Weber 3780001 Genesis S-320 Propane Gas Grill Review
Product features
- Takes 637 square inches of cooling space and is equipped with 3-burner outdoor propane grill rated at 42000 BTUs.
- The total space is divided into 507 square inches of main cooking area and 130 square inches of warming rack.
- The cooking grates are hardened by porcelain and the stainless steel cart is totally covered.
- The side-burners have the input capacity of 12000 BTUs
- There are heavy duty casters, 2 in front, 2 behind
Product details
The Weber Genesis Grill is an extra special appliance for gourmet and multiple courses preparation. The look is dignified and musters typical flavor. The utensils may be kept under wraps in cart encasement. The easy to wash and rusting-resistant cart has sharp handles and is covered in stainless steel. The cooking is steady due to special factors: accent-colored steel frame and a thermometer to gauge the cooking stages. Weber has ensured that it lasts long by handing it cast aluminum end caps.
The whole apparatus kicks off easily, what with three seamless stainless steel burners and an electronic ignition system rated at 42,000 Btu's. The fire retardant 7 millimeter wide cooking rods of stainless steel are there with the tilted Flavorizer bars for great cooking. The tilt ensures that fire doesn’t flare out of fat and grease. Instead, the juices trickle on the food to give special taste. It is quite spacious to cope with the various eating demands of different people at a time. The 637 square inches of total space classified into 507 square inches of main cooking area and 130 square inches of warming rack dishes out delicious chicken, ham or turkey as you wish. There is also a 12000 Btu side burner for just that, side cooking, and you get a splendid choice over the boring common stove.
There are 2 front and back high powered casters along with six tool holders, an enclosed tank storage area, a precision fuel gauge and two stainless steel work surfaces. There is also the useful cookbook for those who have little culinary ideas. The Weber Genesis Grill is truly a grill for all occasions.
Find Deals on eBay
 Weber Genesis E EP S 320 Propane Gas Grill Manifold 08 US $74.99 |
 Weber Genesis E EP S 320 Propane Gas Grill Manifold 07 US $74.99 |
 Weber Genesis E EP S 320 Natural Gas Grill Manifold 08 US $74.99 |
Find Deals on Amazon
 Weber 3780001 Genesis S-320 Propane Gas Grill, Stainless Steel List Price: $1,099.00 Sale Price: Too low to display |
 Weber 3880001 Genesis S-320 Natural Gas Grill, Stainless Steel List Price: $1,119.00 Sale Price: Too low to display |
3 reviews
Bill on March 4, 2009 at 9:05 pm
If there’s one thing I like just as much as pizza, it’s a BBQ. I love to grill, and I finally decided to go and get a nice grill. The Weber S320 definitely qualifies as “nice grill”. Compared to the cheapo Char-Broil grill I had before, the difference is night and day.
The S320 is very sturdy, with a welded box frame and liberal usage of screws. The assembly instructions make it easy to put together – you only need a couple basic hand tools. The grills themselves are nice and thick, so they retain heat which assists in searing. A lot of grills nowadays seem to opt for grills made from thin gauge metal. You don’t want thin grills, you want THICK metal grills that get hot and stay hot while you are cooking.
Cooking performance is excellent. Yeah, the BTU output rating is lower than some other grills in the $800 price range, but guess what, the grill heats evenly across the entire grilling surface whereas most grills have hot spots and cool spots. Heat it up to about 400 degrees before you start cooking, takes about 3-5 minutes, and you’ll be good to go.
The one thing I was skeptical about was the lack of lava rocks. Lava rocks hands down make the most smoke, and smoke is what gives your food that distinct BBQ taste. The S320 has metal bars above the burners that burn off drippings to make smoke. They work well if you let them get red-hot first, which happens if you preheat the grill like you are supposed to before cooking.
The only problem I had with this grill is shipping. It was delivered by “Eagle”, and the grill itself was damaged on arrival. Now you have a 200 pound package sitting in your driveway or wherever they “dropped” it (dropped literally, in my case), returning it is something you don’t wanna do unless absolutely necessary. The damage to my grill was in the frame being bent, along with quite a bit of scratching on the side of the hood. I was able to fix the bent frame with a little brute force, but my hood is scarred for life.
None of that affected the performance of the grill, so I can’t complain too much…but I hope that Amazon takes a closer look at who they choose as their shipping partners. I’m knocking off 1 star because of that – not for the grill, but Amazon’s questionable choice in shipping providers. I am disappointed that my brand new grill that I paid full price for is essentially a “scratch and dent”. We’ll see if Amazon makes it up to me or not.
C Lipton on March 31, 2009 at 9:47 pm
The reason I bought this bbq was 1) it was rated the best bbq between $500 and $1000 by most all rating bureau’s, 2) it uses high quality 302 s/s, 3) has s/s cooking racks which to me are easier to clean, 4) its a very pretty bbq, and 5) it’s a Weber, made in the US. The E-320, with colored panels, in my opinon, isn’t as nice looking as the s/s unit.
I bought this bbq from Amazon about 10 days ago. It was shipped for free via Eagle Transportation. I think Amazon realized large items shipped UPS were arriving damaged. At least the few large items I previously ordered and shipped UPS arrived that way. The shipping estimate was 10-14 days with the free option. Four days after I saw that the item was shipped I received a call from Eagle’s Los Angeles depot asking me when I wanted it delivered. I couldn’t believe that ! I told them the next day. They gave me a time frame, 10-1, asking if that was agreeable. At 11 Eagle arrived, off loaded my bbq in one huge box and asked where I wanted it. The box was completely intact and undamaged. I’ve never encountered that kind of service from any carrier. Cudos to Amazon on choosing this shipper.
Now, the bbq. Weber’s Genesis S-320 LP. I’m a very handy guy with a garage full of tools. I unpacked all the parts and had them spread out on a blanket so I wouldn’t scratch them on the cement floor. Everyone’s greatest dread is the assembly instructions usually done in a foreign country and poorly translated in to English. But, since Weber is made in the USA, I found the step by step numbered instructions very easy to follow. All the little screws, washers, and bolts were nicely packaged and oh my goodness… they were all there. There were no shortages of any parts. One or two extras in a package would have been nice since I usually drop one of something and lose it somewhere under a bench in the garage. Anyway, the bbq went together effortlessly. I had my propane tank filled and used the weight hanger inside the stand which showed the tank was full. Another nice touch.
Now for the good part; using it. I did that tonight for the first time on Mother’s Day. I thought that was appropriate. Anyway, I made cheesburgers – one of my most favorite bbq foods. I read the instructions on how Weber thought hamburgers should be cooked; medium heat with the lid down. They recommend always keeping hte lid down to cook and only opening it to turn the food or check to see if it’s done. I also used the side burner just because… it’s there. I’ve never had a bbq with a side burner and found it handy but a space hog. The bbq did what it is intended to do very well. It cooked my burgers in record time with the lid down. We also cooked corn on the cob wrapped in tin foil in the grill at the same time. Everything turned out great.
Now, my trivial gripes. The right side table has all the controls. That only leaves a very small amount of space between the control knobs and the bbq as a useable work area. One should be careful placing items in that area because being so close to the bbq it does tend to get a bit warm. I don’t know why Weber couldn’t put the controls on the front of the bbq leaving two nice sized working platforms. I found that a bit irritating especially when I used the left side burner. I had no place to set down plates, platters, etc. I had to pull up another small table. I don’t know how often I’ll actually use the side burner. If I don’t use it ofen which I probably won’t then it’s really not an issue.
Did I say gripes? Well that’s all I can think of. Overall, I’m very happy with the Weber Genesis S-320. I like it, alot. Would I buy it again if I only wanted to spend around $750?? You bet ! I can see why it’s rated highly in all the reviews. And, you get Webers great guarantee and customer service. Go for it…you won’t be disappointed.
John Platon on April 12, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I got rid of my 10 year old Weber gas grill last summer and I’m sorry I did. I had a large red Weber, not sure of the model number, that served me well for 10 years. There never seemed to be enough room on the grill however so when I saw the new S-650 I just had to get it. Big enough to cook for a crowd, smoker box, it seemed like a dream grill! Except for the price!
One of my favorite things is slow cooking on the grill but this has turned out to be a disaster on this grill. The smoker works flawlessly but the temperature is just not right inside the grill. Slow grill-roasting requires indirect heat at a “slow” temperature of 250 to 275. When this grill is set to that temperature the food just does not cook. My old, smaller Weber did a great job at slow cooking ribs, briskets, chicken, pork shoulders, whatever, But I just couldn’t seem to get them to cook correctly on this grill.
I suspected the temperatures were not what the thermometer on the hood said they are. So I bought an oven thermometer and tested the temperatures under the hood. I tested it by slow cooking and smoking two racks of spare ribs. I had the smoker burner on low and the two main burners next to it on medium (the closest one) and low. When the grill hood thermometer read 275 the temperature on the far left side of the burner surface was only 150 degrees! And the temp just to the right of the ribs rightmost side was 175 (to be expected as closer to the lit burners). A 125 degree difference between the grill hood thermometer and the surface…totally unreliable in my estimation.
The only way to get the 275 over on the left surface was to get the grill hood thermometer up to around 375. The distance between that thermometer and the left surface is only about 12 to 18 inches in an enclosed space. The only thing I can figure is that the heat is rising up inside the hood but not staying down lower. Perhaps the hood is just too big or the thermometer needs to be lower. Didn’t these guys test this before it went into production???
After all the money I spent on this thing, I wish I had my old grill back (which I gave away, still in decent shape!). I can’t control the time or the cooking like in my old grill. Last year many outdoor cooking days were ruined by the food not being cooked or just undercooked and tough.
I did notice that Consumer Reports in their latest issue only rated this grill average in slow cooking ability. They are correct. I gave this grill a 3 rating because it does a really good job in the normal tasks of grilling steaks and hamburgers, etc.
One final thing. I wrote to Weber about this issue and got a really strange response from them about how this is a bigger grill than my older one and I have to get used to cooking on it, etc. What a stupid response! And even worse, the Weber person suggested that maybe I need to use more wood in the smoker box…what that has to do with a faulty thermometer and uneven temperatures I’ll never know.