Weber Spirit Roadside Acquisition

[rpaoness]

PIcked up a road-side Weber Spirit 3XX series 3-burner gas grill that looked pretty decent. I thought it would be a great burger-burning/hockey puck conversion station for my VT campsite.

Got it home and figured out it has somewhat-corroded flame tubes to the point that many jets were clogged and the flavorizer bars were pretty weak.

Ordered new bars ($40-ish on Amazon for stainless - reviews seemed OK so hopefully they hold up). Soaked all of the (mild?) stainless burner tubes in warm water/dish soap and scrubbed them. The rear crossover tube (that I think is mainly about providing crossover flame for lighting the two "other" burners?) was so corroded/weak that I didn't think it would survive really re-forming/poking the burner holes in since so many were sludged/corroded over (and they were tiny). Found a new Weber OEM crossover for $15 on grillspot.com with $10 shipping. Since the grill seems otherwise fine, hope $65 wasn't too much of an investment, and hopefully it works well for at least a couple years.

My guess is in a year or two I'll need to replace the main grilling surface grates due to corrosion. OK for now though I think.

[kevm14]

I want to say the Spirit is the cheap line and not consistent with Weber reputation. I realize it was free.

[rpaoness]

I would somewhat agree - seemed like the cheapest burger-burner I could muster(ed?) for VT service. Looks like stainless burner rails, and I think it's at least 10 years old, so I think better service life than typical budget-grills (char-broil et. al.).

Could have another 10+ years in it with the parts I'm replacing and replacement grill grates. The drip pan and grease collection pan have remarkably little corrosion - might be ceramic coated. I just did a basic cleanout and didn't "wash" so I can't really tell.

[rpaoness]

Looks like it's a $620 unit (I think it's an E-310, I could not find any model/serial sticker on it anywhere - I ordered burner/flavorizers based on dimensions). Seems like $65 + grates in a couple years is OK-ish. I think I paid like $250ish for my char-junk that I hope to get a decade out of (the last char-junk one did last like 12 years with just a collection pan replacement and I got that on clearance for $160 I think in like 2014).

[rpaoness]

Finally found a model sticker under the grime on the floor of the cabinet. It's an S-315 LP.

[kevm14]

I have the E-310.