Ducane Gas Grill Restoration - 5004SHNE to 1600SHNE

[Steve-G]

I've alluded to this project in a couple of other threads, but I thought I'd post my progress here in one place. Seems like folks were okay with me posting a Ducane grill restoration project on the Weber website. I mean, technically, Weber did buy Ducane at one point, even though this grill is pre-bankruptcy and pre-Weber acquisition.

When we moved into our house 4 years ago, there was a Ducane natural gas grill built into a stone enclosure on our patio. It used a Ducane-branded "Brick-It-In" grill enclosure as part of the installation. Since I already had a Genesis Silver B that I love, we never used the Ducane. I think I fired it up once just to make sure it worked and that was it. I never got around to cleaning it up.





As you can see, it isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but with all of the other projects that we had going on, cleaning this up was pretty far down the list. Then, about a year ago, a strong wind storm came through our area and actually ripped the grill lid off the firebox and deposited it on our lawn. The hinges held firm, so it actually cracked the aluminum firebox at each back corner. So now the grill was basically useless.




I started looking around for something that would fit into that enclosure size, but there really wasn't anything available, so again, the project was on the back burner. A couple of months ago, @Bruce posted a FB Marketplace listing for a Ducane 1600LP that was pretty funny because at some point it housed a mouse nest, and the owner's wife wouldn't let him use it anymore. With a bunch of research, I concluded that the firebox size should be the same as mine. So I drove to Madison, WI and picked it up for $50. And so the project begins...

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

I've alluded to this project in a couple of other threads, but I thought I'd post my progress here in one place. Seems like folks were okay with me posting a Ducane grill restoration project on the Weber website. I mean, technically, Weber did buy Ducane at one point, even though this grill is pre-bankruptcy and pre-Weber acquisition.

When we moved into our house 4 years ago, there was a Ducane natural gas grill built into a stone enclosure on our patio. It used a Ducane-branded "Brick-It-In" grill enclosure as part of the installation. Since I already had a Genesis Silver B that I love, we never used the Ducane. I think I fired it up once just to make sure it worked and that was it. I never got around to cleaning it up.

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As you can see, it isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but with all of the other projects that we had going on, cleaning this up was pretty far down the list. Then, about a year ago, a strong wind storm came through our area and actually ripped the grill lid off the firebox and deposited it on our lawn. The hinges held firm, so it actually cracked the aluminum firebox at each back corner. So now the grill was basically useless.

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I started looking around for something that would fit into that enclosure size, but there really wasn't anything available, so again, the project was on the back burner. A couple of months ago, @Bruce posted a FB Marketplace listing for a Ducane 1600LP that was pretty funny because at some point it housed a mouse nest, and the owner's wife wouldn't let him use it anymore. With a bunch of research, I concluded that the firebox size should be the same as mine. So I drove to Madison, WI and picked it up for $50. And so the project begins...

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I can't see why this wouldn't work out well assuming that lid fits and the cook box didn't get too bent out of shape from that wind torquing the damaged lid at the hinges.

 

[Steve-G]

I can't see why this wouldn't work out well assuming that lid fits and the cook box didn't get too bent out of shape from that wind torquing the damaged lid at the hinges.

I'll be using the matching cookbox and lid from the donor grill, so the wind damaged ones won't be used at all for this project. I did verify that the donor firebox fits in my enclosure.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

Are burners and other internal parts readily available for those Ducanes?

 

[Steve-G]

Are burners and other internal parts readily available for those Ducanes?

Many of the parts are available. I'll give a more complete rundown later, but I ordered new burners and ignitor collector boxes, along with the OEM ceramic briquettes. I could have purchased the la-va-grate (for the briquettes), sear/cooking grates, rotary spark generator, all knobs, gas valves, and orifices. Not too bad for a 20+ year old grill where the company stopped supporting their products many years ago.

 

[Bruce]

Yah, that is surprising. Especially since they were owned by Weber when they folded the brand.

 

[LMichaels]

Yah, that is surprising. Especially since they were owned by Weber when they folded the brand.

Not at all surprising. The difference is Ducane used industry standard parts (burners, rock grates, cooking grate sizes, valves and so on) only customizing the actual body of the grill and the cart. This maximized profits yet allowed them to build high quality lasting products with long service lives. Unlike say, Weber where every piece pretty much is custom made for them regardless of where it came from

 

[Bruce]

Interesting info there Larry. I did not know that.

 

[Steve-G]

Here are some pictures of my old grill for posterity. In addition to the broken firebox, I ran across a couple of other issues. I'm really glad I didn't decide to start using this, at least without inspecting it first.

Sear grids and the Rotis-A-Grate box with Smoker box in back:


La-Va-Grate with lava rocks:


The main burners are in really good shape. The rear rotisserie burner tube is pretty much gone. I think I noticed that after I moved in, which is why I removed the middle knob from the control panel.


This is looking up from underneath the manifold. The manifold has quite a bit of rust built up:


Natural gas connection inside the enclosure. Gas supply on left and manifold/valve assembly on the right:


And finally, the old cookbox. There are some pretty major holes on the front and a couple extra on the bottom. It looks like I should have been looking for a replacement when I first moved in, and not waited for the wind storm to make it a top priority.



As you can see, I will be using very few parts off the old grill. And since I've decided to change grill styles, I can't use those main burners either. I will be reusing the gas valves, gas orifices, a few fasteners, the Ducane lid emblem, and possibly the side pieces from the control panel.

 

[LMichaels]

Those burners are what my old Ducane used. I think I still have one brand new in the box

 

[Steve-G]

As you can probably tell, I'm just catching up on documenting my work so far. I'm actually pretty far along, but I don't want to get this thread too much out of order. I decided to give up on trying to replace my grill with the exact same model that has the rotisserie burner in back. The main reason is that replacement back burners aren't available anymore. Or so I thought. One dealer just posted on Ebay that they have eight new ones available for $94 each, which includes shipping. But I had already started down the path of getting the same size cookbox without the rotisserie option. It opens up a few more inches of real estate for grilling, and I already have a rotisserie set up for my Genesis Silver B. Here is the teardown of the donor grill. The model is 1600LP.

Removed from pedestal cart and ready to get started:


For transport, the La-Va-Grate was on top of the sear grates - in case you noticed that this looked incorrect:


Cookbox isn't in too bad of shape. Burners were a little worse than I expected based on seller's description, but I will try to clean them up.


Control panel with Barnwell, SC 29812 address. It is hard to tell exactly from the tag on the side, but I think this grill is from 2002. My 5004 I think was built in 1999, and it has a Blackville, SC 29817 address on it. Seems to make sense. I ran across this nugget of info on a random website "You can date this Ducane grill by the zip code on the front. The 29817 zip is for Blackville, South Carolina. This manufacturing center was shut down in 2001 when Ducane opened a new manufacturing facility in Barnwell, South Carolina."


Finally got a chance to confirm the fit in my enclosure - I am good to go:



Next steps are cleaning up and painting the cookbox, upgrading the gas connections, and cleaning/testing the burners to see if I need replacements. Spoiler alert - I did need new ones and I just received them yesterday.

 

[Steve-G]

Quick question for the group. How should I go about cleaning up the stainless steel enclosure? Am I right that I should use Bar Keeper's Friend? Is there a particular type I should use? Powder or cream? Also, I think I saw that I shouldn't use steel wool, so possibly a green scotch brite pad going with the grain?

Am I on the right track? I'd hate to start in the wrong place and mar the surface beyond repair. TIA.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

L

Quick question for the group. How should I go about cleaning up the stainless steel enclosure? Am I right that I should use Bar Keeper's Friend? Is there a particular type I should use? Powder or cream? Also, I think I saw that I shouldn't use steel wool, so possibly a green scotch brite pad going with the grain?

Am I on the right track? I'd hate to start in the wrong place and mar the surface beyond repair. TIA.

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I like using the spray liquid and sprinkle the powder on top of it, rub in gently and let it sit for a few minutes and scrub, rinse, wipe dry.

 

[LMichaels]

Honestly, I think BKF is WAY too much work. I simply use good ol ammonia and a Scotchbrite pad then polish it off with a microfiber and done

 

[Michael Chen]

For cleaning stainless, I like blue scotch brite with Bon Ami: https://www.bonami.com/

This stuff also works well: https://www.freestylephoto.com/2215-Photofinish-Multi-Purpose-Non-Toxic-Darkroom-Cleaner-22-oz.

Not a huge fan of Barkeeper’s Friend, mostly because I don’t think the oxalic acid offers enough benefit over elbow grease combined with Bon Ami or Photofinish, but I’m also impatient and don’t let the BKF sit on the surface for long…

 

[Steve-G]

Thanks much for the opinions. I think I'll start with Larry's suggestion because that's what I have in the house and it will be the most gentle on the surface. If it doesn't work, then I will investigate other options. I never think about using ammonia for whatever reason, but I was able to find a jug in my cleaning supplies.

I also have Soft Scrub liquid and Comet powder in the house, which both are abrasives, similar to BKF. Although maybe without the oxalic acid. That might be option #2 if ammonia doesn't work. I have some interior surfaces on the enclosure that I can test it on, in case it scratches too much.

 

[Steve-G]

Here are pics of the bottom cookbox after I got it disassembled completely:





After a few passes with a wire cup brush on an angle grinder, I got most of what I wanted out of the interior. I end up cleaning a few more spots before I started reassembling the burners, so it looks a little bit nicer now.


The exterior of the cookbox didn't end up as nice as I was hoping, but it was really just a trial run for the lid. The imperfections will mostly be inside of the enclosure, and no one is going to notice but me. I took off all of the oxidation and feathered in the remaining paint which was extremely stubborn to remove. In hindsight, I feel like I should have stripped it bare.




Not my best work, but it will do. At every step I take, I keep thinking that although it may not be perfection, it is 10 times better than what it was. And in the end I will (hopefully) have a working grill that isn't an eyesore.

Since hindsight is 20/20, if I were to ever take on a similar project, I would just pay to have it sandblasted.

 

[Steve-G]

Next up was the gas supply connection and the burners. Rather than rehash everything, please refer to this thread for the gas connection: NG supply - does this look right?

Once I set the regulator to have a ~ 3" WC operating pressure (based on the original Ducane installation instructions), I was then able to use the orifice size chart to figure out what the hole size should be. I used the valves and orifices from my old natural gas grill. The old burners were rated for 15,000 BTU, and the new ones are rated for 18,500 BTU, so I just had to go up a couple of drill sizes. Based on the 3" WC & 18,500 BTU combination, I used a #43 drill bit (0.089" diameter).

Next up were the burners. Although my old ones were in really good shape, they were too short for a non-rotisserie style grill. Here's the size of the old burners - they are 3.5" shorter front-to-back than the donor burners.



I tried cleaning up the donor burners a little bit to see how they were working.



I probably could have spent some more time on them and got them working better, but since I was buying a new ignitor collector box for each of the burners for $13 each, I decided to get buy new burners from bbqparts.com for $35 each that came with the ignitor collector box. I also got new set of ceramic briquettes since their prices were about the best I could find.


Installed and tested. The new burners didn't come with spider guards, so luckily the donor grill had them so I installed the screens on the new burners. Per the Ducane instructions, I opened up the air shutter all the way for use with natural gas. I think @LMichaels mentioned it on one of these threads recently that it really doesn't matter all that much. He's right - I adjusted the air shutter from 1/2 open to full open and the quality/height of the flame didn't change one bit. But I left them full open since that's what the directions say.




In case you are wondering what that spring is coming off of the collector box, it is the Vis-U-Glo glow wire. There is a hole on the control panel where you can peek into the cookbox. Since the flames are sometimes tough to see in the daylight, this allows you to see the glowing spring when it is hot so you know if the burners are lit.



I love all of the Ducune registered names: VIS-U-GLO, ROTIS-A-GRATE, SEAR GRID, LA-VA-GRATE, Par-T-Grill, etc.

It took a couple of tweaks to get the ignitors working on both of them consistently. Now both burners fire up with only 1 or 2 cycles of the spark generator. I'm starting to feel like the end of this project is in sight.

 

[Jon Tofte]

Some really great work going there, Steve! I think you will have one really nice, classic grill when you are done. Plus, the satisfaction of bringing it back from near extinction.

 

[JSaus]

I seriously considered that grill back about 2000. A friend of mine bought the pedestal model and I ended up with the Weber Silver B.