06Grill symptom 6 of 8
Wolf outdoor grill Denver · 5,280 ft
Hot spots and flare-ups across the grate
Flare-ups and hot spots usually arrive together and are not the same fault. Flames climbing through the grate come from fat and heat setting; a scorching end beside a sulking one comes from ports, trays and moving air. Wolf Repair Denver Pros reads the burners port by port before ordering anything: (720) 702-9054.
What you are looking at
- Steaks at one end are ready while the other end is still waiting.
- Flames come up through the grate every time fat drops, and stay up.
- Smoke that was never part of using the grill before.
Two complaints, one visit, read in the wrong order. Deal with what is on the grate and under it first: the burners are only worth judging once the grill is clean.
What to check yourself
- Scrub the grates hot, with a brush and water: the steam works on the briquettes and the tray below. Keep water off the sear burner and leave the grate section over it alone.
- Pull the drip tray and wipe it. Wolf asks for that after every use, and a loaded tray is what turns dropped fat into a flare that keeps going.
- Trim the fat, or bring the setting down. Wolf blames those two for excessive flare-ups before it blames the grill.
- Look along the burners for a dead length. Wolf asks owners to check them for spiders, insects and other obstructions and clear what is there.
If you can smell gas, stop. Shut the supply off at the grill, put out any flame, open the hood, and move away before you call your gas utility or the fire department from outside. That call comes before this one, and it is not a call for an appliance shop.
What happens on the visit
- Every port compared along the burner at HI and again at LO, because a section that only misbehaves low is a different job.
- Air shutter and orifice on each burner, refitted with the orifice inside the shutter, which Wolf is blunt about for good reason.
- Briquette trays and the drip tray looked at as part of the picture, since what sits between burner and food decides how the heat arrives.
Follow-ups
Is a flare-up doing damage, or is it just dramatic?
It depends on what is underneath. Flame that comes and goes as fat lands is grilling; flame that keeps burning has usually found a drip tray nobody has emptied, and that is a grease fire waiting for its moment. Clean the tray after each use and most of the drama goes with it.
One end has been cooler since spring. Is that the burner or the grill?
Most often it is what is in the burner rather than the burner itself: the tubes are the most sheltered place in the garden over winter and things move into them. Clear what you can see, run it again, and if the cold end stays cold ring Wolf Repair Denver Pros on (720) 702-9054.