Genesis Burners: East/West or North/South


 

Ted from Bristow

TVWBB Member
I'm looking at a used Genesis 310. It has the newer body style, but the control knobs are still located on the right-side table. I assume this means the burner tubes run "east/west" or "left to right"? I've never owned a grill with a burner tubes situated like that. What are the pros/cons? I'll likely buy a rotisserie at some point. I assume the east/west configuration might benefit the rotisserie?
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance.
 
I have the east/west burners and the rotisserie. The burner arrangement is great for the roto. While I love my 09 grill there are some advantages to the new ones. They come with a double lined hood and heat shields under the burners. That said they are not as good with the roto. I will warn you that the warranty is for the original owner only. Not that much will go wrong but the warranty is nice. Post pics when you get one.
 
North/South burners are much better for doing dual zone / indirect cooking. This is about my only complaint with all my Weber gassers as they are East/West.
 
Not sure why people constantly complain how EW is bad for "zoned" cooking. The only difference is the zones are fron to back as opposed to side to side. Different? Yes. Better/Worse? no. Weber went to NS to offer the "sear" burner (IMO another gimmicky idea). Yeah it works but they could have accomplished it differently and gotten better results. And to save tooling costs as IIRC they now use the same basic burner tube on the Summits and the Genesis line.
 
I have two E/W Weber's a Genesis 1000 I've had since 1997 and a Genesis E320 I bought off CL about six months ago. I looked for the E320 with the E/W burners because I like that configuration better than the N/S. For zone cooking I don't think there is any difference that after 17 years of using the E/W I can see, never had any problems or issues.
My son has the N/S burners on his new Weber and says he liked his old one much better that had the E/W burners.
I guess it's what you get used too.
 
I can see how some prefer one over the other. I don't own a Weber gasser but when I arrange coals on my rectangular hooded island grill I'll go N/S on one end of the grill or go E/W at the rear end depending on what I'm cooking.
 
Not sure why people constantly complain how EW is bad for "zoned" cooking. The only difference is the zones are fron to back as opposed to side to side. Different? Yes. Better/Worse? no. Weber went to NS to offer the "sear" burner (IMO another gimmicky idea). Yeah it works but they could have accomplished it differently and gotten better results. And to save tooling costs as IIRC they now use the same basic burner tube on the Summits and the Genesis line.

I have two E/W Weber's a Genesis 1000 I've had since 1997 and a Genesis E320 I bought off CL about six months ago. I looked for the E320 with the E/W burners because I like that configuration better than the N/S. For zone cooking I don't think there is any difference that after 17 years of using the E/W I can see, never had any problems or issues.
My son has the N/S burners on his new Weber and says he liked his old one much better that had the E/W burners.
I guess it's what you get used too.



For the record, I've never cooked on a Weber with NS burners, so maybe there is something different about it. That said, I have cooked on 3,4 and 5 burner grills with NS burner alignment and they all have provided more separation for truly "indirect" cooking. On a Genesis Silver C with EW burners, if you want moderate heat, you need 2 burners on. You can go with the front and back burners, leaving the middle off, but that gives you a pretty narrow zone to work with. Or you could leave either the front or the back burner off, but again, it's a narrow zone. It all has to do with how close the burners are to each other.

If I were cooking one or two steaks or chicken breasts, that would be one thing. But, if I want to cook a 4bone Prime Rib, or Sirloin tip roast, or 3 Pork Loins, or a turkey, yada, yada, yada, a grill with NS burner alignment gives me more indirect cooking space.
 

 

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