**** UPDATE 08/2012 - READ THIS ****
The original review was written a while ago and I still have this grill, but it was not until recently that I have discovered a serious flaw with this grill's design. The grill does not use lava rocks to catch dripping grease and oils. Instead, it has a series of upside-down V shaped metal bars that are supposed to allow the drips to burn off.
These work most of the time, but if you are grilling something greasy or covered in oil, they are inadequate and result in the grill flaring up big time. I'm not talking just a puff of flame...the entire grill from the drip tray to the food itself BURNS and it's scary if your grill happens to be on a wooden deck. The propane tank is right below the drip tray too and it gets pretty hot under there.
I am surprised that Weber has not had any incidents of this grill (or any of their grills that use those V-bars) causing a fire.
My theory as to why this happens is that the V-bars do not absorb grease as porous lava rocks do, which means that if you grill something high in fat, like a rib-eye, the drips catch on fire rather than burning off as smoke. The flames reach down into the drip tray which is basically a tub of grease. Not good at all.
As long as you are not grilling exceptionally greasy or fatty foods you should not encounter this problem. DO NOT put bacon on there. Grilled bacon is delicious, but on this grill you will end up with a massive fireball inferno.
Downgrading from 4 to 3 stars since I can't say I don't like the grill, but it's definitely not one I'd buy again.
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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.
