I have reached a turning point that I have seen coming for quite some time, and now I have an important decision to make. It is spring time now, the weather outside is fantastic, and of course this means more outside food grilling.

Technically, the weather doesn't mean shit to me because I grill year round. I grill an average of 3 or 4 times a week. The downside of this is that my grill gets abused like a red headed step child. The weather comes into play because now it is nice enough outside to clean up the grill, and figure out how to proceed.

I bought the grill in 2003 when I moved into my new house, so the grill is 5 years old in real world time. I am not sure how often the average person prepares their food outside on a grill, so lets assume it is twice a month. This would be once every other weekend, which seems reasonable. I'll go on the low side for my frequency and say 3 times a week. So the average griller is grilling about 26 times a year, and I am averaging 156 times a year, so about 6 times as much as the average Joe. So the way I see it, in grill years, my grill is about 30 years old.
Here are some pictures of the grill's eroding parts.

You can clearly see the erosion that has taken place over the years.
So this first one isn't too bad, a little elbow grease could fix that right up. Let's slide the cooking grate over a little and see what is below it. The picture isn't a closeup or you would also see some of the cooking grate enamel flaking off the griddle side and the grate.


Zoinks! My "flame tamer" drop vaporizers are shot. There are three of these in the grill, replacements are 15$ each! All 3 of them are in this kind of shape.


Here is my sad excuse for a burner! The brass replacement burners are about 50 bucks each! I am not 100% sure that brass will last any longer then these enamel coated cast irons ones, due to poor design of the system, so long as stuff drips onto the burners directly, they will erode.

So seemingly I will have to have new burners, and a new burner support bracket, which holds the burners in place at the back, mine is virtually gone. You can sort of see the remains of it in picture 2. Also, as you can see, I will need new gas collectors/electrodes which are used for ignition. There is supposed to be a small metal "box" at the end of the igniter to collect a small amount of gas to light the burner itself. As you can see, mine are long gone. New vaporizers. A new bottom pan, and a drip collection pan. I pushed on the bottom pan of the grill, and it began to fold in half. I didn't think I would be able to use the grill at all without it, so I left it in tact. The "bucket" thing that holds the drippings after they run off the bottom pan has been gone for 2 years, due to rusting, disintegrating, and blowing away with the wind. it was just sort of... gone one day.

In the past I have had to buy new burners for my grill, but that's about it. But now, I have other parts that would also need to be purchased to keep the grill in working order. Upon researching said parts, I noticed that they no longer make several parts that I need, meaning I have to look elsewhere for the parts. This drives the cost up. It appears that to buy all the parts I need to get my grill up to par would be in the neighborhood of 350+ dollars. This also does not guarantee that I can fix the broken parts. A cursory check of the bolts and screws necessary to replace some of these parts revealed years of wear and tear, an I am not sure that I would be able to get said nuts and bolts out, and if I was able to, the holes left behind may prevent the new parts from installing correctly. So, the question becomes do I buy the parts, or do I buy an entirely new grill.

The grill is a Char-Broil Commercial Series. It cost 500 dollars. It had a "99 year warranty". The first time I called to ask about burners and other parts, I am not exactly sure what happened because it has been so long, but I know that I paid for the parts, so I guess they were not covered by the warranty, which means they certainly won't be now either.

If I buy a new grill, I will switch brands and go with a Weber, which seems to be the most popular brand, and they have a fantastic reputation for being one of the best grills available. Also, from what I gather, their warranty and customer service are top notch. The Weber Genesis E-320 costs 700 dollars. From time to time, they are on sale at Newegg of all places, for around 600. Is it worth spending up to another 250-350 dollars over what my parts would cost to have a whole new grill? I am not sure.

If I buy 350 dollars worth of parts, and my current grill does not perform any better or if I cannot get the new parts installed, then certainly not, but I can never know until I try. Additionally, there are other parts of my grill that are eroding, and would have to be replaced at some point, which would drive repair costs up even more. Another factor I am considering is the fact that Weber grills share a lot of universal parts, which can be easily obtained from local home improvement stores, and Char-Broil grills seem to not.

Probably the most looming part of this adventure is my project of eliminating debt. Buying a 700 dollar grill does not help me achieve that goal. I weighed the advantages and disadvantages of buying a really crappy grill for 100 dollars and then just replacing it every year or two. I think this is a bad plan. I think it would be pretty hard to find a gas grill for 100 bucks, not to mention the pain in the ass of having to procure one every 12 months. So far, my 500 dollar grill has lasted 5 years, so it has come out the same so far. If I can get 7 years out of a 700 dollar grill, I guess it would be a wash as well.

I guess overall I think of it like this. If you have to spend 70% of the purchase price to repair something, maybe it would be best to just get a new one. Also, I firmly believe that if you use something more than 150 times a year for 5 years straight, and don't see that habit changing any time soon, then it is OK to replace whatever it is immediately, because you apparently cannot get by without it. You would likely replace a washer or dryer or microwave or some other appliance under those conditions, and I count the grill as an appliance because it gets used 3 times as much as the washing machine!

I really do not want to have to buy a new grill, but it almost seems inevitable. After weighing out the advantages and disadvantages, I think its best if I get a new grill and be done with it. I can stick it into the same category as when I had to have my AC unit repaired. It sucked because it was so expensive, but I really need it, so I can justify buying it, then pay the money back into savings or credit card or whatever over a long period of time in small increments.

FUCK!