Weber, which makes both of the grills we currently recommend, guarantees all parts for 10 years, so we expect our picks to hold up for at least that long. The grates also take a beating, and eventually most start to rust. That’s not necessarily a problem in itself, as you can oil iron grates and season them as you would a cast-iron skillet. But if they were originally porcelain-coated (as our pick’s and upgrade’s are), you may get chips of porcelain in your food, and that’s not a good thing. Again, you can replace them with factory parts or third-party alternatives. The new Genesis has the same bones as its predecessor with some added features like an enclosed cart with double doors, improved upper rack, and extra searing burner.
While Genesis II 2.0 main burners get mighty hot, models with additional sear burners like our E-335 blast past 800°F into steak house temps. You can sear foods like thin steaks, shrimp and veggies hot and fast. But if you want a thick steak with delicious, brown crust on the outside and a pink, juicy center, reverse sear is the way to go. With reverse sear, aka sear in the rear, you can make better than steakhouse steaks at home.
The new GS4 system is simply beautiful, the build quality still top notch and the heat distribution perfect, even on the larger models. Weber also offers a Genesis II model specifically designed to work with your natural gas connection, if you have one. It does not sell a conversion kit for the Genesis II product line, so you can’t convert this propane gas grill to a natural gas grill without buying a new one if you change your mind in the future. Natural gas can save you money in the long run, but the location of your connection limits where you can place your grill.
Genesis stands behind their product and their customer service is awesome. Always had trouble with cold spots on BBQ’s when grilling so it was a real treat to be able to grill on the full surface of this one. I love cooking outdoors over live fire and smoke whatever the weather, using various grills, smokers, and wood-fired ovens to produce epic food. My goal with this site is to help as many people as possible enjoy and be good at doing the same. Food also collects on the Flavorizer bars, heat deflectors, and burner tubes, so you’ll need to gently scrape or brush them clean, too, for optimal performance and minimal flare-ups. Cooking grates will need cleaning after each use; your best bet is to scrape them while they’re still warm after cooking, and then anything left over will burn off during preheat.
For that reason, splurging on the Genesis II’s $100 iGrill 3 smart accessory could make sense. It will certainly take the guesswork out of learning its temperature settings. Still, $950 all-in is a heck of a lot of cash to spend on a grill, especially for the more casual outdoor cook. I love Weber grills and have been using them for about 20 years now.
All the other features are standard as with the other models. The only differences here are cooking space and amount of burners. Weber guarantees that this ignition will ignite the first time, every time, and it’s easy to see why!
But charcoal takes time to light, and you have to be comfortable with moving around coals and fiddling with vents to control the grill’s heat. The now-discontinued Char-Broil Advantage 3-Burner Gas Grill from Lowe’s met the low expectations we set upon seeing its sub-$200 price. It cooked burgers acceptably, but to get an even cook we had to shuffle the patties around from hot spots to cool spots. Unable to keep a steady low temperature, it burned the barbecue chicken. To this grill’s credit, it made a nice indirect-roasted chicken—but then again, every tested grill did.
There’s been a lot of commentary about how the new lids look shorter than the 2016 models. They do look squat in person…a member of TVWBB says the grate to lid height is 1″ shorter than 2016 models.On 2- and 3-burner models, the work surface portable bbq on the left side folds down……and folds up. It felt a bit cheesy to me.Tool hooks are hidden on the end of the left work surface. It took two hands to get both ends of the rack aligned with the brackets in order to lock in place.