Service/Repair ~2009 Genesis 3 burner


 
Brett Grant

Brett Grant

TVWBB Fan
A few years back, I bought a used Genesis 3 burner of of CL. It was the first gas grill that I have ever bought.

It seemed to work well. At the beginning of the year, I noticed that it wasn't working as well, so I decided to clean it.

I took out the burner tubes and blew out the rust. I thought that they looked ok to me. One thing that I noticed in disassembly is that part of the lower main assembly had melted. I had to cut it to remove the burner tubes. Has anyone seen this before?

Lately, I have notices that the grill seems very uneven in heat, and I can observe a lot of yellow flame under the flavorizor bars. This grill has burners running left-right and the unevenness seems to be on the left side.

Anything in particular that I should be looking at?

Thanks,
Brett
 
What do you mean by "lower main assembly"? If you're speaking of the firebox itself than you have a serious issue. You can order an entire firebox from Weber and they are not that expensive. My guess is you never cleaned out the grease funneling/removal system and had yourself one serious conflagration. This probably melted the aluminum firebox. Only thing I can figure unless you post some photos. Though doing that on this forum is ridiculous hard. Since you have to use a 3rd party photo host site than pull from there rather than simply upload from your own 'puter. If you can though post a photo of your "damage"
 
LMichaels said:
... My guess is you never cleaned out the grease funneling/removal system and had yourself one serious conflagration. This probably melted the aluminum firebox. ...
Click to expand...

You must be reading my mind :) It is the lower part of the firebox, for some reason in the early morning I just couldn't come up with the word firebox. I was guilty of not cleaning it. I had cooked some bacon for a big get together (I often cook bacon on the grill) and then a day or two later some lamb. Huge flare up. Only one that I ever had been concerned with. I didn't even think about it.

I pretty web savvy, so posting a pic will be no problem once I have the picture. I was thinking about dealing with it today when it warms up a bit.

Are there places to buy parts? When I looked at Weber's site, it was pretty much just grills and bars.

Thanks,
Brett
 
Brett; be sure to check out Weber's warranty on your Genesis. Burner tubes have a 10 year warranty, grill grates 5 years and aluminum castings 25 years. Once you've figured out what's damaged, call their customer service dept. and be sure to have pictures you can send them. Good luck.
 
Brett, yes find the schematic of the grill and you see the break down of the parts including the fire box. Pete yes maybe warranty may cover it just not sure if Weber covers obvious signs of neglect (no offense Brett) which is what caused the conflagration and melt down. But it is worth a shot. I think the firebox is like an $80 part. Ask me how I know ;-) I caused mine to warp from the same issue. Luckily I came across a donor grill so it was moot.
 
Brett, Weber has lots of "hard parts" that they don't show on the web site. Best to give them a call when you figure out what you need. Also ereplacementparts.com is a good source of Weber parts, I've used them a couple of times and been very happy with their service.
 
Well, here are some shots. This first one is from when I started. Pretty dirty. Didn't realize that it got that bad.
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Burners removed, basic brush clean up. Still a lot of grease all over. It is pretty well carbonized.
You can see the melted part on the left side.
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Shot of the dirty burners.
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Shot of it as cleaned up as I am going to get it. I just can't get too excited about a super clean grill.
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I got the burners to work better, but there are still some issues. Weber is sending me a new set. He didn't even ask for a picture or anything.

Also, one of the bolts that hold the gas manifold broke off. I couldn't extract it, so I ended up drilling it out. I need to put a through bolt through or tap it with a larger size. The back valve doesn't work too well because of the movement of the manifold. Just need to be careful that the gas is completely off.

Can't wait for the new burners. I think that I am going to order some new SS flavorizor bars. Any good vendors besides Weber?

Thanks,
Brett
 
Yes on the flavorizer bars. There's a guy on Ebay who makes them out of a slightly thicker gauge of stainless and sells them for less than Weber. I think his Ebay username is RCplanebuyer.
 
Is the oval section what "melted"? Really if you've got a melted section I wonder if it is wise to reuse the fire box. What "issues" with the burners? What you interpret as burner issue may not be. As for the manifold. on the ones I have had the bolts break off in I drill out and use 304 SS carriage bolts and wing nuts. Works like a champ. If the bolts don't break off than use new bolts of 304SS and apply never seize to them. They will come out easy every time then. But here too I would not use the grill unless the manifold was secured properly
 
Yes, the oval section is melted. Its been that way for at least 2 years, so I am not too worried about it. I mentioned it to the customer service guy, but he said lets try the burners first. I like the wing nut idea.
 
I wing nutted up the manifold - that was a great idea.

Did a nice ribeye on it yesterday with red beans & rice. It's working better. Can't wait for the new burners.
 
So Weber sent me out some new burner tubes. Here they are installed

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I ordered some new SS Flavorizer Bars from David Santana. They are pretty nice compared to the old ones

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And here I am set up for pizza

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Unfortunately, I had a small reaction to my chemo last night, so I ended up in the ER rather than baking pizzas. My kids actually still made the pizza, they just cooked them in the regular oven.
 
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