BBQs, Part II

We continued the BBQ search online at sears.com and at amazon.com.  Not quite sure what's going on with Amazon; the prices seemed much higher there than in stores.  I ultimately gave up on Sears.com because of the time it would take to get the grill delivered, and also because it was a bit challenging to use their interface to find the right grill.  

Next stop was ACE Hardware over on Grand Avenue in Oakland (4001 Grand Ave
Piedmont, CA 94610-1001, (510) 652-9143 -- they don't have an individual store website on ace.com).

Bingo!  This was the place.  They had every mid-size Weber gas grill.  And I was finally able to compare them side-by-side!  The Weber website ought to allow you to do that, but it doesn't.  Even the order in which the various features of each grill are listed for each grill in a different order, making it tough to do a comparison.

So here they are!

First up - the Weber Genesis EP-330.   Weber advertises these with cast iron or stainless steel grills; Ace only had the stainless steel for most of its models.  The stainless steel seems to be the most popular (and are also more expensive).  My preference would've been cast iron, but I figure I can order a cast iron replacement if it really seems to make a difference. 

The 330 has a special searing burner in between the left and middle burners in the grill.  It also has a burner off to the right side of the grill, which is great for boiling water, keeping marinade warm, or whatever else you might need.

 Next is the Weber Genesis EP-320.  The only meaningful difference between the 320 and the 330 is the extra searing burner in the 330, which the 320 does not have.  The 330 and 320 both have the extra burner on the right side.

 Next is the Weber Genesis EP-310.  As the next model down from the 320, this one lacks the burner off to the right side.  

 The next Weber model down the list on display at Ace is the Weber Spirit E-210.  This has two burners.  They had a cast iron grill surface for this one.

One note about the prices that you can see in the pictures here.  The top price was for the grill with liquid propane ("LP").  The propane tanks run an additional $49 or so.  The lower price was for a natural gas grill.  We don't have a natural gas line hookup in the backyard, and I wasn't about to build one out, so we went with an LP grill.