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 steakthat 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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Weber Summit S-470. Whether a propane model or natural gas, if you're not REALLY into serious grilling, this unit may be a bit over your head. If you *are*, you'll not find a better grill on Planet Earth! This bad-boy has it all: Four MEGA-BTU "main" burners, a center sear-station burner, a smoker box burner and a dedicated IR rotisserie burner. Oh yeah, and a ultra-high power side burner, too.
Your charcoal-grilling buddies tease you because you can't get that nasty charcoal lighter (carcinogen!) "taste" with a gas grill? Ha! You can now and go 'em one better! Use the smoker box and any number of REAL wood chips and you get the taste and odor of apple, alderwood, hickory, mesquite, oak or cherry w/o the CHT chemical dangers!
It's simply incredible! Yeah, it ain't a "hardware-store el-cheapo" either so spend the cash and you're getting a GENUINE Weber-built grill to last no joke a life-time. Check out everyone else's warranty and you'll jump on the Weber wagon if you haven't already.
Weber **IS** quality grilling. Period. You can spend more, you can buy bigger but ya can't buy better.
Feeding more people than this rather large grill can handle with EASE? The Summit S-670 is the King-Kong big-brother of the S-470. If you can't cook on either of these two grills, then just give up, sport and run on down to Burger King!
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Old propane unit died and it was time to move up to a much larger cook surface with much more heat and the rotisserie unit. WOW. Made a 14 lb smoked rotisserie turkey one weekend and a Lamb leg the next, as well as steaks, shish kabobs and burgers during the week. Outstanding control of heat! The side burner is maybe too hot, but i think it has to be so the flame won't blow out in the wind. I had to keep the baked bean pot partway off the burner to control the high heat. Also had to adjust my shish kabob technique and use a wooden handled utensil to keep the lid partway open for kabob skewers to be out of direct heat...not a big deal...I could have put handles in as well and used a mitt. Only concern has been with rain... read a report on internet about rain getting into grill/grease catcher and causing a huge mess .. so I'm been keeping cover on once cooled. I would buy this unit again in the future!
Honest reviews on Weber 2840001 Summit S-470 Grill, Natural Gas, Stainless Steel
Just got my new S 470 weber and everything worked fine for the first two weeks,,, then it became almost impossible to start the grill. On the phone with Weber Tech several times and after several tank disconnects, reconnects, burner valve clearings, etc. it would finally light,,, then had the same problem today with the same results. Tech wants to blame it on not allowing the tank value to be open for several minutes before trying to light as the problem but after owning Webers, Charbroils, etc over the past 30yrs, this wait time, purging of the valves, etc seems like a lot of hassle for a $1700+ grill. I'm still suspect of the "excess flow safety device" that is not working correctly ( or working too much). This thing has just been rather irritating when trying to grill for guest while they watch me struggle to even light the thing after paying this much money for it.. I must say that Weber tech support always answers the phone quickly.
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On November 2, 2009 I purchased the Summit S-650 LP. It was beautiful. It had a Rotisserie Burner, Rotisserie motor, side burner, smoker, and etc. It was the top of the line. I was thrilled. Approximately 1.5 years later the grill started to fail, rust, and turn to a complete piece of trash. It is always under a roof. It is always covered with a Weber Grill Cover. First thing to fail was the Rotisserie Burner. Then all the main burners were replaced. The parts that hold the main burners secure to the grill front and back had to be replaced because they had totally rusted through. The main manifold had to be replaced due to improper operation. The top stainless steel cover has warped in the front center causing black soot to cover the face of the grill. The Rotisserie Thermocouple has been replaced due to failure. The Rotisserie ignition wire has been replaced. The handle lights melted off the handle. This all happened is just 3.5 years.
Now the Rotisserie Burner is failing again. The parts that support the front and rear of the main burners have rusted out again. The main manifold needs to be replaced again. The main burner igniters don't work. The area behind the control knob cover has almost completely rusted out. The front of the cook box has totally rusted through.
The VP of Consumer Services at Weber says this was all caused by the chemicals from my swimming pool which is 18' away. Line in warranty he quoted is:
Deterioration or damage due to severe weather conditions such as hail, hurricanes, earthquakes or tornadoes, discoloration due to exposure to chemicals either directly or in the atmosphere, is not covered by this Limited Warranty.
This warranty line clearly states discoloration due to chemical exposure not damage due to chemical exposure.
The same VP also told me I needed to leave my grill uncovered and out in the rain so all those chemicals would wash off with the rain. He said by covering it and keeping it under a roof, I was making the situation worse.
BTW I din't tell them I had a pool. They must have looked at property records to find out.
Weber-Stephen Grills are no longer the great product we all grew up with.
