the porcelain off? Not sure if you can even do that, just wondering.

[Matt Marsh]

Jim, I found this.

http://help.weber.com/faqs/222/why-a...grates-rusting

[Jim Becker]

I did the "seasoning" multiple times. But that's the first I've ever seen "do not use the burn-off method" after cooking...oy!

[Matt Marsh]

I did the "seasoning" multiple times. But that's the first I've ever seen "do not use the burn-off method" after cooking...oy!

That's the first time I've read that too Jim. I use to do the burn-off after grilling on my old Webers, but after I forgot to go back and turn it off the second time, I now do it before each use instead. They also recommend solid vegetable shortening, I have never used that. These sprayers make it simple and inexpensive. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Matt Meiser]

Matt, have you had the same rusting issues with the grates that I have had with the E330?

Mine has the porcelainized stamped grilles. After several years they start to sag pretty good and that's when I've replaced them. Same construction on the flavorizor bars which started to get pretty rusty.

[roger wiegand]

The porcelainized grills only lasted 4-5 years for me, I replaced them with cast iron which worked better and lasted nearly 15, eventually getting thin and rusting through where they got the hottest. New grill has the stainless grates which still look like new after ~5 years and seem to work as well as the cast iron . They also sell stainless "flavorizer bars" which last 4-5 x longer than the carbon steel ones.

[Brian Elfert]

The stainless steel on many grills is really cheap stainless steel that doesn't last all that long. If a magnet sticks to stainless steel it isn't good stainless steel. I have a Ducane grill with stainless steel that has been used about ten times a year for seven years. Some of the stainless steel is already failing after only about 75 uses of the grill.

I also have a commercial grill designed for catering events and the stainless on it is going strong after being used and abused for many years. The stainless on it is really heavy and probably cost several thousand for the original owner to have custom made.

[Don Morris]

I have a 42" Viking, a top-of-line grill based on the price we paid for it. But we use it often, and I enjoy cooking out, even in winter. If I have to shovel snow to get to the grill, I do. I have the gas pumped from the house to the grill directly. It has porcelainiiz grates. They do have a lifetime, but it's in years and I clean them immediately after each meal is brought in. Only takes a minute or two and they're ready for the next time. Occasionally we've rented a beach house with a Weber grill that had a rusty non stainless steel grill grate. I have cooking on that rusty grill grate, even though I wire brush it to death. I bought a small Weber Smoky Joe that has a SS grate I'll bring along just to cook on a decent surface. So I cook on a Weber and a Viking. The small and the big. It's how you go about it. I have one of the instant read Therma Pens from King Arthur flour that I use to test for exact temp of meat. The meat doesn't know whether it's being cooked on the viking or the Smokey Joe