Upgrade to summit time. Help me decide


 
J

J Graz

TVWBB Super Fan
So a recent out with one of my other hobbies, saltwater aquariums, has netted me a good sum of extra dough. So I was looking at me 10yr old Genesis Gold B last night and thinking of giving it a work over. In adding everything up I figure around $300ish should do the trick, hopefully. Then I start thinking that maybe I'll move on to a Summit. I speak with the wife, and a Summit it is.

Now I don't have a need for 6 burners so the 620/670 are not an option. I am focusing on the E-420 and E-470. The side burner is a plus as I don't currently have one. How use full are the added feature on the 470? Rotisserie, sear station, and smoker box/burner. To date I have used and use often the rotisserie on my kettle and I only occasionally add a smoke pouch to the gasser for a touch of flavor. Are the add-ons of the 470 worth the extra 4 bills?

Thoughts please? And thank you

A little add on. I know I said that the 620 is out, but I suppose since I'm considering spending on the 470 then the 620 needs to be an option, especially if the add-ons are not all there cracked up to be. I guess the extra room might com in handy once in a while.
 
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I'm not sure where in the Summit line you need to be to get that rotisserie burner but I would not buy one without it. Also keep in mind the "400" series Summit does not really give you any more grilling area than the Genesis. And with your older style Genesis you have the added advantage of good rotisserie performance due to the burner orientation. So bottom line you may actually find yourself somewhat disappointed with the gains (or lack of) by moving to the Summit. If you're going to drop that kind of $$$ for marginal if any gains frankly I'd either stay put or go on to the "600" series
 
If you are willing to go with aftermarket flavorizer bars , & burners even with a new ignitor & grates you're looking at less than $200 for a rebuild.
I've rebuilt or restored
Genesis S330 ( new style)
Genesis 1000
Genesis silver B
Q 330
Q 220
Spirit 500
I've cooked on all of them & to me the best cooking was the silver B with the heavy cast iron grates.
I'd vote refurb you're grill & add rotisserie .
I use side burner just for lighting charcoal & boiling peanuts.
 
If I do rebuild it would be with, at the very least, weber parts. And I am done with the stainless grates and flavorizer bars from weber for that model. IMO they are the worst. Ill probably go with the grates from the ebay seller "rcplane..." something or other. which is why I'm thinking over $300. And that just for the grates, flavorizer bars, and burners. If I go full blown I can add at least another $150 to that in little odds and end that need attn.

As far as the rotisserie goes, I have never used one on my current gasser and TBH I probably won't on my next one either. Good point on the burner orientation for the rotisserie on the genesis, it is set up much better.
 
LMichaels said:
I'm not sure where in the Summit line you need to be to get that rotisserie burner but I would not buy one without it. Also keep in mind the "400" series Summit does not really give you any more grilling area than the Genesis. And with your older style Genesis you have the added advantage of good rotisserie performance due to the burner orientation. So bottom line you may actually find yourself somewhat disappointed with the gains (or lack of) by moving to the Summit. If you're going to drop that kind of $$$ for marginal if any gains frankly I'd either stay put or go on to the "600" series
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I wholeheartedly agree

If I was going to cough up the bux for a Summit, I would go the 670 because:

Sear Station
Infrared Rotisserie Burner
Tuck-away Rotisserie system
Lighted control knobs

Granted, the 670 has 69 less square inches (cooking area) than the 620, but the Infrared Rotisserie burner is the cat's meow (can you say perfectly cooked standing rib roasts)

The only real difference between the 400 Summits and the 330 Genesis is the additional 2K BTU in the Summit, which is worthy, but if I were going to the Summit, I'd go all the way
 
ChuckO said:
I wholeheartedly agree

If I was going to cough up the bux for a Summit, I would go the 670 because:

Sear Station
Infrared Rotisserie Burner
Tuck-away Rotisserie system
Lighted control knobs

Granted, the 670 has 69 less square inches (cooking area) than the 620, but the Infrared Rotisserie burner is the cat's meow (can you say perfectly cooked standing rib roasts)

The only real difference between the 400 Summits and the 330 Genesis is the additional 2K BTU in the Summit, which is worthy, but if I were going to the Summit, I'd go all the way
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Uggggggggg
I'm going to have to sell more Coral
 
J Graz said:
Uggggggggg I'm going to have to sell more Coral
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If you buy it from Home Depot, you can get 24 months free financing and if you open a Home Depot account, you can get 10% off your purchase

You won't be able to get the 10% off for opening an account over the internet, you have to go to the store to do/get that. Just bring a major credit card that you already have and photo ID, and they can open your account and order your brand new Summit at the same time

That'll reduce some of the coral you have to sell :)
 
Thanks for the tip. I'll be using cash though. I'll take advantage of the 10% military discount at lowes.
 
I have an 1000 LX which has a rotisserie and a Ducane (Weber product) which has the infrared rotisserie. The infrared is hands down the better of the two, even thought the 100LX does a great job the infrared takes less time and produces a superior product IMHO.
 
" Ill probably go with the grates from the ebay seller "rcplane..." something or other. which is why I'm thinking over $300. And that just for the grates, flavorizer bars, and burners. If I go full blown I can add at least another $150 to that in little odds and end that need attn. "

The advantage of RCPlanebuyer's parts is they're usually cheaper and FAR superior to Weber products. I recently got a set of his SS rod grates for my brother. They were half the price of the cheaply made Weber stamped grates. Both his flavorizer bars and grates are lifetime investments. Last ones you'll ever need to buy. BTW I use my side burners a lot when I am cooking outdoors.
 
So I hit Lowes last night to give a look and see what Im dealing with. First though was the 600's are out. Just to much money to justify. So I was looking at the 470, and really did not like what I saw. Size was fine and like stated earlier about the same as my Genesis. The orientation of the burners essentially make the rotisserie burner a necessity. I must say I like that my genesis burners run left to right and not Front to back. The biggest thing to catch my eye is the fact that the smoker burner and a regular burner are right next to each other. With the smoke box in place the burner right next to it is pretty much useless since you can't cook above it, unless of course you can replace the box with a small grate. The side burner is an extra that I currently don't have on my Genesis and have not yet wished I had in the last 10yrs. So with all that said...........

I have decided to rebuild my Genesis. Perhaps I'll start a thread on it.

Thank you all for your input. My wallet thanks you as well.
 
J Graz said:
First though was the 600's are out. Just to much money to justify
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$2500 is an eye-opener, huh? I certainly understand not spending $2.5K, but I will say this. When you compare other makes in the $2.5K range, you get one heck of a BBQ in the S670

I was at a BBQ specialty store in Sonoma CA a weekend or so back, and the S670 is a deal compared to what I was seeing at $3K to $4K

Good luck with your restore, looking forward to see how it turns out
 
I agree, restoring your Genesis first is a great option. I continue to be impressed by the cookbox design. Our 5000 is our workhorse.

But do not give up on the Summits. I am not a fan of the current new options- expensive, and while they have flash features like backlit knobs and a roti motor that goes up and down, they seem a bit flimsy compaired to previous generations.

I am a fan of the Summit Silver/Gold/Platinum series which sold from 2002-2007. The first series of Summits the 400/600s that sold from 1997-2002 are very solid/well built except for a design flaw in the way the burner tubes enter the cooking box, which promotes a section to rust/rot out, and as LMichaels has pointed out, spare parts are not available, and no dedicated roti infared burner so I avoid that series.

You can pick up a used Summit Silver/Gold/Platinum for not a lot of money. They are easy to work on and most parts are available. Things to watch out for are rust/rot in the front and back cookbox panels (Weber improved the design from the previous 400/600 series, but it is not as it should/could be) and the state of the flavorizer weldments. You can only get new ones from Weber and they are pricey.

I agree the smoker box is a waste of space. But take it out, drop in a small section of grate, and the Smoker Burner and Burner One becomes a 'poor mans' Sear station.

You can actually cook quite a good pizza in the Summits using the North-South burner orientation (outside burners on full, inside burners off, pizza stone elevated on a couple of charcoal baskets). I also find the North-South easier to 'zone'.

I have nearly finished restoring a 2004 Gold D6 (still have the badge to do) which cost me $70 to acquire, and basically needed a big clean, a repaint and an ignition kit.



The Platinums are the ones to find. Pretty much all SS.
 
Well the restore has been started. I'll start a new thread for it though. I called Weber today for the first replacement part, the lid. Like most of them this age the inner shroud was corroded and flaking apart, and with with the awesome Weber warranty its on the way free of charge. I do need to get some other things but I'll wait till I get this apart this weekend.


Oh and that Summit is a thing of beauty
 
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