Automatic Gas Shutoff Timers


 
Yeah I had my gas installed in 2003. In the 19 years I've had it I think I MIGHT have forgotten 3x and actually not forgotten it's happened always on the Wolf because I don't have OEM knobs on it. So it's sometimes difficult to tell if I have left on a burner. But, I've always caught it when I would go out to cover it. Never on the Genesis because knob orientation makes it easy to have a visual reference. Plus it has a temp gauge where the Wolf does not. Though mostly useless the gauge does "warn" me :D
I too simply shut the grills down after cooking. They burn off when I cook again.
 
Even though I shut off when food is ready I still obsessively check the grill and the local shutoff a few times after I’m done, but that’s just how I’m wired.
 
C Lewis said:
I just shut off the grill each time when taking the food off. When I start it next time, once it heats up, I'll brush it then. Everything comes right off, and the greases from the prior cook prevent any rust from occurring. Honestly, I thought that's how everyone did it.
Click to expand...
Agree 100%. When you pull food off it's often the beginning of a busy time, so not the best time to clean the grill. If it's been a messy cook, I'll make time to do a deep clean in the next day or 2. Other than that, cleaning after the grill comes to temperature before the next cook works just fine.
 
I think you will need a timer to remind you to reset your gas timer if you have a cook that goes over an hour, and I'm pretty sure that gas timer will end up shutting off the gas unexpectedly during a cook, but it's your baby...you rock it.

Last weekend, I was baking bread on our gasser, and near the end of the cook I was checking it for doneness. Every time the lid is opened heat is lost, so I was turning a burner up momentarily to recover the heat loss and then turning the burner off. I turned the burner knob the wrong way and went back in the house. The High alarm on my Smoke went off and I was able to save the bread...otherwise, it would have been charcoal. If you use a wireless thermometer with a remote, you could set your high alarm to 550F and that would remind you to shut off the gas during a burn-off.

EDIT: As for insects in a dirty grill, it hasn't happened to me in 35+ years of grilling, mostly charcoal, but that's just one man's experience. The drip pan is more of a problem than a dirty grate, so make sure to include that when you do your burn-off. I just loaned our Q120 to our grandson to take to the beach...I cooked a chicken in it about a year ago and there was still grease in the drip pan from it. No bugs, though. Of course, I put a new pan in it for him.
 
Last edited:
If you have Google, Alexa or Siri, just ask her to remind you to shut it off in 10 mins.
With these new "smart" grills they might add features like that in the future??
 
EmoryG said:
I was taught that when the food comes off, you turn up the grill and burn off any food remnants for ten minutes at full on. After the burn off, you scrub the grill with a metal brush. The burn off makes it easier to keep the grill clean, and it eliminates food remnants that could attract insects. That's why.
Click to expand...
This is what I do, as I've had a problem with mice/rats inside my grill. When you find a live rat taking up residence inside your grill and you have to light the grill to get them to leave, then you have to clean and burn-out the grill in order to start using it again, a quick 10-minute burn-off to reduce the amount of attractive food residue doesn't seem like a big deal.

I try to remember to set the oven timer for 10 minutes. I'm pretty good about doing it. But sometimes... 🤷‍♂️
 
Chris Allingham said:
This is what I do, as I've had a problem with mice/rats inside my grill. When you find a live rat taking up residence inside your grill and you have to light the grill to get them to leave, then you have to clean and burn-out the grill in order to start using it again, a quick 10-minute burn-off to reduce the amount of attractive food residue doesn't seem like a big deal.

I try to remember to set the oven timer for 10 minutes. I'm pretty good about doing it. But sometimes... 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
I have an ongoing problem with rats and my citrus trees. I caught maybe 10 of them last year. And we had a couple of dust-ups with the dogs and a skunk. And there was a possum on the fence once that was driving the dogs crazy...but they never bothered any of my grills on the patio. Do you have any dogs? Maybe my 2 dogs are keeping them away.
 
I’ve quietly been watching this thread from the start. We sell a lot of these timers (1000+ per year) through our gas division at work. Community grills / common outdoor cooking areas seem to be spec’d in every new construction apartment building, condo, etc here in the Northeast and the Fire Magic timer is always part of this spec. FWIW - I know of less than a handful that have ever had a problem to date. In the same breath, I think I’m being kind when I say that this install looks like a bit of an abomination. If it was installed by or under the guidance of a professional, the contractor should be embarassed to put their name on it. It’s run straight up with zero support and is just begging to be bent over in some capacity. No effort was made to keep it any lower by not using readily available close or shoulder nipples and the flex line was run straight out the top where it puts constant stress on the pipe and flex line. At the very least, that could’ve been turned with a 90 and brought it out the side instead.
 
Last edited:
I think a good idea on future grills would be a light or something similar that would be on any time gas is running in the grill. Some kind of automatic indicator that gas is flowing to the grill anyway.
 
Ed P said:
Do you have any dogs?
Click to expand...
No dogs, no cats. You see little mouse footprints on the work surface and control panel. I've killed a few by placing traps on those surfaces and replacing the cover. They like to crawl up under the cover where it's dark and protected. When I hear the "thwap", it's showtime!
 
Yes. I do appreciate everyone's helpful, generous, constructive input. Who could complain when they get such open and honest assessments?

No contractor or professional was involved, other than the original valve and capped stub in the first photo.

This is not a justification for leaving it as is, but what is shown is surprisingly rigid and strong. It feels like a straight pipe and does not move if you give it a tug at the top. Yes, it may be brittle. I understand the reason that @TomRc wants to minimize the leverage at the top by keeping it as short as possible. I had shorter fittings on hand, but chose the longer ones to get some separation between elements. Less bending over to operate the valves was a consideration, too. I thought about using a 90, but wondered if that might put more lateral force at the top than the straight up version. If TomRc or others have suggestions for better configurations, I would love to see them.

This is a stepwise project. We want to improve the protection and support.
-> I would welcome and appreciate your suggestions for how to make this safer and better.

Regarding the timer, we had two nights of dinners from our new grill, plus getting started on seasoning a new griddle. So far, I am pleased with the function of the valve arrangement and I like the timer. The timer works exactly as I had planned. I understand that others may prefer a different valve/timer/no-timer arrangement. It just works for me. To be clear, I understood the benefits and limitations before I installed it:
  • I could have chosen a 3 hour timer instead of a 1 hour timer.
    • The one hour timer made it easier to choose short times, such as a 10 minute post-cooking burn off. That matches how we expect to use it 99% of the time.
  • I knew that I would have to reset the timer if cooking lasts longer than an hour.
    • If I forget, the burners may shut off in the middle of cooking without notice or warning. That reminds me of the time when the propane tank ran out on the old grill.
    • After decades of using grills (poorly, perhaps), I never cooked anything that took more than an hour on the grill. We tried to think of something, but failed. With a new grill and the stuff we've learned since then, that may change,
  • I knew that I can always remove or replace the timer if it becomes more trouble than benefit.
Why cook off the grill after use? In a word: ants ... cockroaches ... mice ... rats ... possums ... coons ... and other critters.
 
In this thread, we have already learned that there is room for improvement in the installation shown above. I am working on those issues. My thanks go out to the members here for their helpful comments and candor, with a special shout-out to @TomRc for saying what was probably on many people's mind.

When you get something new, you may read the Owner's Manual, but it is easy to miss an important detail from that initial reading. Last night I re-read the Weber GENESIS NG Owners Manual again, very carefully. I found a clear statement in the user manual that I had missed before:

From Weber GENESIS NG Owners Manual, 52985, 101021 enUS:
"The quick-disconnect fitting can be installed horizontally or pointing downward, but never pointing upward. Installing it with the open end pointing upward can result in water and debris collecting in the quick-disconnect fitting."
Click to expand...

I have already added temporary weather and dust protection to that connection. I plan to redo the top of the fitting to be compliant with Weber's specification soon.
 
How do you plan to keep the grill locked into place, so it doesn't get blown around by wind and possibly hit the pipe? One idea might be to make a rectangle of wood for it to sit inside, exactly the same size as the footprint of the wheels. Or are you concerned about that? I'm not being critical, I'm just being curious!
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
It will be nice to how this works for you!
Click to expand...
Can you clarify what you want to see?

The grill is working now, like any natural gas grill. I leave the lower main valve on. I turn the new yellow valve above it on for grilling, off when done. I must also turn the timer past 20 for the gas to flow. The timer makes a quiet mechanical ticking sound. When it reaches 0 (zero), there is a louder click and the gas shuts off.

The timer works exactly as I wanted. I like it. It was great for seasoning cookware - set the timer and let it shut off the gas for the cool down. (... and yes, I went out and turned off the burners and closed the yellow valve ... later, when it was convenient.)
 
Since I flamed the original install so badly, the least I can do is offer an alternate idea. I would go back to the primary shutoff point and start over with an inverted horseshoe design as the end goal. I'd work in a Burnaby pvc gas plug as well. I'd take the rise up to about a foot total, turn it with a street 90 black iron fitting directly into the inlet side of the timer and repeat the same coming out of the other side of the timer. This will have the timer mounted horizontally and will have you pointed back down where you can attach the gas box high enough off grade to allow easy connection of the flex line to the grill. See my incredibly poorly drawn and not to scale sketch attached. A short chunk of treated 6"x6" sitting on the ground to hang the gas box on would provide adequate support. If you were to attach this block to a paver or tie it back to the riser pipe with a piece of threaded rod and a clamp you'd add lateral strength and stability as well. Hope this helps.
timer.jpg
burnaby.jpg
 
Last edited:
THyde said:
How do you plan to keep the grill locked into place, so it doesn't get blown around by wind and possibly hit the pipe? One idea might be to make a rectangle of wood for it to sit inside, exactly the same size as the footprint of the wheels. Or are you concerned about that? I'm not being critical, I'm just being curious!
Click to expand...
That is a good question. The two front wheels have locking casters. The grill feels very stable and unlikely to move on the rough paving stones. I could build a wood (or other material) frame to contain it, but would have to drill the pavers to anchor that frame. Someday we would like to build a small surround "island" and roll the grill into it.

We kept the previous Genesis 3000 grill in the same place. It never moved, not even in the highest winds. This new grill will also be stationary.

That stack of gas fittings is more rigid and strong than I expected. It feels like a solid pipe anchored to the ground, but I have no intention of relying on that alone. I am already working on something that will shield and protect it from getting bumped or damaged by the grill or large yard tools. Hopefully it will be sufficient until we fabricate something more permanent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top