Spirit E-310 Flare ups


 
J

John Saniga

New member
I have an older E-310 that I am experiencing flare ups on. The cast iron grates are relatively new and in good condition. They are clean. The flavorizer bars are in decent shape, and the couple that were starting to rust I have moved to areas I use least.

The bars are catching drippings and igniting them when I am doing direct heat grilling; burgers, steak, chicken. I have to keep moving the meat or reducing the heat, but invariably I am getting singed meat where I don't it. The bottom of the grates seem to be relatively clean as well. The one thing I haven't done is to make a dry run on the grill and put the grate thermal probe from my WSM on the grate so I can see where my temperature really is. My medium temps may be high and my highs may be hotter than I want. Anyway, any insights would be appreciated.

A secondary issue is that I have neglected cleaning the grease tray pan with any regularity. I got a fair amount of crud removed from it over the weekend but there is still quite a bit of hard carbon deposits on the pan. I have only gotten a fire in the pan once and then is when I cranked the heat to burn off some fat form the grates. I'd still like it to be clean, and I don't want to pay $100+ for a replacement pan from Weber. Ideas on how to get the hard black carbon material off would be appreciated.
 
Another comment. I'm not sure I would use a grate temp probe to find the hot spots.

Maybe an IR temp reader but unless you have one, a half loaf of bread is cheaper.
 
The only time I had problems with my Silver B was when I neglected to scrape the solid particles from the drip pan. They will collect grease and flame up. Pull it out and clean it up. After about 12 years, my burners wore out, causing uneven heat. Pull the grates and flavorizers and observe the flame. You may just need to brush the burners clean. If the holes are enlarged or burned together, replace them. It is easy and cost effective.
 
CLean the flavorizer bars, the grease pan....Don't need to get it shiny, just get the loose crud out. Then clean up the burners and make sure you have nice even, mostly blue flames across them. I might also try some less fatty burger as well. Try 85% or higher.
 
John Saniga said:
I have an older E-310 that I am experiencing flare ups on. The cast iron grates are relatively new and in good condition. They are clean. The flavorizer bars are in decent shape, and the couple that were starting to rust I have moved to areas I use least.

The bars are catching drippings and igniting them when I am doing direct heat grilling; burgers, steak, chicken. I have to keep moving the meat or reducing the heat, but invariably I am getting singed meat where I don't it. The bottom of the grates seem to be relatively clean as well. The one thing I haven't done is to make a dry run on the grill and put the grate thermal probe from my WSM on the grate so I can see where my temperature really is. My medium temps may be high and my highs may be hotter than I want. Anyway, any insights would be appreciated.

A secondary issue is that I have neglected cleaning the grease tray pan with any regularity. I got a fair amount of crud removed from it over the weekend but there is still quite a bit of hard carbon deposits on the pan. I have only gotten a fire in the pan once and then is when I cranked the heat to burn off some fat form the grates. I'd still like it to be clean, and I don't want to pay $100+ for a replacement pan from Weber. Ideas on how to get the hard black carbon material off would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Have you thought about wrapping the pan in foil? It could be worth a try?
 
JSaus said:
The only time I had problems with my Silver B was when I neglected to scrape the solid particles from the drip pan. They will collect grease and flame up. Pull it out and clean it up. After about 12 years, my burners wore out, causing uneven heat. Pull the grates and flavorizers and observe the flame. You may just need to brush the burners clean. If the holes are enlarged or burned together, replace them. It is easy and cost effective.
Click to expand...
Hadn't thought of looking at the burners. Thanks!
 
You can clean those pretty aggressively, like scrape them out. Some of the guys here who do a lot of restores can tell you exactly how aggressive you can get, but I have cleaned out the big black catch pans that funnel down into the small one with very aggressive stainless steel wool before without any problems.
 
Yah, if I have to get one cleaned up for a rehab, I use household stainless steel wool and oven/grill cleaner.
 
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