Review: Weber Genesis Silver B Barbecue Grill
Weber gas barbecue grills are not cheap at about $500. But like most things you get what you pay for. We got our barbecue grill at Home Depot. It came with the heaviest grates I’ve ever experienced. These porcelain enameled cast iron barbecue grates are claimed to be a Home Depot exclusive, so I don’t know if you’ll get the same cooking surface if you buy your Weber elsewhere. The cast iron grates are supposed to retain more heat and cook your barbecue foods more thoroughly.
The Genesis Silver B is a three burner barbecue unit. It’s the first triple burner grill I have owned and it is quite an improvement over my earlier double heater units. With three burners you can follow recommended barbecue grill procedures much more efficiently. For direct barbecue grilling you can use the center burner only, with the food immediately above or turn on all three if you have a lot of steaks or burgers to cook. More importantly you can create an “oven effect” by using only the front and back burners placing your chicken or pork in the middle and watching the wonderful thermometer on the front for a typical oven temperatures of 375 to 400 degrees. A great discovery we’ve made is pork marinated in soy sauce and cooked on the grill operating as a barbecue oven. Cooking pork this way is extremely tasty.
Each burner is separately controlled via knobs on the right side where a condiment bin and tool hooks help with organization. On the left side is an ingenious extendable table to hold your supplies. Folding down for storage; you can flip up this extension when needed. The work surface is something Weber calls “thermoset” which is an attractive counter top type work area.
For looks there is the enclosed cart with stainless steel doors covering up the grease pan. If you are an extremely tidy barbecue griller you might be able to store accessories underneath but I find it near impossible to keep grease from dripping down to the bottom of this enclosure.
I’ve not had any trouble with the electronic igniter as of yet. They seemed to have improved the design of this feature by wrapping the wires with a protective sheathing. On earlier grills the igniter was the first thing to quit but with the Weber Genesis barbecue grill, I’ve not had any trouble. The grill usually starts the first time.
One thing I love about Weber is that you can order any part on the device. At their web site they have exploded views with part numbers and you can order any thing you might need.
The one issue I’ve had so far was a clogged vent hole in the middle burner preventing even heating. I found it fairly easy to take the barbecue grill apart and inspect the burner and dislodge the obstruction. This procedure put the grill back in service in short order.
I purchased my barbecue grill unassembled. They had assembled units at Home Depot but I wanted to be sure it was put together correctly so I did it myself. It was fairly easy and took me about an hour. Putting your barbecue grill together yourself also gives you the advantage of knowing how it is assembled in case you need to work on it later.
Included was a wonderful barbecue grilling cook book with tips on the basics of grilling. There are some interesting recipes in this literature but I found the general barbecue cooking tips to be more valuable. Like most people I just like to do basic grilling of steaks, hamburgers, chicken and pork. Save the fancy recipes for indoors.
I’d have to say if you can stomach the price, you can’t beat a Weber barbecue grill. The quality is far superior to other brands and the company is accessible for parts which should keep the unit in operation many years.
