Weber 2840001 Summit S-470 Grill, Natural Gas, Stainless Steel
Price: $1,929.00
Product Feature
- The Weber Summit is great for you outdoor grilling needs
- Capacity is 468-square-inch primary cooking area and 112-square-inch warming rack for 580 square-inch total cooking area
- Very easy 10-minute assembly with no more than 8 fasteners and a single tool (included)
- Includes 2 heavy-duty front locking casters and 2 heavy-duty back swivel casters; 48,000 BTU per hour input
- Comes with 4 stainless steel burners
Product Description
The Summit S-470 gas grill features an enclosed cart with stainless steel doors and chrome plated cast aluminum handles. All grills have an accent-colored painted steel frame and have a stainless steel shroud with polished handle and trim, a center-mounted thermometer and accent colored painted, cast aluminum end caps. The cooking system, rated at 48,800 BTUs, includes 4 stainless steel burners and a Snap-Jet individual burner ignition system. New innovative lighted control knobs. The cooking grates are 9.5mm diameter stainless steel rods. The grill also features stainless steel Flavorizer bars. The primary cooking area measures 468 sq. inches; the warming rack are measures 112 sq. inches, giving a total cooking area of 580 sq. inches. The Summit S-470 gas grill also has a 12,000 BTU-per-hour input flash-mount side burner, 8,000 BTU-per-hour smoker burner and stainless steel smoker box, a 10,600 BTU-per-hour infrared rear-mounted rotisserie burner, and a 10,600 BTU-per-hour dedicated sear burner. Other features include a spit fork rotisserie attachment with heavy-duty motor, 2 stainless steel work surfaces, 1 Grill Out handle light, 6 tool holders, enclosed tank storage and precision fuel gauge, 2 heavy-duty front locking casters and 2 heavy-duty back swivel casters. Tank is not included with LP grills and all natural gas grills and all natural gass grills include a 10-ft flexible hose. Weber cookbook included. Limited warranty.Weber 2840001 Summit S-470 Grill, Natural Gas, Stainless Steel Review
I've owned a Weber Summit S-470, plumbed for natural gas, for about 2 months - my first gas grill. Grilling is easier and more delicious than I ever imagined. I did a lot of research before I bought it, so here is what you need to know if you're new to gas grills, new to Weber, or new to the Summit line:1) Weber sells most of the gas grills sold in America. Their customer service is legendary. Go hit up their website and look at their warranty info. 25 years, no questions asked replacements on some parts, like the grill hood; 2 years replacement even on high wear items like the burners. There are people grilling away happily on 30 year old Weber gas grills without any problems; so definitely take into account that the warranty and customer service is part of what you're paying for.
2) The S-470 is mostly stainless steel. There is stainless and stainless; to keep their pricepoint, in 2008 Weber switched from grade 304 stainless to grade 420. People in demanding environments (humidity, etc) find that the 420 doesn't hold up quite as well to the elements. You can buy a lower-end, yet feature-identical grill for a similar price in the 'enameled' (E-XXX) series; but when they rust out, you'll need to replace the panel. I think my grill looks great and has held up great so far; time will tell.
3) The grill grates are thick 9.5 mm stainless steel rods. They can be scoured with a brass bristle brush with no fear of damage. The thicker the grate, the more heat transfer into your steak- that is how you get a good sear. These are as thick as they come.
4) The S-470 has a LOT of burner for the cooking area. If you fire up all 4 main burners, the sear burner, the IR burner and the smoker burner, you're putting nearly 70,000 BTU under the hood. The grill will go over 800 degrees on a hot day. That's the other way you get a good sear.
5) The non-IR Weber sear station is just an extra 10,600 BTU burner, sandwiched in between main burners number 2 and 3. It heats up that small middle part of the grill, way hotter than it otherwise would have gotten. Then, when you put your steak down, you get a good sear. There are infrared (IR) sear stations out there in other brands, but they take up a lot of room on the grill grates - space you can't use when you're not searing. (For IR only grills, you should know about TEC - they have a neat patent, no one else's IR works the way theirs does - but now we're talking very expensive equipment that only does one thing, sear with IR, and costs even more than the Summit.) The Weber sear station is great for me - you can even sear a whole salmon fillet and it won't stick or fall apart, which I really didn't believe until I tried it.
6) The IR roto burner is something I would not have known to ask for, but now I don't know how I lived without it. It makes the juiciest chicken, with the most delicious skin, that you can ever possibly imagine. In my house it is agreed that the "roto bird" is the best feature of this grill, hands down. A 5 lb bird spins to done in 45-60 minutes.
7) The smoker box is sort of difficult to get good results with and the smoke dirties up the grill. If you want to smoke food low and slow, and you're thinking this grill is going to be just as good as a dedicated smoker unit, you'll be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you want your meats to have just a hint of wood smoke flavor, so they taste like they came off a high-temperature charcoal grill, you can make that happen.
8) Weber makes 3 lower end grill models: the Genesis, the Spirit, and the Ducane Affinity series (branded under the Ducane name, obviously). A sear unit and a non-IR rotisserie unit are planned for the Genesis EP-330 series in 2011, so you are getting close to the S-470 feature set. The only diff between the Spirit and the Ducane (besides price) is that the Ducane is wholly fabbed in China, whereas some assembly of the Spirit is done in the USA.
9) If you're completely new to gas grilling, you will need to first decide on propane versus natural gas. This review is for the natural gas model. You need a gas 'stub' out of your house to use natural gas, and if you don't know what I mean, you probably also need pro installation to avoid blowing yourself up. Propane is easier to startup but far costlier over time, and you need to always keep an extra propane bottle around and constantly schlep your empties back to Wal-Mart. An NG grill will actually save you a little money if you use A/C, as you won't be heating the kitchen (and then cooling it again) for your cooks. Won't be getting steak grease on the inside of your kitchen windows either.
10) Kebabs, squabs, game hens, whole chickens, lamb, suckling pig, pork butt, pork loin, and any kind of beef or sausage - burgers, dogs, brats, Polish, whatever - it's all good on the grill. Did I mention fresh corn on the cob?! For your vegan friends: skewers of eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, onions, squash, zucc, and whatever else is garden-fresh will soon become smash hits. Seriously. My buddy actually looked happy to be vegetarian when I served him his plate; he's trying to lose weight, poor soul. A lot of people grill flatbread pizza too; I can't eat wheat so I haven't gone there.
11) Lotta books about grilling out there. Bobby Flay, who is grill crazy, has written like a dozen and I have a few; they're full of good ideas. You won't go wrong at any of his restaurants either. I ran into the guy eating at B+B in Vegas not long ago and sent him a nice bottle of wine to thank him. He's great.
12) Gotta clean your grill. Weber makes a 3 or 4 piece utensil kit as do many others. You need a brass brush, long tongs, and a big spatula. I never use the two-tined grill fork. A wide putty knife also helps for scraping crud out of the drip pan; potholders, heat resistant mitts, and an apron are also useful.
In case it wasn't obvious, this grill is one of the best things ever to happen to me in my eating life. I can't recommend it highly enough. I have no regrets. Whatever you do after reading this review, make sure you go get yourself a gas grill. If you can't afford the new one you want, it's easy to refurb an old Craigslist grill with a little help from Weber customer service - the warranty comes with the grill. So pretty much you gotta get one!
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