Weber genesis EP-320


 
A

Anthony Stock

New member
I gained a Weber Genesis EP-320 from the previous owner of my house. I believe it is a 2008ish model. It is pretty big/overkill for my household.
I have replaced the three burners, crossover tube, and gas lines. I use propane. I am cooking at this time mostly hamburgers, fish, hotdogs, brats, steak, and chicken. I add smoke to the grill using Smokist smoking pouch (stainless steel mesh bag) but not doing long duration smoking. I am slowly working on getting my kids to like new foods from the grill.
I have been working on getting down the 2 zone cooking. The East to West burner has made it more difficult at times, but I have found turning on only the front burner then cooking in the back gets close. I have been trying to improve the evenness of the grill temperature and cooking. I tried some of the GrillGrates, which worked great for searing, but with the East to West burner style I couldn't get full use it. I reach out to company and they said due to not being able to create a gap east to west the GrillGrates would have a hard time with two zone cooking compare north to south.

I had a couple of questions

1. Would ceramic tiles be of any benefit? I know will some of them you can more customize the areas. Also, would these replace the flavorizer bars?
2. The flavorizer bars I will be needing to replace soon. They are starting to become thin in some areas. Would replacing these the high qualify 16 or 18 G stainless steel make a big difference in temperature evenness?
3. I have also thought about replacing the grill with a wood pellet grill or a gas grill with north/south burners. Would it make a big difference? From you'all experience would I have any big benefit to upgrading.

Thank you so much!!!
 
Welcome Anthony,

I'm sure you'll get a fair amount of suggestions. My mom and my sister both have an EP-320 with east-west burners. It is a solid grill and to be honest I didn't like cooking on it until last fall when I spent a few weeks cooking on it every other day and I learned how to work with it.

I'll start with your questions.
1. no idea.
2. 16 Gauge SS is what you want, but it probably won't even the temps out unless you have hot spots from badly corroded flav bars.
3. I'm a multi grill owner. I would not replace a gasser with a pellet, but I would think about adding one, or a Kettle, or a WSM, or ... in addition to the gas grill.

As far as a NS front control genesis, I have a 2016 E330 which is NS plus a sear. I love it for fast, direct heat cooks.

Mine has the sear burner between left and center and with these three burners on high I get tons of heat very fast and have the right hand side cooler for indirect or just a holding space for food that is almost done but needs to be away from direct heat.. Given a choice <my opinion> I prefer NS+sear E330 over the east west EP 320. But, if I had a solid EP 320, I'd cook on it a while before replacing it. Replace the Flav Bars, clean the burners and consider shopping for a smoker as a companion. < end of my opinion >

Other thoughts on the EP 320 - consider a heat deflector like a cast iron griddle front-to back, with a second level grate stacked on a couple of fire bricks This will move the protein away from the direct heat and have more of a convection cook. I do this on my E330 in summer when I want to "oven cook" something when I don't want to use my oven because the A/C is running.

Another plus for the EP 320 with east west burners is it is better for rotisserie than a NS burner grill.

Good luck with your journey and let us know what you get for your second grill...
 
Welcome to the forum Anthony! I would definitely replace the flavorizer bars as worn ones will definitely create hot spots. I wouldn't bother with any sort of tiles, the grill wasn't designed for them. As far as the east- west configuration, I have been cooking on an old genesis 1000 for over twenty years and find it completely natural. I usually use the front and rear burners and put the food in the middle, works great. If I have a lot of food at one time I also use the rack in the back of the grill which keeps the food off of a lit burner. I think you will get used to it and enjoy it. Finally, by all means add another grill to your arsenal if you see the need/desire for it.
 
1. I don't see any benefit
2. I doubt it. The biggest upside of better bars is the longevity of them. The OEM bars bars work fine, even when beat up (within reason).
3. I would learn how to cook on what you have first, then branch out when you have the experience under your belt.. The burner orientation is not a major deal.
 
Welcome aboard. First you have one of the best grills ever made. Once you understand the burner arrangement you will never want anything else. Weber stuck with that arrangement for well over 20 years. For good reason. It flat WORKED better than any of the other "me too" type grills.
Like others have indicated new flavorizer bars would be in order. Best ones are from Dave Santana AKA RCPlanebuyer on FleaBay. As for gimmicky things like Grillgrates learn your grill. Learn TO actually grill and you will actually appreciate it for what it is without the add on stuff. You have the last of the great Weber grills
 
Anthony Stock said:
I tried some of the GrillGrates, which worked great for searing, but with the East to West burner style I couldn't get full use it. I reach out to company and they said due to not being able to create a gap east to west the GrillGrates would have a hard time with two zone cooking compare north to south.
Click to expand...
I'm surprised that you didn't get a response about zone cooking! But one gimmick you can use is a wire rack on the griddle side of the GrillGrates, to raise the item away from the surface. This is the gimmick I use:

1649888142796.png


They come in all sizes and it's a gimmick with many uses. I use them for dry brining, as a cooling rack, etc. I also use this gimmick on my Q1xxx for indirect cooking with another gimmick, a foil pan, to keep the crud out of my grill.
 
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For my two cents worth, I will say that I prefer the E-W burner configuration overall and agree that it is the classic Weber arrangement. The first 300 series Genesis grills like yours retained that layout, the last gasp of that Weber engineering that goes back to 1985. I don't think there is any company offering E-W burner grills new today. The desire to keep side tables clear and/or to have a side-burner has pushed everything to front control grills.

It is probably true, that for certain situations, the N-S does have advantages - even if rotisserie cooking is definitely not one of them. I say everyone should have the right grill for each situation, so maybe a 2nd Genesis is in order to go alongside! For me, I hope to restore the 1st generation Summit I bought from @LMichaels (N-S burners) AND have at least one or two E-W Webers. Maybe a 3-bruner and a 2-burner. I think the original Summit will make a GREAT regular grill (if I can overcome the firebox problem) and the E-W "classic" Genesis grills add versatility and maybe someday rotisserie cooking.
 
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