Looking for thoughts and user experience with the new Genesis II series

I am looking on some input if anyone has any user experience with the new Genesis II models. I believe they came out in 2017. Does not matter if is 2 or 3 or 4 or 6 burners. I did get a new 3 burner model at Lowes when they had them for sale a month or so ago but did not get a chance to use it. Likely may not use it until spring next year. If anyone has any thoughts on it let me know. Appreciated.

I picked up a Genny II E-310 when Walmart was clearing them out (2 summers ago) and it cooks really well, so well that my uncle and brother in law were impressed and also bought the same grill.

I should be getting mine sometime in the middle of November. Not sure how much grilling I will be doing then but can give my input on it when I do.

Grilling season doesn't have to end in the North when the baseball playoffs start. I grill nearly as much in the winter as I do in the summer. However, I do prefer summer weather for grilling outside. I do the Thanksgiving Turkey and Christmas ham on my Genesis 1000 each year. It gives my wife time and space to do her pies, stuffing, potatoes, , gravy, corn muffins, and whatever else she decides to make. And then the Genny and Q200 get plenty of burgers, dogs, brats ribs, chickens, steaks, k-Bobs and even some veggies throughout the winter months. Snow and ice be damned.

My brother has a 4 burner genesis II. He really likes his. Says it's the best grill he's ever owned. I've helped him grill on it once and it seems to work as well as my old genesis 1000 in terms of cooking ability. Seems well built too. Time will tell if these models last as well as the old models.

Sounds great. Thanks for the input. I will likely get the cast iron grates over the winter. I like the cast iron better than ss. After they get seasoned the food seems to “glide” over the grates. Ss kind of always make food stick to it.
Appreciated.

Chris you might give the stainless grates some time. Over time they develop a thin coating too almost like seasoning that stays in even after cleaning. Once that develops if you preheat your grill before putting on your food then you shouldn't have any problem with sticking. I have them on both my webers and have no problem with food sticking at all.

I've had both types and I think they are equal in cooking ability. But to me the stainless are easier to clean and they definitely last longer. With the cast iron it is ceramic coated and that coating does eventually wear/flake off. If you have the round rod solid stainless grates they don't wear out for decades (if ever).

But there are some people who definitely prefer cast iron. To each his own.

I like them both.

Loving my new SE 410 natural gas Gen II. Trial and error using all 4 or just 2 burners for zone cooking. Even with new SS grates hardly any sticking. One week in and plan to cook all fall and a good bit of winter with it. Have a large umbrella next to it.

Greg M said:

Chris you might give the stainless grates some time. Over time they develop a thin coating too almost like seasoning that stays in even after cleaning. Once that develops if you preheat your grill before putting on your food then you shouldn't have any problem with sticking. I have them on both my webers and have no problem with food sticking at all.

I've had both types and I think they are equal in cooking ability. But to me the stainless are easier to clean and they definitely last longer. With the cast iron it is ceramic coated and that coating does eventually wear/flake off. If you have the round rod solid stainless grates they don't wear out for decades (if ever).

But there are some people who definitely prefer cast iron. To each his own.

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I really like cast iron, but I had the same bad experience with the porcelain plated kind. I feel lucky to have a very nice set of original Weber uncoated cast iron grates on my Skyline (and also a raw cast iron round grate for my Green Egg).



P.s. I took the bait in the Genesis II sticky and gave my frank and honest defense of GrillGrates which I feel are worthy of consideration along with good stainless rods or real cast iron.

I like cast iron too. My old cheapo pre weber grills always had coated cast iron. They were fine. I just don't see them lasting a decade or more because the coating will eventually start chipping off.

Uncoated cast iron would be a different beast. If kept properly seasoned I assume they would last indefinitely just as cast iron skillets do.

Actually they don't. Because of the atmosphere they live in they are not like CI cookware. You cannot possibly keep enough oil and seasoning on them to keep them from finally disintegrating. I went through this with the Wolf (which is why I employed Dave Santana) for a custom set of xtra tightly spaced heavy stainless. I even used to take the Wolf's CI grates indoors after oiling them to keep moisture off them. No bueano they still flaked away to nothing. CI is a wonderful cooking surface and I do love it. But it's not permanent in a grill and has even shorter life without the help of ceramic coating or impregnation.
I paid A LOT of $$$$ for the ones Dave made for me but worth every penny. I was so desperate for grates on that grill BTW I actually looked at and considered the GRillGrates product and actually checked them out at a grill dealer. Which is why in a previous post elsewhere I indicated they were too flimsy for my tastes. In that xtra large application they would not have held up at all most likely bending in the middle had I put any pressure on them at all with a brush to clean them. As for Dave's custom grates he made me I am quite confident I could climb up on those grates and stand on them all 220lbs of me with no deflection. Now in a shorter application perhaps they would be more "solid" but I personally found them to flimsy for my very large application or I actually would have tried them out of desperation for a set of grates my personal bias be damned LOL

Yeah, I like the way the CI cooks, but I have had a number of negative experiences with CI on grills, starting way back with my Grandfather's Silver B - his first, OEM set of grates were flaky and gross within about 5 years.

My father's OEM grates on his Silver B lasted about 7 or 8 years, but again, nothing special. He replaced them with the stamped stainless and they have held up on that grill, surprisingly no broken welds so far.

I liked the CI grates on my Silver A I used this summer, but after cleaning it up for a sale I observed that they're only in so-so shape, and the guy I got the grill from told me that he bought OEM Weber ones about 3 years ago.
(I don't think he really took care of them though.)

LMichaels said:

Actually they don't. Because of the atmosphere they live in they are not like CI cookware. You cannot possibly keep enough oil and seasoning on them to keep them from finally disintegrating. I went through this with the Wolf (which is why I employed Dave Santana) for a custom set of xtra tightly spaced heavy stainless. I even used to take the Wolf's CI grates indoors after oiling them to keep moisture off them. No bueano they still flaked away to nothing. CI is a wonderful cooking surface and I do love it. But it's not permanent in a grill and has even shorter life without the help of ceramic coating or impregnation.

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Larry,

I wouldn't disagree with you that cast iron in a grill environment can't be expected to be a lifetime investment. I do have to wonder, though, whether some of the early Weber cast iron grates were of a higher grade than what you see now, regardless of coating. I picked up a set from a pretty old redhead that I would estimate came from the late 1980s. This grill obviously lived outside and while not apparently abused was still certainly USED.



Other than a thin layer of some surface rust, they were totally intact and cleaned up, I think at least, super well. They are the set I posted above from my Skyline grill. So, if my timing is right, they have already lasted 30 years with less than ideal care. I am hoping for at least another ten or maybe more.

Restored and trying out with my "LarryGrates" experiments:


Now when it comes to newer grills, I have seen my share of TOTALLY decayed cast iron from 300 series Genesis grills and have personally done in a couple sets of the later plated cast iron on my Genesis Silver.

So, while I agree cast iron isn't going to last like stainless, I have to wonder why the very old set of Weber raw cast iron grates have held up so well - even here in South Florida - for this long.

I think a lot of the cast iron vs stainless has to do with expectations in regards to durability. When well made the ceramic coated cast iron usually lasts quite a number of years. Which is good. The problem is that stainless grates generally last much longer and the cost is just a little more.

Interesting discussion about uncoated cast iron. I just assumed if they were maintained they would last. Sounds like that's up in the air. But it's kind of a moot point. I don't think bare cast grates are available much anymore.

Flimsy?

LMichaels said:

...I was so desperate for grates on that grill BTW I actually looked at and considered the GRillGrates product and actually checked them out at a grill dealer. Which is why in a previous post elsewhere I indicated they were too flimsy for my tastes. In that xtra large application they would not have held up at all most likely bending in the middle had I put any pressure on them at all with a brush to clean them. As for Dave's custom grates he made me I am quite confident I could climb up on those grates and stand on them all 220lbs of me with no deflection. Now in a shorter application perhaps they would be more "solid" but I personally found them to flimsy for my very large application or I actually would have tried them out of desperation for a set of grates my personal bias be damned LOL

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I guess I am going over the edge, but hopefully some will find these discussions helpful in evaluating grill options. In response to the observation that GrillGrates are “flimsy” I would like to offer this into evidence:



I realize that my 30 pound dumbbell doesn’t prove that these GrillGrates will last for years, but it would seem to show that - at least on an application like my Genesis Silver shown here - they don’t sag or bend under that amount of weight. I can’t say for certain how a much longer version for something like Larry’s Wolf would hold up under strong pressure. I do think my observations from use and this little demonstration show that GrillGrates are not in the category of skinny little wire or stamped metal grates found on a number of chinajunk grills. I personally doubt even longer ones would bend under normal cleaning.

P.s. Larry, I give you credit for stating that you even gave GrillGrates consideration. I think you made the ideal choice by going with Dave Santana’s custom stainless grates.

This turned in a great discussion. A friend of mine has a no name grill that has ss and works great for him. I have not mastered the ss grates yet. I think the ci are a bit more forgiving. I do cook chicken and pork and it works great. I put them on one side and leave them there until blood starts to come out. I wait more time then i can easily pick up the chicken or pork. Flip on the other side and let it cook. Steak i dont cook much but it may be better suited for ss. With chicken on ss the same technique does not work. It gets totally stuck to ss. Same with pork. That is my experience.
I use a Costco wood spatula to clean the ci grates. What i also do is cut half a onion and clean the ci grates with it. Works great. I never use and kind of metal brush on the ci.
Another friend of mine has the smaller Silver A which is about 17 years old and the original ci grates look very good. He does not maintain the ci much but most foods he cooks are fatty.

I cannot explain the reason those CI grates were not all flaky and disintegrating. I would think on a grill as costly as my Wolf originally was that no cost would be spared in the quality of the CI grates it sported from the factory. Yet despite my continuous care and babying constant seasoning and oiling, not using slat based ingredients and even taking them into the house after use they flaked away. Don't get me wrong I LOVED the performance of them, but the RC grates come VERY close thanks to Dave's attention to detail and my request of tighter grate spacing (though this ask did cost me an extra $40 in material and labor).
Yes I actually did give the GG product careful consideration but again given the span of the Wolf (as deep front to back as a Genesis is wide) which of course this huge size is what made it hard to find replacement grates for the beast. Anyway when I picked them up I felt without some kind of support for them and given the intense heat that Wolf puts out they would not be sufficiently stable for my satisfaction. On a very short span like your Weber I am sure they're fine as your little experiment showed. But imagine them (each individual section) having to span the entire grill from left to right. That is how big the Wolf is. There are times I don't like that expanse. Especially when trying to reach stuff way in the back. But there are other times I love it like when doing multiple racks of ribs. I can fit an entire rack of spares or backs front to back so without resorting to stacking them or racking them I can do 5 racks of ribs side by side and it makes them much easier to handle. The only caveat is for some reason the Wolf is designed to cook dead even left to right but slightly hotter in front than back. I discovered from their commercial product it allows for a "safe" zone a cook can put many steaks/what have you in front left to right and if a flare occurs move them to the rear zone. I have learned to use this by putting the thickest part of my rib slabs to the front and thinnest to the rear. Perfect results every time. Though, in all honesty I have been thinking about reengineering the burners to output equal heat front to rear. But that will be a job for the future.
As for doubting the issue of aluminum and health I will review my issue with it. When my mother became very ill with neurological disorders (dementia, parkinson's, etc) the neurologist pointed out "glowing" areas on her scans indicating to us that these were aluminum deposits due to ingestion of it from all the years of cooking on/in bare aluminum cookware. While I am not saying anyone who uses aluminum will die like that I am cautious. And you also need to wonder if aluminum was so harmless why do so many cookware manufacturers go to so much trouble to anodize it to help mitigate migration of it into our food prepared on it/in it? Remember there was a time they told us smoking was good for us? So chew on that and think about the new findings about aluminum. I wont even allow foil to come into contact with my food. I use something else over the food before foil goes on. Sorry for the long post. I'll jump down from my soap box now LOL

Larry good points and thanks for explaining your concerns with aluminum.

To me like most things it's benefit vs risk. And if there are alternatives. In this case there are 2 very good alternatives. So why take the risk at all? Others obviously disagree and that's fine.