Rehabbed my gas grill

[human]

My house came with a Broilmaster gas grill, permanently mounted on the deck and plumbed into the natural gas service. It wasn't new when I moved in here nine years ago, and I had previously fashioned a new handle for the lid from a fence picket. More recently, it had become downright decrepit. The cast iron cooking grates were rusting away in layers, the burner was rusted away to the point that huge flames came up on parts of the grill, and the ceramic briquettes were disintegrating into sand. Were it a 'portable' model with an LP cylinder, I would likely have just dragged it to curb and bought a new one, but the permanent installation and my general aversion to today's disposable lifestyle led me down another path. I ended up gutting it and putting all new 'innards' into it.

When I pulled the old burner out, I could see why it wasn't working well. Instead of coming out as a single unit, it came out in three pieces! It's a wonder it still worked. The new burner just slid into place and fired right up. The whole operation took less than 30 minutes, including using my Dayton 3VE18A shop vac (obligatory vacuum cleaner reference) to clean out a prodigious amount of debris—ash, briquette fragments, rust, etc.

I had planned to source the briquettes locally, but to my surprise, none of the usual places I've bought grill parts from in the past—Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart—stocked them, or even lava rocks. Apparently, the newer grills don't use those, and the older ones that did are apparently dwindling in number. So, I went back to Amazon, from which I had ordered the burner and cooking grates, and ordered a set from there. They'll be arriving sometime today, and in the meantime, I have reinstalled what's left of the old briquettes so I can grill a burger for lunch.

In the past, I have rehabbed gas grills with generic, universal fit parts, which were not terribly expensive, but retailers seem to have stopped carrying those as well, giving shelf space over to miscellaneous grill gadgets and flavored hardwood chips. Instead, I had to go with more expensive OEM parts, spending in the process almost what a new, entry level gas grill would have cost. But that's okay; the old Broilmaster is now good for several more years. While it's still an older grill on the outside, it's essentially brand new on the inside.

 

[human]

Success tates sweet...

...or savory, in this case.

I grilled a burger for lunch yesterday to try out my newly refurbished grill, and the difference from before is night and day. Not only is the heat more even across the cooking surface, but it seems to heat up much more quickly. And no rust fragments from the cooking grates adhering to the meat was a definite plus as well. The grill really does cook like a new one, and the couple hundred bucks I spent on parts was a tiny fraction of what a new Broilmaster grill would have cost. And as with any such project, doing it myself was priceless.

 

[kirbyklekter]

BroilMaster

Wow that's great! Now you can keep an eye on whatever you're slow roasting or doing a smoked ham/roast or a rack of ribs while your out there working on one of the Kirby's! Nice that you could still get OEM parts,you're probably better off.

I've got a black BroilMaster on wheels,propane,with a glass front on the hood. It isn't stainless like most new ones but has all I need including wood slats on either side of the fire box and places to put cooking utensils and the like. A neighbor put this out for "curbside pickup" when they moved complete with a tank of propane!

You've inspired me to do a tune-up on mine! Yours being built in, is it a pit style or a hooded type model?

 

[human]

Mine's a free-standing model with a stainless steel base and cast shell, no glass on the lid, and a folding shelf on the front. It's not much to look at but it works great.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Lava Rock Grilling

Do you get fewer flare ups (when the burner is working properly) with a gas grill with lava rocks?
Does this type of grill have flare ups at all?

When we had our gas grill (newer type without the rocks) we found it flared up more than when cooking on a charcoal grill.

The flare ups to some extent add the flame grilled taste but I don’t like to have excessive ones.

 

[human]

Flare-ups were a constant thing with the old, rusted-out burner, and there were spots where flames would always be up above the level of the briquettes. I had to avoid putting anything over those. It's much better controlled now. I think the briquettes tend to absorb dripped grease a little better than the lava rocks, which tend to become caked in greasy residue fairly quickly.