Quick hitter old school Spirit 330 funky burner set up

[JimV]

Hello all....quick hitter please.....I scooped a Spirit 330 which is a 3 burner with added sear burner and side burner. I have never seen this funky burner set up before and I am trying to wrap my head around how it works. They use two crossover tubes.....one small crossover tube which only runs from the sear to the middle burner......what is the purpose of this? Wouldnt the sear burner ignite from the main crossover burner? In the grill that I have the crossover tubes are clogged so I cant figure out the function of this set up just yet. I ordered a replacement set of burners for a standard 3 burner set up just so I could get the main crossover tube and I intend on just cleaning the 3" smaller tube and reusing. I will include a link to the burner tube set so you can take a look....
Thanks!!!!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089YW7GCL/?tag=tvwb-20

 

[Dave in KC]

I am not a fan of this setup, the OEM replacements are terribly
expensive and there is only one knock off that I know of and its
not much cheaper. I tried to use the standard 3 burner set up,
but with no luck. The 2 center burners are slightly shorter.
I will be following your experiment.

 

[JimV]

HmmmmmmYes I am not a fan of crossover tubes in general.....I cant seem to find a good efficient way to clean them and they are always clogged. I actually think the aftermarket ones with just the pin holes are better and easier to clean. I see that the sear burner and center are shorties.......So my first though is that I need to buy another 3 burner set of tubes and use the two short ones to complete the puzzle......or drill a hole in some other tube that I have laying around. I will head over to the shop this afternoon to tackle this silly set up. I still dont understand the purpose of having the center tube and the sear burner tied back in with a short tube while both are ties into the long crossover.

 

[BPratt]

HmmmmmmYes I am not a fan of crossover tubes in general.....I cant seem to find a good efficient way to clean them and they are always clogged. I actually think the aftermarket ones with just the pin holes are better and easier to clean. I see that the sear burner and center are shorties.......So my first though is that I need to buy another 3 burner set of tubes and use the two short ones to complete the puzzle......or drill a hole in some other tube that I have laying around. I will head over to the shop this afternoon to tackle this silly set up. I still dont understand the purpose of having the center tube and the sear burner tied back in with a short tube while both are ties into the long crossover.

Jim, the setup only has 1 igniter on the leftmost tube. Ideally all tubes have an igniter like a newer genesis. If I remember correctly in practice you have to light at least 2 burner tubes to get the sear tube going. So your left with 2 lousy choices to get the sear tube going.

1. Light the ignition tube, then the middle tube then the sear tube hoping the torch gets passed.

2. Light the 3 tubes at once and risk the whoosh once ignited

 

[JSaus]

Is the grill still under warranty? 10 years on burners and that model was only introduced about 10 years ago. Weber may replace for you.

 

[JimV]

Thanks for the replies guys. We are having a pretty heavy rain storm here in Northern Va today but I still ran over to the shop just to remove those burners and get them in my hands. Fortunately this grill lived its life under a gazebo so it is in pretty good shape for a Spirit. The main burners are reusable but both of the cross over tubes are toast. As mentioned earlier I ordered from Amazon a set of burner tubes for the Spirit 310 so I could rob the crossover tube. Given the storm even Amazon is running a bit slow so my new set has not arrived yet. As for the short cross over tube I will just cut/fabricate a small section from a used set that I have laying around and that will take care of shorty.
Things to note...........yes the two middle burners are shorter than the two outer burners and the trick is that the middle burner has a hole plumbed in it to receive the short crossover tube from the sear burner. So normally with a 3 burner Spirit 310 the center tube is shorter but it does not have a hole it in. One other difference before I forget to mention is that on this rare set up the two center burner stud mount side of the burner tubes are large and have the nub on them to be inserted into the long crossover tube. So the way I believe that anyone can get around this issue is to buy a cheap 3 burner set and a cheap 2 burner set to the tune of about $55.00. You will use the right side of the 2 burner kit as the center and the left side of the 2 burner kit as the sear thus the tubes will have holes in them to receive the short crossover tube and I believe they were the correct length...the slightly shorter tubes. Then you would use 2 of the 3 burner tubes from the 3 burner tube kit for the outside burners and the crossover tube. This should leave you with one spare center tube for your parts shelf. What a ramble.....and who really cares ....Im not even gunna re read it for typo's. Im not sure I will scoop another one of these grills again unless its in really good condition. In this case I got this grill for free so I will be on a train to profit town soon.....and thats one of my favorite places to visit. I will include a pic or two via my phone for anyone that might be interested.

 

[JimV]

Here are a couple of pics....

 

[JimV]

How ironic...Amazon just delivered the burner tubes.....I inspected them......the center tube has the large flat tab with the nub so another option is to just drill a hole on the left side of the center tube of the 3 burner set to receive the short crossover tube from the sear burner. I have had to drill a receiving hole in a burner before which is no big deal...its just not a rolled hole like the pro's do...but it should work just fine.

 

[Dave in KC]

What are you going to do about the 2 shorter tubes?

 

[JimV]

The two center tubes are shorter than the outside tubes is that what you mean? In my case the burners are all ok so I am going to reuse the originals and just steal the crossover tube from the burner replacement kit. But as I mentioned if you were in a situation where you had one of these grills and needed to do a burner replacement this is what I would do. I would buy a Spirit 300 burner kit to receive the 3 tubes and a crossover. I would drill a hole in the left side of the center tube to receive the short crossover tube coming from the sear tube. Then I would grab a sear tube from my scrap pile which would be a short center tube with a hole on the right side and use that as my sear tube. I am heading over to finish and deliver this grill today...pics to follow

 

[JimV]

ok here we go....this is probably way too much information for a Spirit 330 but maybe someone out there some day will want to know. Ultimately what I did was order a burner tube set for a basic 3 burner Spirit 310. Now my 330 has 4 burners to include two longer burners on the outside and two sorter burners for sear and middle. From the new burner set I only used the two longer outside burners and the crossover tube. I then used the two original weber burners for the two middle spots. I took a crossover tube that I had laying around and cut it to size for the short crossover. Now some things to note if you can follow my nonsense rambling. I tried to use two Spirit 210 burner tubes as the two center tubes because they were the correct length but this grill has a unique landing pad for the end of the burner where the screw is and I would have had to modify the ends of the burners to sit properly on this pad area. In the end this grill fired up and worked perfectly but I still cannot figure out why the second crossover is needed. The sear burner comes alive from the longer crossover tube. Anyway I will include a couple pics....dont judge its just a quick cheap flip that I got for free so I wasnt going to do a full resto on it. I spun the short crossover tube upwards just for the pic...but I informed the new owner to keep it in the turned down position when in use.

 

[JSaus]

I still cannot figure out why the second crossover is needed.

It is probably because the main crossover burner is too far from the three ignition holes near the end of the short burners to get reliable lighting of those burners.

 

[JimV]

Good thought but on those two center burners which are unique.......the burner holes creep all the way around the front edge to be even closer to the crossover tube. Anyway the ole grill has been sold and delivered. I like learning new tricks or trying to solve Weber puzzles so this one kept me interested. Onto the next

 

[JSaus]

Note ignition holes

 

[JimV]

Ok noted.........thanks

 

[Jim Weber]

This has been good info.... I've always wanted and have been on the look out for a 3 burner Spirit I with sear burner for my stable --- I thinking now that the sear burner may be a 'cost feature downside' now after seeing how the burners are setup. I'm sure I'd be just fine with a plain old 3 burner.

 

[JimV]

Well....my first choice would be a Genesis w sear burner. But if you liked the size of the Spirit and being that you have the knowledge of working on these grills I would not hesitate to hunt one down. Yes the burner set up is a bit odd and you would have to regularly use a small wire brush to keep both cross over tubes clean. That said with the additional burner the grill screams right up to 600 degrees in a hurry which for me is a big plus. Get your steak seared then cool the grill down......

 

[JSaus]

This has been good info.... I've always wanted and have been on the look out for a 3 burner Spirit I with sear burner for my stable --- I thinking now that the sear burner may be a 'cost feature downside' now after seeing how the burners are setup. I'm sure I'd be just fine with a plain old 3 burner.

The great thing about the sear burner is the ability to get steaks of different "doneness" finished at the same time. Once heated up, you can turn the 3rd burner to low or even off. You can sear the "medium" steaks and move to the cool area, then sear the "rare" and finish the cook. You just can not do that on a 3 burner or the old side control Webers. As much as I liked my Silver B, the sear feature alone would keep me from going back.