Odd Flame Behavior - Burners or Manifold?


 
John-NY

John-NY

TVWBB Super Fan
Not that it matters but the Grill is a Weber Spirit E-210 old early 2000’s model.

These are the steps leading up to the strange behavior:

1) Open gas valve for burner one
2) light burner 1
3) Burner one ignites along with seemingly most or all of the crossover tube
4) open gas valve for burner 2

Now this is the strange behavior itself:

5) burner 2 does not light
6) crossover tube and almost all of burner 1 mostly loses its flame. However the flame will flicker from one end of burner tube 1 to the other end very faintly, over and over.
7) if I turn off gas valve for burner 2, burner 1 and crossover tube reignite steadily

As side note, I can successfully manually light burner 2 with a butane lighter.

I know that I can just buy some new tubes and try them out, but I just wanted to see if anybody has experienced anything like this before or has any technical explanation as to what is happening and why. Thanks!
 
Well, you could try swapping the two burner tubes to see if that makes a difference. I am assuming you can swap them though.

After you light burner one, and then manually light burner 2, does burner 2 burn correctly or is it flickering flame like burner 1.
 
LMichaels said:
They're all dirty and especially the XOver tube. You need to get them out and do a thorough cleaning
Click to expand...
I know about using a brass wire brush on the tube holes from the outside, but is there a recommended method for cleaning the insides?

Flush with water and let dry or is that ill advised for any reason? Any other recommended tricks?
 
John-NY said:
I know about using a brass wire brush on the tube holes from the outside, but is there a recommended method for cleaning the insides?

Flush with water and let dry or is that ill advised for any reason? Any other recommended tricks?
Click to expand...
You can but you will wait days for them to dry out. Unless you have an air compressor. Me? I use this stuff, and then either let them dry or blow them out well with air hose. And I know the naysayers will all be chiming in "oh that stuff will poison you". Yeah, it will if you drink it or huff it. But it dries VERY fast and leaves no residue behind and cleans well. Especially handy if you have no air compressor. Been using it as long as I've had gas grills. (close to 40 years) and other than that weird eyeball in my forehead no ill effects at all :D
1714925835570.png
 
I get a lot of Spirits. It does matter what model and year.

Rule of thumb if the burner tubes are not shot but the crossover is questionable…

On older east/west with controls on the side a replacement of the crossover tube will help out. They are about $10.

On north south with front controls replace the burner tubes and crossover tube. The crossover tube is too long and prone to failure. The crossover tube is relatively pricey on the front control Spirits so you might as well get new tubes.
 
BPratt said:
I get a lot of Spirits. It does matter what model and year.

Rule of thumb if the burner tubes are not shot but the crossover is questionable…

On older east/west with controls on the side a replacement of the crossover tube will help out. They are about $10.

On north south with front controls replace the burner tubes and crossover tube. The crossover tube is too long and prone to failure. The crossover tube is relatively pricey on the front control Spirits so you might as well get new tubes.
Click to expand...
It is an East West. I’ll fiddle around with the crossover and see how it goes, thanks everyone
 
LMichaels said:
You can but you will wait days for them to dry out. Unless you have an air compressor. Me? I use this stuff, and then either let them dry or blow them out well with air hose. And I know the naysayers will all be chiming in "oh that stuff will poison you". Yeah, it will if you drink it or huff it. But it dries VERY fast and leaves no residue behind and cleans well. Especially handy if you have no air compressor. Been using it as long as I've had gas grills. (close to 40 years) and other than that weird eyeball in my forehead no ill effects at all :D
View attachment 90392
Click to expand...
I recently had to break down my manifold and valves to clean them. I used the exact same thing 'cept my can was red. That stuff works great and it dries/vaporizes super quick. YOu don't know how bad I want to to squirt this stuff down in my regulator to see if it will free/clean up my regulator. I'm afraid I'd cause a massive explosion so I've resisted the temptation.
 
IDK what you think is wrong with it or why. But I've honestly never seen one go bad on a full size grill. Only on a couple of Qs
 
I got a really nice Genesis 1000 grill for free from a guy that said it wasn't working right anymore, low flames. I figured he was imagining this problem and started playing around with it. Sure enough, grill wouldn't get over 350°. I swapped the hose and regulator with another grill that I knew worked right. That solved the problem.
 
Only thing I have seen go bad is the ACME nut. Had it happen on my dad's grill. Sadly it was just when I was gonna cook something. Only thing I could get nearby was a complete regulator and hose. But, the regulator itself was still good. In fact I replaced the nut once I had it home and put it on another grill. It was doing precisely what you described. New nut it was getting as hot as ever. I ended up using it on a grill I gave away. It's like I said. I've never seen a regulator go bad. There is really not much in there to fail
 
LMichaels said:
Only thing I have seen go bad is the ACME nut.
Click to expand...
I've had that happen too, and that actually could have been the problem in what I just described. I look at the hose/ regulator as one part. If I think there is a problem I just replace the whole thing. I can get a new one for less than $20 on Amazon.
 
Steve Hoch said:
I've had that happen too, and that actually could have been the problem in what I just described. I look at the hose/ regulator as one part. If I think there is a problem I just replace the whole thing. I can get a new one for less than $20 on Amazon.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I understand that. Though from what I have seen are rarely to the quality as the OEM ones. Thankfully when my dad's fitting went bad I was able to find an OEM Weber one at his ACE store
 
LMichaels said:
Yeah, I understand that. Though from what I have seen are rarely to the quality as the OEM ones. Thankfully when my dad's fitting went bad I was able to find an OEM Weber one at his ACE store
Click to expand...
I've used several of these Dozyant ones and I can definitely recommend them at half the cost of OEM.Screenshot_20240512-163735.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top