This "new to me grill"


 
Ed Ward

Ed Ward

New member
Hello again ya'll! I wanted to wait to find the right forum to post my questions and concerns I hope I hit the right one. I picked up an E310 Genesis last week. I spent a couple of hours cleaning it up and it seems to be functionally operational. My biggest concern is/was even gas flow. So when I first cleaned it up I took it apart, down to the gas tubes. Then I ran my wire brush over the tubes until the rust was gone and they were shiny again. I then used my air compressor to blow the debris, soot and dust out of the tubes. After reassembling I fired the grill up. It was making popping noise like the gas was sputtering. It was just like when the propane is low and it starts stuttering as the last bit of gas burns off. So I grabbed a new tank and tried again, and the same thing happened, it's sputtering. I looked on YouTube (I Used YouTube while waiting for approval to join here) I learned the gas manifold valves probably needed cleaning. I disassembled to the valves and they were pretty crusty. I used brake cleaner to knock all the crud off and finished cleaning them with a small wire brush. They looked fantastic when I put everything back together. Fired the grill up, same thing. More reading lead to a bad regulator and hose. So I tried finding one online to no avail. I was afraid to order one online because the fitting on mine has reducer from the manifold it's 1/4" and at the hose end it's 3/4" and I could not tell if the online hoses were the right spec. All in all it was to much information that Amazon didn't bother disclosing about their product. That left me with our local Lowes. I go to Lowes and get all excited when I find they have some Weber products. OF course nothing like what I needed. I cobbled together a hose and added a regulator to it and left it at that. I get home reconnect everything using propane plumbers tape and fire her up. It works much better but I cannot see a flame? I see the gas when it ignites off and the metal gas tube kind of changes color slightly so I know it's getting gas to all three lines but I physcially cannot see any gas. Is this normal does a clean running grill not have a visible flame? I read where you don't want orange or red flames so I thought maybe I'd see blue? I don't know what I'm looking for or what the expectation should be? I've been thinking on this for several days but having never owned a Weber I'm not sure if this is the way it suppose to be? So my telling everyone all of this was to ask a couple of basic questions.
1. IS the gas functioning properly? For the record the only hose I could find was 10' that had the right fitting to connect to the manifold.
2. Should I be seeing a flame?
I decided to replace the igniter. I found one on Amazon that was "for Weber" they even had the right gas knob. I get the thing and the double AA battery does not fit in the battery well? I ended up sending it back I think I'll just look for specific Weber parts moving forward.
Anyway thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day to read this lengthy post. I would appreciate any input, advice or thoughts on the gas situation. Cheers, everyone have a great weekend!
 
For one thing be VERY wary of aftermarket regulators. Many come nowhere close to proper pressures (either WAY too high or too low), When you brushed up the burner it's not enough to make it shiny. All the holes need to be clean and open and the spider guards need to be clean so proper air and fuel flow for combustion. Also beware that every Weber grill (especially later ones0 seem to "pop" a little on low/med and especially if the lid is open and or there is no grease tray installed, as it totally changes air flow characteristics.
Odds are nothing was wrong with the original regulator. I've rarely ever seen an oem Weber regulator fail in any way. So, I would make sure your burners are clean as described.
Then go back to the valves. Chris the owner operator of this forum with some direction from me put together a VERY good "how to" on cleaning and relubing the valves. I am sure someone here can link it for you. Do one valve at a time. This way you always have a whole one to look back on.
When doing them pay attention to the actual metering orifices (the ones on the cones and especially the main one that screws into the valve). I am not sure why or how (not a chemist) but LP seems to "corrode" the inside of that orifice and grease on the cone gets hard and starts to clump in the stem orifices. When you re-grease more is NOT "better". It is worse. THe lube I've found that works is brake caliper grease. And a tiny amount not much more than the head of a pin is all that is needed spread thinly on the cone.
Once all that is done you should have proper gas flow. If it pops a little now and then with lid open don't worry about it. BTW I have found many people turn to YouTube and "adjust things" rather than "fix" things. Stuff does not go "out of adjustment". But, who knows if at some point in the grills life previous owner(s) rather than "clean" tried "adjusting". If the spider guards get really dirty the burners will throw off orange sooty flames. Sometimes people would rather play "tuner" than "maintainer". So have a look at the air shutters. If they're open more than say 4mm odds are a YouTuber went that route. So you would have to readjust. If they're open more than 4mm close them back to that and retest. Odds are with the OEM regulator all will be copacetic
 
Thank you for responding I appreciate your time and advice. Yes, when I brushed the gas tubes down I followed the video instructions and made sure each of the tiny holes in the tube was not clogged or rusted over. I actually used a magnifying glass and a dental tool to inspect the port holes afterwards. I don't know what "spider guard" is but I'm going to google it. Good to know the regulator may not be bad. I'll dig it out of the trash and test it out on another old grill I have.

I watched the video and did exactly what you stated. I took the time to clean each of the three valves. That being said you are correct I noticed a smidge of rust on some of the springs. I thought at first the valves had rust but then I thought "I don't think brass rusts". Whatever the corroded stuff was I brushed off with a brass brush and I Used a q tip to clean down into the cones and to regrease the outer cone. So when I dropped the cone back down into the valve port it was very smooth. I don't' think I over did it with the grease. I was very stingy with it. I posted a few pics so you can see how bad the insides were, bad to me anyway. This was my first time ever doing a cleaning and based on what the video was telling me this was pretty rough.

So my $40 dollar find is now up to about $70 with the new hose and regulator. The 10' hose has me worried that it's to long. However that was the only hose they had that I could make work for the grill. I fired up the grill tonight and I'm curious how long does it take to reach 200 degrees? I feel like I'm waiting longer than it should take but it's probably just me.
 

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With all three burners on, it should get over 200 pretty fast. I would say no more than 5 minutes. But, don't trust the lid thermometer. They go bad pretty easily. You need a good external thermometer to measure the ambient temp at grate level where the food is.
 
LMichaels said:
Get rid of that 10' aftermarket. Spider guards are those screens at the end of the burner tube where the gas port is
Click to expand...
It still could have been a bad hose/ regulator. It shouldn't be too tough to find the correct one for your grill. There should be a sticker inside the grill that has the model and serial numbers on it. Use those numbers to google the correct parts. The grill should heat up to 200 in just a few minutes.
 
As always, low heat is often times due to the safety device in the regulator tripping.
Turn off all valves.
Turn off propane tank.
Disconnect propane tank from hose
Wait a few minutes
Reconnect the hose.
Open the tank....slowly for the first half turn or so. Then open it all the way.
Open the first valve and light it. Then open the others.

The safety device gets tripped when it senses a sudden and large flow of gas like in the case of a hole in the hose or other leak in the system. When that happens, it severely limits gas flow or completely shuts it off. If you have a valve or two or three open when you open the tank, it will often times sense that as a large leak and trip the safety device. Always have the valves shut when you open your tank
 
I would still be leery of that regulator and honestly FWIW, other than on a Q200 I have never seen a regulator "go bad". Honestly I've never even seen a hose "go bad".
 
Steve Hoch said:
It still could have been a bad hose/ regulator. It shouldn't be too tough to find the correct one for your grill. There should be a sticker inside the grill that has the model and serial numbers on it. Use those numbers to google the correct parts. The grill should heat up to 200 in just a few minutes.
Click to expand...
Yep there is an info sticker inside the grill gas tank housing. I took a pic of it so I'll have it for future reference.
 
So I fired up the grill tonight and gave it another test run. I'd say it took a little more than 5 mins to reach 200 and it never moved above 350 with all three burners on high. The good news is the grill cooked my chicken better than any grill I've used in the past. It never got to hot, no flare ups after the BBQ sauce dripped down to the flavorizer Bars, The chicken was perfect. I'd still like to figure out why it's not ramping all the way up. The comment on the lid thermometer was a great comment. I may fire it up tomorrow and lay one one of my wired meat thermometer's in the grill and see what it gets up to.
 
A GOOD regulator may cost that. But seriously just use the one it had. It's likely fine. As for your temps. First make sure the thermometer is good. I've had a couple that would not go over a certain temp (thermometers not the grills). Confirm it with an independent probe. If that confirms it, do a full reset on the grill. Turn it off, disconnect everything. (use a GOOD OEM regulator), connect. Turn one tank slowly especially import just as you crack the valve. Once full open, then turn on the grill. When shutting down ALWAYS turn off the grill first. Then if wanted turn off the tank. Me, I don't turn the tank off. If you turn the tank off first then the grill you will end up tripping the OPV on next start up.
One thing you're correct on. That is a fine cooker. And once set up correctly will be the best and most versatile overall grill you can have. But quit farting around with that aftermarket crap regulator and put the OEM back on (or at the VERY least another OEM or OEM quality one on
 
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