Having some trouble with my Silver B


 

Kevin Kurka

TVWBB Member
I have a Silver B premium that's pushing 7 years old now. Last year I started having trouble with the center burner. At the burner inlet on the right side I get a lot of orange flame and I can't get much heat out of it other than right there. Luckily, I don't use that middle burner much, I'm more of a "low and slow" kind of chef, but it's getting old now.

Any ideas?
 
You can rebuild these grills with new parts. I put in new burners, flavorizor bars and SS grill a few years back, worked like new.
 
Sounds like either a spider nest in the tube or drippings have clogged the holes to me. A softer brush over the exterior of the tube may help or a straight pin in the holes. Might be a good idea to remove the tube and check it out (you're gonna need to do that anyway should you decide to replace the burner to grill something hot).

Bill
 
Call Weber CS. If the burners have gone 7 years, they may be pushing the limit. Removing the burners and cleaning is certainly a good first choice.

Paul
 
Cool, thanks for the ideas, guys. I'll take it apart and give it a good once over and see if that helps. The quality of the grill is amazing, and I sure don't want to scrap it because of a bad burner.

Funny story:

When my grill was about 2 years old, I moved to a new house with a walk-out basement. I put the grill up on the main level deck right outside the kitchen, but hadn't gotten it hooked up to the cylinder yet (the moving company won't move a cylinder).

The first night we were in the house, a wicked storm blew up. As a new homeowner, I was paranoid about what might be happening to my investment. Then I heard the most horrible crash ever. I ran downstairs and looked for the source.

To my horror, the grill was gone off my deck. The wind had rolled it down the stairs. I scrambled in the pouring rain and gathered up the grill, grates, flavorizer bars and tabletops and pulled them into the basement. I was absolutely soaked and filthy.

The next day I surveyed the damage. I had a couple cracked work surfaces, the tank scale was destroyed, the ignition switch was toast, and the deck steps had a couple pretty good gashes. From what I could deduce, the grill actually did a cartwheel going down the stairs (a full story tall, no less).

At that point, I had only one choice: I had to fire it up. I put together all the parts that had flown out and rolled it clear out to the edge of the property in the back yard. I sure didn't want to have the thing blow up close to the house. I turned on the gas, tossed in a match and ran. It lit up beautifully. I cycled up the burners and ran some tests and it worked fine and has been ever since. Talk about built like a tank.
 
It does sound like a dirty burner tube. Disconnect fuel supply. Take out cooking grates and flav bars. Use a small steel wire brush (about the size of a tooth brush) and brush the holes up and down NOT SIDE TO SIDE!!! If you notice cracks or large holes, stop and give us a call at 1-800-446-1071. Otherwise, take the black plastic spider guard off (clasp normally on top) and make sure there are no cobwebs in it, and run a small wire (wire coat hanger works well) in about the first two or three inches of the burner tube. Make sure the air shutter is about 1/4" open. At this point I like to light the grill to check the flame, If it's ok, put'er back together and START GRILLIN!
 
Kevin, I have a Silver B also, for some reason I want to think that there is a ten year warranty on the burners. Mine is about the same age as yours. I use a cutting torch tip cleaner on my burners. Most hardware or welding shops have them, they are like small rods or pins that flip out of the case in various sizes. Kinda like a rasp or file on the end, tedious but it works.
 
Tore it down this morning and cleaned the burner with the bristle brush as recommended. Finished some of the orifices with a toothpick. Figured out pretty quick that was a problem. Probably 7/8 of the length of the burner was plugged. Fired her up and worked like a charm. Had some awesome filet mignons on there tonight.

Thanks so much for the advice. You guys on this site never fail to deliver.
 

 

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