Hey folks,
I've had a lot of benefit from this forum on the topic of smoking, and while I haven't had anything to share on that side, I assume some of us also have a gas grill.. to that end, wanted to share my experience today in servicing mine.
My grill is a Weber Genesis E-310, with a painted black exterior. It's circa 2007, and is factory configured for Natural Gas. I bought it used from someone who'd cared for it, kept it covered, etc., and was in prime working condition when I took it away.
When I first set it up, it worked great. According to Weber, these grills should reach 550F, and mine did. A few months later, I started noticing uneven heating, hesitancy to ignite the back burners, etc. I tried cleaning the burner tubes with a brush, but nothing changed. It was only heating up to about 325F, and I was having a terrible time trying to get a sear on my meat without overcooking. Lighting the back burners was taking about 10-20 seconds with the lid down, while I could smell the NG (odorant) from 3' away, before it'd catch with a whoosh.
Based on some online troubleshooting tips, low maximum heat and a hesitancy to ignite secondary burners (single igniter) points to faulty burner tubes, or gummed orifices. A set of new Weber OEM burner tubes was $50 shipped on eBay (mine were from 'yourpartsdirect13'), and looked correct for my 2007 era grill.
A week later, they arrived, shiny and new and with a sealed plastic baggie containing instructions from Weber and some new fasteners!
I took the new burners out of the box, looked at them, looked at the grill box, and thought I'd made a mistake... they were clearly too long. Not so fast; the burner tubes extend out of the grill box, to connect to the manifold several inches away from the flame. A quick measure with the tape confirmed.
Next step, see if I can figure out how to disassemble things, without reading the instructions. I got part way on this, but the instructions saved me about 10 minutes of unnecessary work. Removing the top control panel was a single screw. Ignoring the instructions to remove the rest of the trim saved me another 10 minutes of unnecessary work.
For my grill, I needed to remove one screw to remove the control panel cover, remove the knobs, and remove the igniter. On my grill, this exposes the two bolts that attach the manifold to the grill box. These had to come out* (more later) with a 3/8 socket to get the clearance to remove the burner tubes.
Remove the grill grates and "flavorizer bars" (angled tents) to expose the tubes.
Each burner tube is held in by one screw, and while it's slotted, a 5/16 socket is going to be needed, if they've been there long. I found a quick squirt from a can of compressed air helped me see the bolt heads clearly. With the bolts easily removed, I was able to move the tubes around to remove the crossover tube - it slots inside the front and back burner tube, and rests over the middle tube. Crossover tube removed, each burner tube was able to slide out the right side of the grill box.
I found this video from Weber to be great in seeing roughly what needed to be done:
I checked the NG orifices on the manifold, but they were already clean, so I left them alone; cleaning them risks enlarging them, which would alter the Air:Fuel ratio and could lead to a poorer burn (and less heat).
The burner tubes looked okay, but I was sure they had some metal flaked off inside them, etc., that was preventing gas from reaching the back. The crossover tube, though, well, that turned out to be the culprit. Was completely plugged up, could not see thru it, and the top slots (ports) were rusted up. I did hit this with some compressed air, and it cleaned it right out. I would expect with some compressed air, and maybe some solvent, the tube would've lasted another 3-5 years (in my climate.)
Reassembly was smooth*, and I put a little anti-seize on the burner tube screws, and hand-tightened them with a slotted screwdriver. These aren't load-bearing, the screws are just there to keep them from bumping around, so I recommend very light torque, in case you ever need to pull them out again.
As for the manifold, well, this was actually my biggest pain point. The bolts holding it to the grill box sheared. Mind you, not just the head, but about 1/4" of the body. Given where it sheared, I don't think a penetrating lubricant is going to be able to get deep enough, to be 100%... but definitely start with that, and do repeated applications. For my grill, I'll be drilling out the bolts, tapping new holes inside them, and using a smaller screw, to secure the manifold. On my grill, there's top slots that the manifold drops into, and it also supports from the burner tubes, so I ran it like this briefly to test the new tubes.
One thing that surprised me, is this is in no way a sealed system.. connections are just loosely joined, and the gas flows where it wants to. I would guess the gas burning inside the box creates a negative pressure vacuum, which helps keep it going the right way.
So, as it turns out, the problem with my grill was a gas burner (tube) issue, but was probably 80% the crossover tube, as it was creating back-pressure at the far end of the tubes. This definitely was the culprit of the ignition issues. Whether I could've just replaced this tube, I'm not sure, I didn't test after cleaning it out, but it'd be worth a try... doing just this tube would take about 20-30 minutes, since you don't have to remove the manifold (and risk shearing the bolts).
My grill is happily restored from a barely usable ~325F max heat, to 550F+ and quick ignition, and aside from the "flavorizer bars", I expect it to be useful for another 10 years with no additional servicing.
Hope someone else finds this useful. Feel free to ask any questions. Feel free to share the post elsewhere, as forum rules allow, but please do include original credit to SMF and myself.
Happy smoking/grilling!
I've had a lot of benefit from this forum on the topic of smoking, and while I haven't had anything to share on that side, I assume some of us also have a gas grill.. to that end, wanted to share my experience today in servicing mine.
My grill is a Weber Genesis E-310, with a painted black exterior. It's circa 2007, and is factory configured for Natural Gas. I bought it used from someone who'd cared for it, kept it covered, etc., and was in prime working condition when I took it away.
When I first set it up, it worked great. According to Weber, these grills should reach 550F, and mine did. A few months later, I started noticing uneven heating, hesitancy to ignite the back burners, etc. I tried cleaning the burner tubes with a brush, but nothing changed. It was only heating up to about 325F, and I was having a terrible time trying to get a sear on my meat without overcooking. Lighting the back burners was taking about 10-20 seconds with the lid down, while I could smell the NG (odorant) from 3' away, before it'd catch with a whoosh.
Based on some online troubleshooting tips, low maximum heat and a hesitancy to ignite secondary burners (single igniter) points to faulty burner tubes, or gummed orifices. A set of new Weber OEM burner tubes was $50 shipped on eBay (mine were from 'yourpartsdirect13'), and looked correct for my 2007 era grill.
A week later, they arrived, shiny and new and with a sealed plastic baggie containing instructions from Weber and some new fasteners!
I took the new burners out of the box, looked at them, looked at the grill box, and thought I'd made a mistake... they were clearly too long. Not so fast; the burner tubes extend out of the grill box, to connect to the manifold several inches away from the flame. A quick measure with the tape confirmed.
Next step, see if I can figure out how to disassemble things, without reading the instructions. I got part way on this, but the instructions saved me about 10 minutes of unnecessary work. Removing the top control panel was a single screw. Ignoring the instructions to remove the rest of the trim saved me another 10 minutes of unnecessary work.
For my grill, I needed to remove one screw to remove the control panel cover, remove the knobs, and remove the igniter. On my grill, this exposes the two bolts that attach the manifold to the grill box. These had to come out* (more later) with a 3/8 socket to get the clearance to remove the burner tubes.
Remove the grill grates and "flavorizer bars" (angled tents) to expose the tubes.
Each burner tube is held in by one screw, and while it's slotted, a 5/16 socket is going to be needed, if they've been there long. I found a quick squirt from a can of compressed air helped me see the bolt heads clearly. With the bolts easily removed, I was able to move the tubes around to remove the crossover tube - it slots inside the front and back burner tube, and rests over the middle tube. Crossover tube removed, each burner tube was able to slide out the right side of the grill box.
I found this video from Weber to be great in seeing roughly what needed to be done:
I checked the NG orifices on the manifold, but they were already clean, so I left them alone; cleaning them risks enlarging them, which would alter the Air:Fuel ratio and could lead to a poorer burn (and less heat).
The burner tubes looked okay, but I was sure they had some metal flaked off inside them, etc., that was preventing gas from reaching the back. The crossover tube, though, well, that turned out to be the culprit. Was completely plugged up, could not see thru it, and the top slots (ports) were rusted up. I did hit this with some compressed air, and it cleaned it right out. I would expect with some compressed air, and maybe some solvent, the tube would've lasted another 3-5 years (in my climate.)
Reassembly was smooth*, and I put a little anti-seize on the burner tube screws, and hand-tightened them with a slotted screwdriver. These aren't load-bearing, the screws are just there to keep them from bumping around, so I recommend very light torque, in case you ever need to pull them out again.
As for the manifold, well, this was actually my biggest pain point. The bolts holding it to the grill box sheared. Mind you, not just the head, but about 1/4" of the body. Given where it sheared, I don't think a penetrating lubricant is going to be able to get deep enough, to be 100%... but definitely start with that, and do repeated applications. For my grill, I'll be drilling out the bolts, tapping new holes inside them, and using a smaller screw, to secure the manifold. On my grill, there's top slots that the manifold drops into, and it also supports from the burner tubes, so I ran it like this briefly to test the new tubes.
One thing that surprised me, is this is in no way a sealed system.. connections are just loosely joined, and the gas flows where it wants to. I would guess the gas burning inside the box creates a negative pressure vacuum, which helps keep it going the right way.
So, as it turns out, the problem with my grill was a gas burner (tube) issue, but was probably 80% the crossover tube, as it was creating back-pressure at the far end of the tubes. This definitely was the culprit of the ignition issues. Whether I could've just replaced this tube, I'm not sure, I didn't test after cleaning it out, but it'd be worth a try... doing just this tube would take about 20-30 minutes, since you don't have to remove the manifold (and risk shearing the bolts).
My grill is happily restored from a barely usable ~325F max heat, to 550F+ and quick ignition, and aside from the "flavorizer bars", I expect it to be useful for another 10 years with no additional servicing.
Hope someone else finds this useful. Feel free to ask any questions. Feel free to share the post elsewhere, as forum rules allow, but please do include original credit to SMF and myself.
Happy smoking/grilling!
