Weber Gas Grills Worth the Money???

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i have a weber genesis all stainless. i use it once a week on average (i wish i could use it more, but i work late a lot). it is 4 years old, and it still looks and operates like a brand new grill. i did have an issue last year with one of my burner tubes, but weber overnighted a new set of all 4 burner tubes for free. i anticipate 20ish years at least out of the grill. some of the webers have the porcelain enameled iron grates. based on what i have heard many other people say, they will rust out in a few years. so, it is worth it to either go ahead and pay for the stainless up front, or go ahead and upgrade to stainless after your first set of iron grates wears out.

as far as the cooking quality, i do think it gets hotter, has better overall heat control and heats more evenly than other grills i have owned.
 
i have a weber genesis all stainless. i use it once a week on average (i wish i could use it more, but i work late a lot). it is 4 years old, and it still looks and operates like a brand new grill. i did have an issue last year with one of my burner tubes, but weber overnighted a new set of all 4 burner tubes for free. i anticipate 20ish years at least out of the grill. some of the webers have the porcelain enameled iron grates. based on what i have heard many other people say, they will rust out in a few years. so, it is worth it to either go ahead and pay for the stainless up front, or go ahead and upgrade to stainless after your first set of iron grates wears out.

as far as the cooking quality, i do think it gets hotter, has better overall heat control and heats more evenly than other grills i have owned.

I do have stainless grates, and like them "ok" so far. They tend to stick, and they are now black after about 8 uses. What do you do to keep them looking good? I burn everything off and scrape it down after and before every use. Should I be doing more to keep the grates looking good?
 
My recommendation is to not spend two seconds worrying about how they look, but instead worry about how they work. The do not need to be shiny new to be perfectly functional.

Several cooking shows always show the same procedure: preheat the grill to maximum temp (usually well north of 500 degrees); scrape all the "schmutz" off using a grill brush (the heating almost self-cleans the grates); finally take a paper towel soaked in vegetable cooking oil and slather it all over the grill. This will build up a non-stick varnish.

Scraping off all the burned off gunk gets them plenty clean enough, so that you don't end up with a build up of gunk.

Here is a video, queued up to the exact point where they show this procedure:



[edit]I just realized they didn't show the application of the oil. Here's another video that not only shows that, but also shows a trick I hadn't seen for how to get the grates even hotter:

Preparing and Cleaning Grill
 
I clean my grill & smoker grates with a weed burner, you just have to be careful you don't get them too hot or they will warp.
Al
 
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Heat it up, scrub it off, cook your food. I use a grill brush that’s woven metal, instead of bristles. It’ll stop sticking after a few more uses. You can rub it it down with a little oil just before adding food, if you want.
 
When you run a gas grill at high temps to burn it off or clean it up , make sure the grease trap and tray are not full of grease .
 
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I do have stainless grates, and like them "ok" so far. They tend to stick, and they are now black after about 8 uses. What do you do to keep them looking good? I burn everything off and scrape it down after and before every use. Should I be doing more to keep the grates looking good?


i never clean mine after i use them. i just clean it before i use it every time. i turn it on, leave the burners on high, let it heat up as hot as it will get, and then i scrub with a wire grill brush. mine haven't turned black after 4 years. do you grill with a lot of sugary marinades/sauces?

also, i never put any oil or anything on my grates. things stick when you first put them on. as the meat heats up, the meat releases itself from the grate.
 
I found weber grills are always worth the money. I have over 10 grills in my restaurant and the weber is the only gas grill which is still working well after 3 years. So you can go for it. :) :emoji_metal:
 
I have several grills before in 2004 I got the Weber Genesis Replaces flavor bars ignitors nothing major. To me this was a great investment. Lasted all these years and still cooks some amazing stuff. If I got the other brands I most likely would be on my 8th or 9th one by now.
 
...I have never thought Charbroil grills looked very well made, but I have not owned one...
I got a cast aluminum Charbroil gasser for ~$150 ~25-30 years ago. The piezo starter went out soon thereafter and I've been using a long-neck lighter ever since. I'm on the 3rd set of burners, and have recently had to make a new heat diverter (flavorizer bar!) but the bulk of the unit is fine. (Although it is a bear to drill for thermometers, smoke generators, etc.) And the lower and middle grates are finally getting thin, which I don't expect to be a cheap replacement. So I've bought a pellet grill to replace it, with a promise to the wife I'd dump the gasser, but I'm not quite sure how she'll like steaks from the pellet grill so I've just hidden away the CharBroil for now.

I've read in a thread here that the problem with cheap grills is not enough BTU's per grill area. The wise poster used the Weber Genesis as the gold standard and gave a BTU-per-lower-grate-area-in-square-inches number as the metric to match. I'll search for it should I decide to buy a 4th set of burners (and new grates) for the ol' CharBroil.

Yes, I've pretty consistently used a cover on it. Funny that covers used to only last a couple years but I think I'm on year 7 with the current cover.
 
I spent a lot of $ on the cheaper gas grills and bought a spirit about 5-7 years ago, replaced the burners and the flavoriser bars 1 time and my fault on the burners, the FB wore out and I couldn't find any local when I needed them, bought a cheap ss set and it let stuff drip onto the cross over lighter and ruined it. 100% my fault and wont ever happen again, I wish I could have spent more and got the upper end 4 burner not that I need that much room often but cant never find my grill stretcher when I need it lol. That said my Deluxe Performer will be the last grill I part with, thinking about having my ashes put in it when I die and have it welded shut lmao ,My best friend resides in a Craftsman tool box 😭
 
I have a 20 year old Weber Q which I use if I'm in too much of a rush to use charcoal. Never had a bit of trouble with it. I trust Weber products.
 
I would recommend blaze LTE 32, best grill I ever had, its quite expensive though. But at least I got 10% discount here blaze grills. But I am thinking to buy a weber smoker, does anynone have any idea which one i should pick?
 
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