A mod for 1st generation Gensis owners

As some may know I have been intrigued with the quality of cooking and flavor in my Broilmaster grill. I attribute much of this to the use of ceramic heat transfer material, and the very deep and heavy castings of both the lid and fire box. Well the Genesis (old style) fire box is deep. Not as heavy but quite deep, and the lid while not a heavy casting is pretty heavy and holds heat pretty well. So I took this idea to the Genesis II I have had since new back in 1992. I removed all flavorizer bars except those directly over the 3 burners. I than laid a lava rock grate large enough to cover the entire area. Than the ceramic flare buster tiles only up to the crossover burner which I covered with flavorizer bar to protect that burner.
The results have made a fine grill into nothing short of amazing.
I should note also I am still experimenting with number and placement of tiles. Experimenting between only putting tiles over vacant spaces flavorizer bars don't cover or covering entire area as shown. One thing I have noticed is pretty much all drippings are vaporized in this way (as pictured) and basically nothing gets in to the grease funnel
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Pretty interesting idea! What type of grate did you put on top of the three flavorizer bars to hold the tiles? Are you using these tiles: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000CGEBM/tvwb-20

The grate is nothing more than a generic part (Charbroil brand IIRC) that was large enough to cover the area needed. And yes I am using those type of tiles. I suspect many of the other brands would work fine as well as perhaps ceramic briquettes.

I tried something similar a few years ago. Did not care for the outcome and went back to the bars.

Michaels...when you say it improved the grill's performance, do you mean temperature wise? Or the anti flare and better flavor of the food? Or both?

Better flavor, overall performance especially evenness of the heating. From one corner to the next no temp variation. It's like another totally different animal.

I don't know, I was reading reviews of those ceramic tiles and some people complain about how brittle they are and that they do not last long, I am cheap...I would not want to have to buy new ones every two or three years. Is one set enough to cover the whole area?

I am not having any problems. Using them in both the Broilmaster and that Genesis. Just throwing this out there as IMO it made a huge improvement in the grill. I simply bought those because I got them cheap at my local Menard's store. There are thicker heavier ones available and depending how my experiment works out I could go for those instead if needed.

Have you noticed any increase in the time it takes to get the grill heated up? Does it take longer now with the tiles?

Hasn't seem to had any effect really. I do notice the temp gauge rises faster if I only use the tiles in the areas between flavorizer bars, but if I cover everything as shown the actual cooking temps get fiercely hot. IMO it actually behaves like a giant ceramic infrared burner. I have noticed the same effect on the Broilmaster also.