Customer Reviews

Weber 2004 Model 5290001 Summit Gold D Propane Gas Grill

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tired of buying a new grill every 3-4 years? The last grill we purchased 4 years ago was a Sunshine grill - which was supposed to be just as good if not better than a Weber. While we really did enjoy the griddle aspect of that, it was barely usable after the first summer because the burners kept getting rust in the holes. After last summer (3rd year) the whole grill, burners, grates, and all was completely rusted out.

I've never had a Weber and even though this is a lot of money to spend on a grill, this grill has surpassed my expectations for quality. But it's not nearly as quick and easy to put together as the Weber description would lead you to believe. They say "a total of just 10 fasteners connect the cooking module to the frame assembly", but that overlooks the task of assembling the frame and assembling the cooking module. Total assembly took a little over an hour, but still not bad considering the options and size of this monster.

The assembly instructions are in the form of pictures without any written instructions. While mostly well-drawn, I did have some trouble installing the doors on the cart. There is a long rod that has to push through plastic guides in the upper and lower part of the frame. The upper guides had to have the longer part of the rod through them, but the holes were plugged about 1/4" into the guide. The bottom guides - which had a very short piece of rod to place in them, did not have this obstruction. I think they had the guides switched around in the wrong place-but I couldn't seem to get them out without fear of breaking them. I finally pushed the rod up on the top guides hard enough to break through the plastic obstruction. Didn't seem to cause any damage and the doors swing fine. Also wish doors had magnetic hasp on top and bottom, rather than just on bottom.

The grill was packed very well. Comes in one big box strapped onto a pallet. Numerous smaller boxes inside. All stainless steel has thick plastic wrap coating to protect from scratches.

The little narrow rack that swings and lifts as the hood is raised has a strange "U" design that makes it difficult to remove anything placed up there by anything other than tongs. Would have been better if the surface was flat.

The igniter has a battery in it. Should last much longer than the short-lived versions installed on other grills.

Have cooked on this grill since April and have had absolutely no maintenance problems. It does a great job on chicken! No flare-ups cooking leg quarters on low for 45 minutes. I've never cooked chicken on a grill that didn't blacken the skin completely - but chicken on this looks almost like it was on a rotissorie even though we used the grill burners. The only flare-up problem I had was with some fresh bratwurst.

This grill's large surface area cooks very evenly in all areas. No hot or cold spots. There also seems to be much more temperature difference between the high, medium, and low settings than other grills.

Be careful turning the burners all on high to "burn off" the grill, this baby gets hot! I warped the vinyl siding on our house and slightly discolored the stainless hood by leaving it turned on high for 15 minutes with the lid down - temp guage maxed out past 800 degrees. 5 minutes on high will burn off the grill plenty well.

You will be very happy with this purchase!

Just received grill this week. Assembly took about 1 1/2 hours. Quality of fit and finish and packaging was outstanding. Be careful of the side burner igniter wire taped to the side. We accidentally triggered the igniter when lifting the grill and shocked my arm. Assembly only had one hitch, a pin to hold the lid needed its hole reamed out with a drill, other than that flawless. Burners fired right up and within minutes grill was registering 550 F. Cooked flawless meal. Extra room is great, never felt like a crowded surface. Does anybody really need this fancy of a grill? Not many, but it is a joy to use and after using it a lesser grill would be too much compromise. Also, felt good about Weber brand, widely available parts, service if ever needed.

I grill at least twice a week. And, I will tell you that you honestly can't go wrong with Weber. This company has figured out how to design grills that are both easy to use and yield great food. And, its customer service is superb.

I used to have a Weber Genesis. I loved that grill, but it was too small. It was getting pretty old, and I replaced it with a large, store-brand grill from CostCo. This grill was all stainless with lots of drawers. It was pretty, and for a large stainless grill, the price was great. The only problem was that if I tried to grill anything but carrots, the grill flared constantly. Chicken with the skin on or rib-eye steaks were, essentially, impossible to cook unless your preferred degree of doneness is charred. And, after a couple of months with some grease on the internals, I had to manually light the grill.

Even though the CostCo grill was less than a year old, I gave up and bought the Weber Summit D. What a great grill. No flare ups. Lights every time. Knobs are marked so that you can reproduce heat settings and time your cooking. Includes a compartment for wood chips that holds a lot of chips and has its own burner so that you can control the heat producing the smoke and make the chips last. And, it comes with a cookbook that gives fairly explicit instructions for virtually anything you might want to grill and includes some great recipies. If that isn't enough, two more cookbooks from Weber can be bought on Amazon.com. "The Art of the Grill" is great.

I haven't tried the rotisserie yet, but plan to this weekend. I expect that the results will be excellent.

Could the cabinet for this grill have more features considering the grill's cost? Yes. The cabinet just has two doors that open to reveal a large space. I would like it better if the cabinet included drawers. And, it is large enough that it could include several.

As to Weber's customer service. It has a Web site that includes recipies and contact information for customer support.

Our grill was already put together when we bought it. After we got it home, I noticed that it didn't come with a cookbook. I called the store from which we bought it. I was told that it didn't come with a cookbook. I called Weber. Weber sent me the cookbook at no charge. Then about a week later, I noticed that a small part that goes with the smoking chamber and holds water was missing. (Evidently the store that put the grill together lost the book and this part.) I called Weber. The part was sent at no cost.

If you're like me and you like to grill, but you are not an artist and don't want to stand over your grill, buy a Weber. I like to put on some steaks or whatever, kick back, and have a beer with minimal interaction with the grill. Sure, you have to time the meat and pay attention to when it should be turned. But, the Weber Summit D makes this easy. It is, in my experience, the easiest way to grill great food.

This is a darn fine grill. It has every feature that an avid outdoor chef could want. The six burners give you a lot of space for direct and indirect cooking and the fact that the burners run front to back make it much easier to do indirect cooking than in the cheaper Weber Genesis series that have burners running right to left.

I like the wood chip bin as well since it has it's own separate burner - this way, I can crank up the heat on the chips and generate a lot of smoke, yet keep the heat on the food nice and low for slow cook smoking.

I did a lot of research on grills and there is no reason that I can think of to spend $3000 or more on some super deluxe grill that has no more features than what I get on this one. This is absolutely the best grill I have ever used for the price.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this Grill is fantastic (for a Gas grill). I have always been a charcoal guy and after much prodding from some fellow Gas friends, I decided to go in to the deep end. Primarily I was interested in having a lot of space and more importantly a smoker box. I know you just can't get the same flavor from Gas as you can from a Charcoal grill, so I planned on compensating via wood(smoker box). After using it, it definately makes a difference using the smoker, but charcoal is still better for flavor. The only issue is that this thing is the SUV of grills; It guzzles propane. There is a natural gas hookup option, if I'm not mistaken, but this wasn't an option where mine is physically located.

I sold a Weber 2000 to get the Summit Gold D. This thing is awesome, and "big". Quality is great. There are plenty of stainless grills out there with lots of bells and whistles, but I don't think there is one that can match the Weber Summit Gold D and Weber's after sales support.

I have had a Weber Genesis Silver B for over 3 years and absolutely love it. I needed a bigger grill and decided to get the best gas grill Weber makes. It was very easy to install, probably took about an hour and everything fit perfectly, even though the instructions were just pictures, they were easy to follow. I never had a grill worthwhile with a rotisserie and did use it recently. I had a big party and was able to fit 8 Cornish Hens on it and they came out great. I had to turn on the two end burners because the rotisserie burner doesn't go all the way across. I was really debating on getting the Summit B because I didn't want to give up grilling space. FYI: I called several times to Weber because according the specs; the grilling surface is the same for model B and D. I asked, how can it be with the smoker and was told that the D model was a few inches longer to accommodate the smoker without sacrificing room but the specs didn't show that. If I had a choice, I would prefer the model B with the Rotisserie and just get a smoker box to put under the grates. Weber sales were wrong, the Model D DOES HAVE less cooking area unless you decide to throw your meat on the smoker box. My biggest complaint (and yes I called Weber and voiced my opinion) is the stainless steel cooking grates. These are absolutely terrible. They feel and look cheap and make terrible grill marks on any food. Maybe if they were real heavy stainless steel rods it would be different. They don't fit snug either mainly due to the smoker box. The 3rd grate is cut smaller and there is more than an inch of play. It seems the model B would be snug since the smoker box isn't there. When you are cooking or cleaning the grates they move around on you and if you put any force on the grates with a brush, the grates fall down into the bottom and you have to pry the grates out to put them back on the lip. After grilling about 3 times, I couldn't stand it anymore, went to Home Depot and purchased two boxes of the porcelain enameled cast iron grates that fit the Genesis Silver B. I had to take a hacksaw to the third one to make it fit with the smoker (with model B, they would just fit).

WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

The grill gets hotter, the food cooks better, it is just overall a world of difference. Plus the thick black cast iron grates look awesome on that big grill. I told Weber that for these expensive grills, they needed to use grates to compliment it not make it look cheap. At the very least, there should be an option. So if you are planning on getting this grill, set aside another $100 to replace those grates. The only other drawback is I have to order anything for this grill from weber.com as no store in my town stock anything for this grill, mainly the aluminum drip pans and flavorizer bars. Other than that, this grill is great. I really enjoy the grill and am still happy that I got it. Yes, I would buy it again but knowing that I would have some cast iron grates waiting for the new grill to arrive. :-)

THIS IS WITH OUT A DOUBT, THE BEST GRILL FOR YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY. PUT 3 LARGE CHICKENS ON THE SPIT. TRY A FULL PRIME RIB! A 16LB. TURKEY! SMOKE 6 RACKS OF RIBS! THERE IS NOTHING THAT YOU CANNOT DO. GRILL, SMOKE, ROTISERIE AND DONT FORGET THE SIDE BURNER,FOR THAT POT OF CHILE. DONT BE AFRAID. WEBER KNOWS HOW TO PACK THIS UNIT FOR SHIPPING, ARRIVED WITHOUT A SCRATCH. WENT TOGETHER IN ABOUT A HOUR. FILL THE BOTTLE AND YOU JUST BECAME THE NEXT STEVE RAICHLEN. BAR-B-QUE!!!!