Weber Genesis Silver B (LP) Grill

Pros
Beautiful construction, attention to detail, quick assembly, Grilling never tasted better!

Cons
initial cost

The Bottom Line
The Weber Silver B is a quality product offering the best results from a proven company standing behind their product.

Full Review
Somewhere in my genetic code is a subset of traits that would have lobbied for me to be an engineer. I say that because I have an intense interest in how things work and marvel when things are made simpler by just exercising common sense. Such is my amazement with the Weber Silver B Grill!

Cost

Granted this is an area where we may debate endlessly on the merits of value and quality vs. practical use and bang for the buck. Having been on both sides of this argument, I can tell you outright I have purchased 3 grills in my adult life. I perhaps have spent an average of $200.00 for each with costs reaching as high as $250.00 to a low of $150.00 on sale. Throughout that time my folks have owned the very same Weber grill they had when they first came out with a propane model. I remember their friends commenting on what they paid for it, the uptown jokes about who must have gotten a raise and the snickering. They were simply wise in their way going about making a purchase once and for all. I asked my mother if she remembered what she paid for it and she remembers $110.00! Lessee..$110.00 divided by 18 years = $6.11 a year! My numbers are not as remarkable i.e. $600.00 divided once by my grill buying years of 16 = $46.75! In summary 1 grill vs. 3 grills, 6 times the cost, and what, the grill still works fine? Lou, can this possibly be? The answer is a resounding, yes!

Whatever side of this argument you fall on is a matter of personal choice, financial circumstances and perhaps priorities. There are no right or wrong answers here .Certainly a $450.00 expenditure on a grill cannot weigh in when college tuition or Visa payments are due but my purpose here is to offer up the long- term results of ownership. In a perfect world though, we can make our money work for us long term by not overspending on common household items and invest the difference in lifestyle enhancements or perhaps boost an investment portfolio.

The N u t z And B o l t z

The Weber Silver B grill is long overdue at my place. I have recommended it over the years but for reasons that escape me avoided following my own advice until last year. Over the past year, I must say I could have kicked myself in the lower posterior region every time I fired it up.

There are a number of things to consider when evaluating the quality of this Weber grill. Lets do that now.

Assembly

Real time scenario # 1 It is 4:30 pm and you have dinner guests invited for a 6:00 Barbeque steak dinner. You check your grill and find a propane leak on the fuel hose. Disaster? Not with the Weber Silver B Grill.

Solution, You immediately get in your, hopefully roomy, vehicle head to the home center (4:50pm) buy the Silver B and bring it home 5:15. Assembly requires no tool hunting as there are only 6 bolts to tighten, switch tanks, and fire up your grill and start grilling (5:30 pm) Okay, maybe this is a little exaggerated but trust me not by much! If you spend 15 minutes assembling your Weber Silver B grill, you are having a beer with friends as I was.

The Weber Silver B comes with detailed instructions in English only, large print so you can place it near your work, (not that you’d need to) and is very clear reading. Now, I don’t know about your experiences but I have spent 2-3 hours in the past sorting what appeared to be hundreds of parts assembling a grill with a sweaty brow and some scraped knuckles to show for my effort. The generic manuals were written for all the grills in the line and you had to sort through the instructions, looking for your model as you assemble the plethora of parts. Remember sizing up the bolts next to the parts list to see which bolt was AAA? Not with the Weber. Simple, to the point and no wasted effort. Weber has gone a long way to respect their customers, by offering a product that goes from marketplace to your place in record time. And after all, time is the issue here isn’t it. It’s one thing to save cash but time is a resource that’s best spent with your family and friends, not deciphering a multi-lingual instruction manual!

Three Individual Burners and Controls

The Weber Silver B has three (3) stainless steel burners running the width of the cooking box. They are placed at even intervals from front to back. Each burner has an individual control placed at the right on the flat control panel atop the Propane tank. This is a stationary surface and nothing more than incidental small utensils, and possibly seasons can occupy. The controls are much like the ones you would expect on a consumer oven in your kitchen. The benefit of 3 separate burners comes into play when you are cooking meats especially. With a single or “H” configured burner, commonly associated with Charbroil and other popular grills, the actual burner does not flame at extreme edges and sides resulting in uneven cooking temperatures and results. You end up moving your meats placed at the edge of the grill to the center into the hotspot so everything is done on time. The Weber cooks at even temperatures from full side to side, going the extra step of allowing the user to speed up or slow down cooking at any point and at any part of the grill. The results are more controlled zoned cooking hotter cooking on demand. Cook times sped up approximately 30% on the average.

Spider and insect screens are already attached to the burners assuring long life and even wear.

Flavorizer Bars

Flare-ups happen when dripping from your meats consisting of fats, and seasonings roll off your meats and hit the flame source. A flash of flame results charring and discoloring your meats and returning the burnt fuel back onto your foods. Therefore some grills utilize charcoal or lava briquettes to act as a barrier and perhaps enhance flavor. Obviously flashback is something that you would like to avoid, but is difficult especially if your lava rock is not placed just so or is used up. The Weber Silver B does away with the concept of Lava and Briquettes with their Flavorizer bars. Simply put, the 5 tent shaped porcelain coated Flavorizer bars shield the cooking surface from the burner flames turning fats and seasonings into barbeque flavor by smoking when it reaches the Flavorizer Bars with no flashback involved. The result is a real barbeque flavor. You can, of course, enhance flavors with mesquite or anything else you choose.

The Cast Aluminum Cook Box

The 611 Sq. inch cooking area includes the 411 sq. in area of the porcelain cooking grates and the remaining 200sq.in. attributed to the bun and warming racks and basket. A heavy porcelain enamel lid covers the cook box with an attached dual-purpose thermometer at the ready for either probing or monitoring cook box temperatures. The probe is ready at a moments notice as it is clamped onto the unit’s lid. The manual suggests that a dedicated meat probe would fall more on the mark for critical tolerances, although I have found the units thermometer/probe to be just fine.

The 2 porcelain enamel cooking grates are heavy, and are a dream to clean. A simple soaking once a month and a light brushing after use goes a long way to keeping them clean. Generally I keep the grill on for about 10 minutes after all foods have been removed just to burn off excess fats etc. before brushing.

The Nickel-plated Warming basket attached to the lid on a swivel is a safe haven for fish and vegetables. It comprises the smallest area (75 sq. in) of all the cooking surfaces.

The Nickel plated Warm-up Rack (112 sq. in.) is a great place to keep buns and finished foods warm, though it’s space makes it practical for only smaller items. The Warm-up rack also comes in handy for cooking vegetables.

Catch pans have always been a messy issue to deal with. Forget to put one in, or not checking on the one you installed when you assembled the grill and your deck, patio or driveways becomes a greasy cleaning problem. Not with the Weber! The slide-out catch pan is set up for routine maintenance and is totally accessible from the front of the Weber Silver B. With attached replaceable aluminum catch pan you can be on top of this potential mess and attraction to pests, if you keep your grill outdoors. This is among one of my favorite features on this grill. The nice thing about the cook box is its overall construction. Not only is it durable, the materials used in its construction make it a breeze to cleanup and maintain.

Lighting the Weber Silver B Grill is as easy as flipping a switch. Their patented Crossover Ignition lights all three burners in succession and has yet to fail lighting on the first attempt. Located on the right work surface

Window Dressing

Face-to-face with the Weber Silver B Grill, you noticed the attention to detail. From the swing up Thermoset table and adjoining work surface on the left to the detailed instructions for cook times, temperatures and heat settings on the Thermoset surface on the right. The Thermoset surfaces are heat resistant and resist scratching and clean quite easily. The 20 lb. LP tank (also available in natural gas) is attached to a gauge that allows you to check at a glance the levels of propane remaining in your tank simply by weight: nice! The rolling crack resistant all weather locking casters are accompanied by 2 rubber wheels with hubcaps which lend an impressive finishing touch.

Warranty

It’s a home run when any company commits to their product with a warranty that benefits their consumer. Weber does so with a :

� lifetime warranty on all Aluminum casings
� 25 years on the porcelain hood,
� Stainless Steel Burners 10 years
� Thermoset shelves 10 years
� Cooking grates 5 years
� Igniter 3 years
� Any remaining parts 5 years

Rather impressive? Their web presence http://www.weber.com/bbq/ is notable as well and includes parts lists and warranty information as well as product support, generous documentation including maintenance and manuals.

Conclusion

When it’s all said and done, The Weber is a great grill to have in the backyard. Saving time , money (long-term) and enjoying great results immediately are a recipe for great consumer appeal. Further that effort with bulletproof construction and attention to detail and you have outclassed 90% of many consumer offerings. Now, sweeten that even further by making assembly as easy as Weber has on it’s Silver B Grill, and this makes this grill a must have!

One final note: If you opt to purchase this grill, spend the additional $50.00 on the cover! This cover is amazing in it’s construction as well with Velcro tighten-downs and vents to avoid ballooning in high winds. It is thick and durable…Hey…it’s a Weber!