Clean, Maintain & Repair, Restore

Genesis Platinum C Cleanup & Repair by Scott P

To the untrained eye, this circa 2005 Weber Genesis Platinum C gas grill looks like a piece of junk, ready for the scrap heap. But Scott P. from Porter, TX knew better. He picked it up on Craigslist for $50, gave it some spit and polish, and it’s ready for many more years of grilling.

Genesis Platinum C as purchased by Scott P.
Genesis Platinum C as purchased by Scott P.
Rusted floorpan in storage enclosure
Rusted floor pan in storage enclosure

Scott gave the grill a thorough cleaning inside and out, then removed the storage enclosure and did some repair to the floor pan using a rust converter, bonding primer, and graphite spray paint.

Genesis Platinum C post-rehab
Genesis Platinum C post-rehab

A little more polishing of the stainless steel and gray painted surfaces and this gasser was ready for action!

“The burners all work well. It got up to 500°F in about 6 minutes and 600°F a bit later,” says Scott. “I could have spent more time sanding and grinding to smooth out the rust and old paint, but I was looking to do this quick.”

What Scott calls “quick” I call “looks great”!

You can read more about this Weber Genesis Platinum C clean-up and repair on The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board.

Tips & Techniques

The Toast Test: Visualizing Your Grill’s Hot Spots

The Toast Test is a great way to visualize any hot spots on your gas grill’s cooking surface. I’ve known for some time that my 2002 Weber Summit 450 4-burner gas grill has some hot spots…I grill a bunch of burgers and some seem to cook faster than others. In fact, I may end up overcooking a few burgers in the process. You’d think I would know the quirks of my grill, having cooked on it for almost 15 years, but I keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

I saw the toast test performed on an episode of America’s Test Kitchen and I tried it on my Weber Summit.

Continue reading The Toast Test: Visualizing Your Grill’s Hot Spots →

Clean, Maintain & Repair, Restore

Repair Rusted Screw Holes With QuikSteel

It’s not uncommon to encounter a rusted-out screw hole when restoring an old Weber gas grill. How do you repair a rusted-out screw hole? In some cases, it’s easy enough to clean-out whatever remains of the hole and replace the original screw with a bolt and nut. But in some cases, you’ll want (or need) to repair the screw hole so the original screw can be used again.

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Tips & Techniques

Dating Herbs, Spices, Rubs & Pantry Ingredients For Freshness

Here’s a quick tip: When you purchase any herb, spice, rub or pantry ingredient and you care about the freshness of that ingredient, simply write the month/year somewhere on the bottle or package as a reminder of when you purchased it.

Collection of spices and pantry ingredients

Now you can easily check any ingredient to see how old it is. I replace all my ground spices every two years; whole spices like peppercorns and nutmeg every four years. Baking ingredients like baking soda and baking powder I replace annually. Salt is the exception—it never goes bad and doesn’t need to be replaced.

Close-up of labeled spices and pantry ingredients

If you can’t write directly on the side or lid of a container, apply a sticker to the container and write the date on the sticker.

Recipes

Meatloaf Burgers Adapted To The Weber Gas Grill

Meatloaf burger on toasted sesame seed bun with burger sauce

I recently made meatloaf burgers using a recipe from Cook’s Country magazine. In the Cook’s recipe, you make a meatloaf mixture using typical ingredients, then form into patties and sear in a non-stick skillet on the stove top over medium-high heat for 3 minutes per side. Once you’ve got a crusty exterior on the patties, they move to a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet pan in a 350°F oven and cook for another 15-20 minutes until 160°F internal temperature.

I adapted this recipe to the Weber gas grill by searing the patties in a cast iron skillet over medium heat on the grill, then moved them to a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet pan on the grill and continued cooking until reaching 160°F internal temperature.

Continue reading Meatloaf Burgers Adapted To The Weber Gas Grill →

Clean, Maintain & Repair

Spider Screens: Inspection & Cleaning

Did you know that your Weber gas grill contains spider screens? Did you know that you need to occasionally inspect and clean them? If you didn’t know these two facts, read on.

When the performance of your Weber gas grill seems to be lacking—for example, it’s not achieving the high temps it used to—the first thing you should check is the condition of the burner tubes. If the tubes are covered with cooking debris and scale and the flame pattern is more yellow than blue, the burner tubes need to be cleaned.

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General

2017 Weber Genesis II: First Impressions

Today I had a chance to get up close and personal with some of the new 2017 Weber Genesis II gas grills at a local Ace Hardware store in San Jose, CA. All were base models, not the high-end LX model. One was a 2-burner model, two were 3-burner, and one was 4-burner.

Genesis II SE-410 4-burner in Crimson
Genesis II SE-410 4-burner in Crimson

Overall Impressions of Genesis II

To my eye, the lids appear just a short and squat in-person as they do in photos. A member of The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board reports that the grate to lid height is 1″ shorter than 2016 models. Perhaps it’s a optical illusion, but it sure seems shorter than that.

Continue reading 2017 Weber Genesis II: First Impressions →

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