Summit dead in water


 
Chris Allingham

Chris Allingham

Administrator
Staff member
I haven’t used my 2002 Summit 450 in a while. Fired it up and it acts like the bypass safety feature has been tripped, grill won’t get over 250*F with all burners on high even though I lit it correctly. Tried again, waiting a minute between opening the tank valve and opening/lighting the burners. Same result. Tried a different propane tank. Same result. And I checked for a gas leak at the tank per Weber’s recommendation online and I don’t find one.

Before I start tearing into it, what does the brain trust think I should be focusing on?
 
Last edited:
Not used for awhile, check for spiders in the usual places. Redo one more time. Make sure all valves are off, including any side burners and afterburners before reopening tank. Wait a few more minutes before opening. Make sure you close valves before turning off tank. Check hose. Regulator. Traeger sabotage.
 
A quick go through the burners and manifold with compressed air might do it. After that I would take a look at the regulator. I have had a bad one cause that same problem.
 
All the above sounds right to me. After you disconnect the hose from the tank, tap the regulator with something solid. Don't bash it, tap it. Then reconnect and open the valve slowly on the tank. Then turn on the burner and give it a try. Just make sure all your burners are shut off before you open the tank valve. After that, consider spider webs and other insect mayhem in the burners and manifold.
 
I don’t have anything to add but agree wholeheartedly with the recommendations given. Hope one of those works out for you, Chris. It might need a new regulator if you exhaust the other attempts. You already know that is one of my absolute favorite grills, so we have to help you keep it going strong.
 
Thanks everyone. I ended up switching to the Summit charcoal for this cook. Always good to have a backup plan!

By switching tanks, I did a tank disconnect and reconnect. I've got the firing sequence correct. Weber suggests up to a 60 second wait between opening the tank valve and opening/lighting the first burner valve. I'm always a lot quicker than that, so I waited 60 seconds but no improvement.

I have not tried tapping the regulator, I will do that. In fact, I'm tempted to go outside and do that now.
 
Grill seemed to light normally after tapping the regulator firmly several times with a wooden spoon, but now with a roaring sound that went away when I turned off burner #3. Also, I can see something burning at two burner holes on the top of Burner #3. So it looks like I'll be opening her up for a closer look in the next day or two.
 
Normally sounds from the regulator are not a problem. But since you had problems with it before, it really sounds like there's an issue with the regulator. If it keeps acting up on you I would consider putting a new regulator and hose on it.
 
Roaring sound seemed to be coming from inside the grill, not from the regulator. When I turned Burner #3 off and back on (now at a lower level due to the bypass kicking in) the roar was gone.
 
Curious to see how this ends. I've had to follow Weber's gas regulator reset sequence a few times, but this seems like a somewhat different scenario.
 
Only other thing that I can think of, with the roaring sound mentioned, is cleaning out the flame holes in the burner. My Spirit did that noise once and flames were low. I took a wire brush over the burners, and then welding tip cleaner and went through and cleaned each of the holes. In my case, it cured the noise and brought the flames back. Lots of options, but this is one basic style of tip cleaner: basic tip cleaner
Hope this helps.
 
Just to close on this. Today I finally got around to cleaning out the grill (which wasn't that dirty because I'd cleaned it not that long ago when I replaced the burner tubes), brushed the burner tube and crossover tube holes, and removed the burner tubes and fished around inside with a coat hanger (didn't find anything). Put it all back together and it runs like a champ.

A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top