Spirit vs Genesis??


 

ashish debroy

TVWBB Fan
I need some help from the members here.

My sister and brother-in-law aremoving overseas and want to take a gas grill with them. They asked me for help deciding which one to buy spirit vs genesis? I play with charcoal mostly, and so don't really know much about the gas grills. Could you help me with some pros and cons please, besdies the price difference?

Also, are cast iron grates (no porcelain coating) available for the spirit line of grills?

TIA!
 
if you go to weber.com you can compare the two grills. I think their are differen variations of the spirit and genesis but the site should tell you all the diffs.
 
The main difference between the spirit and genesis is overall size of the grill and the amount of cooking surface. The genesis comes standard with 3 burners, when compared to the spirit 310 or 320 which also has 3 burners your looking at difference of 2000 btu, 38,000 versus 36,000 btu, not that big of the difference. The two burner spirit 210 outputs 24,000 btu.
Good luck.
 
Thanks. I did look at the weber site a bit and it was helpful. Any reasons to pick one over the other, besides the difference in price and cooking area? I expect the build to be solid as other weber products are.
 
I am gonna throw in my two cents because I have had a Spirit 210 for 6 years or so and I am just now upgrading to a Genesis. Do not get the Spirit 210. It only has two burners and it is real tough to get passed 500 degrees for good searing. Especially if it's cold out. During the winter I have a hard time getting it above 450. That being said I would choose between the Spirit 310 or the Genesis 310 because of the 3 burners. The Spirit BTU's are 36,000 and the Genesis are 38,000. Not that much difference but the cooking area is larger on the Genesis. And as Chris said the control knobs are up top on the shelf on the Spirit which I hate on mine. You have a lot more room to work with the two shelves being open on the Genesis. If they are gonna do it, they should spend the extra money on the Genesis IMO. (And you can pick different colors on the Genesis too which is a plus)
 
Originally posted by Tom (Gunner):
I am gonna throw in my two cents because I have had a Spirit 210 for 6 years or so and I am just now upgrading to a Genesis. Do not get the Spirit 210. It only has two burners and it is real tough to get passed 500 degrees for good searing. Especially if it's cold out. During the winter I have a hard time getting it above 450. That being said I would choose between the Spirit 310 or the Genesis 310 because of the 3 burners. The Spirit BTU's are 36,000 and the Genesis are 38,000. Not that much difference but the cooking area is larger on the Genesis. And as Chris said the control knobs are up top on the shelf on the Spirit which I hate on mine. You have a lot more room to work with the two shelves being open on the Genesis. If they are gonna do it, they should spend the extra money on the Genesis IMO. (And you can pick different colors on the Genesis too which is a plus)

If consider the finish of the grill, space, color option and having the nobs in the front go with the Genesis, I have an 2008 Genesis which is the same one that is currently being sold but the difference is the nobs being on top vs the front. To be honest the nobs on the top do not bother me at all, you learn to work with it. The difference between the nobs on the side vs on front is side nobs have the burners going left to right, the front nobs have the burners going from front to back. You can research the threads, people have their opinions of the design. New owners like having the extra space, prior Weber owners like the left right design as it a classic Weber design dating back to 1985. I've heard of Weber owners actually replacing their older Genesis with the last edition that carried the east west design which was last years. I'm sure that there are a lot of left over last edition, east west design models should your family want to go that route. Either one will work great. Good Luck.
 
Great point Richard! That is something to consider...I personally am a little excited for the N/S burners for some reason. But a lot of people might not be ready or want the change which is understandable..
 
Thank you all for the replies. I personally favor the N/S burners since if you are trying to do an indirect cook, I find it easier to have the fire on one side and the meat on the other. This can be inconvenient (IMO, but not impossible) to do with E/W burners, where you
 
I do not smoke that much on my EP320 anymore now that I have the WSM. When I did all of my smoking on my EP 320, I was able to take advantage of the East/West design.

I would get the temperature up to 250 throw my ribs, butt or brisket in the rear of the grill or the remaining two thirds, I leave the front burner on between low and mid and it holds steady. I tend to think that having the vent across the rear of the grill running parallel with the burners would make more sense from a circulation standpoint. I also find it easy to smoke on the EP as I utilize 3 smoker boxes that fit perfectly across the front burner/flavorizer bar and frame. I use chunks in the middle box and chips in the boxes to the side left and right, they burn at different rates and give me 2 hours of steady smoke.

If you plan on cooking with a rotisserie the east/west design runs parallel with the rotisserie minimizing the hot/cold spots that could be created with have the north/south design as I have read in some blogs.

There is a reason Weber went with the east/west design 25 years ago. I think the ones I mentioned above are some of them. I'm sure someone has written about the north/south design and how they smoke on it.

The Genesis has always been the flag ship of the Weber gas grill line due to price point and features, they may be looking to appeal to the masses by going north/south. I guess they figure that you can go with the Spirit which is still east/west or get and older model Genesis, rehab or stock up on parts for the future. They should make the Genesis in both east/west and north/south.

Just my .02 cents.
 
Morning Richard et al.,

I enjoy the e/w design of my genny for the exact reasons you mentioned above, however, Jim, on the Source website, mentioned a way to direct the smoke to the opposite end in the n/s configuration. He suggests just putting a cookie sheet on the grating above the flavorbars where the wood chunks/chips are sitting and the food on the grates next to it. I might also add to shove the cookie sheet against the rear wall to prevent the smoke from exiting immediately on that side of the rear gap. DO NOT constrict the size of the rear gap in any way! That has proven to be dangerous. This method would seem to direct the smoke to the food lying adjacent to the sheet. Simple but effective.

Have fun, experiment with technique, and be well,

elliot
 

 

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