Rehabbing My Gas Grill

 When I moved into my house nine years ago, there was already a gas grill permanently installed on the deck and plumbed into the natural gas line. This has been a nice setup, because I never need to worry about propane cylinders, as there's an essentially endless supply of gas from the street. The grill worked well when I bought the house, although the built-in igniter never worked, but over time, it had started heating unevenly, the cast iron cooking grates were gradually rusting away, and the ceramic briquettes were starting to disintegrate, so I decided it was time to either replace the grill entirely, or at least replace some of its key components. Because of the natural gas thing, and my general aversion to hiring things done when I can come up with a way to do them myself, I decided I would be better off gutting it and replacing the needed parts. 

I ordered a new burner and enameled cast iron cooking grates from Amazon, but decided I would source the ceramic briquettes locally. The cooking grates came yesterday, and although they're from a third-party manufacturer, they fit the grill perfectly. I had thought the burner would be third-party as well, but it turned out to be a genuine, OEM Broilmaster part. 

Installation of both items was very easy. I had to attach the burner to the Venturi tube assembly, and from there, it was essentially a drop-in replacement. I just had to make sure the Venturi tubes were properly seated over the gas jets on the valve assembly. The cooking grates were even easier. And for good measure while I had everything apart, I used my shop vac to clear out the collected debris—briquette fragments, rust, ash, etc., so now it should be working almost like new. 

I didn't realize just how bad off the old burner was until I took it out. Instead of coming out as a single unit, it came out in three pieces. It was beyond shot. Fortunately, I had already committed to the full makeover, so now my grill is essentially still old on the outside, but mostly brand new on the inside, even if I still didn't bother replacing the igniter.

What really surprised me was the fact that no place around here sells the ceramic briquettes, or even lava rocks, for that matter. These used to be a common and inexpensive items that needed to be replaced occasionally, but it appears most newer gas grills do not use lava rocks, and the ones that did are now old enough that stores have stopped stocking them. All I can say is thank goodness for Amazon. 

Even at Amazon prices, my grill parts weren't exactly cheap. I ended up spending about double what I expected to on the replacement parts, but like the ceramic briquettes, it seems that inexpensive universal replacement grill parts are also less common than they once were, and I've also come to find out that Broilmaster grills—and parts for them—aren't exactly economy models. Besides, the natural gas connection would have necessitated professional installation, whereas just replacing needed parts did not. And now that the project is done, and it was a pretty simple one to be sure,  I can employ an old cliché and say that what was old is now at least partially new again.