My gas grill has low flow.

March 17, 2009 10:26 AM

My gas grill is broken. Why would the gas flow decrease so that I can only get one burner to cook on high?

My grill is two years old, used semi-regularly for a few summers. I'd really like to use it near-daily this summer. The problem is that late last summer, the gas flow reduced severely. I can get a single burner to cook on high, but when I turn on additional burners, the flame immediately goes down, as though the gas flow is being divided among the extra burners without getting more gas into the grill.

At first, I thought my LP tank was low, but replacing the tank with a new one didn't change the problem. Could the regulator valve be broken? If so, is it as easy as removing the existing valve and replacing it with a new one?

Thanks.

posted by rocketman to home & garden (8 answers total)

It's a good bet that you don't have enough gas going between the tank and the grill to maintain more than one burner on high.

Check your connections. Clean whatever you can. If you see anything clogged or rusted, get rid of the gunk.

It's also possible that there's leakage between the first (good) burner and the other burners. So when you turn the other burners on, you're losing too much pressure.
posted by musofire at 10:33 AM on March 17, 2009

I had this exact thing. A spider had built a web in the tube that the gas went through. It was one of those thick nest type webs, not the normal net jobs. I just took out the tube and poked a stick through it, put it back and got my grill on... as it were.
posted by d4nj450n at 10:45 AM on March 17, 2009

What d4nj450n said. It happens to mine every spring.
How do I clean spider webs out of my venturi tubes? (scroll down)
posted by Floydd at 10:59 AM on March 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you're getting flame out of one burner and none out of the other, I would expect that those jets, (or the valve to them) was clogged, rather than a low flow problem.
posted by mercredi at 12:12 PM on March 17, 2009

It could also be the burner element itself. My corrodes to the point of uselessness about every two years. It's about $20 at Home Depot to replace it.
posted by COD at 12:45 PM on March 17, 2009

Spiders. They don't take long to clog a tube, either. So even if you grill often you can still get them. Worse, they can cause flame to back up and engulf the control panel. Floydd's link is a good one for dealing with the problem.
posted by tommasz at 12:55 PM on March 17, 2009

It's also likely that you're being protected from yourself. Newer propane tanks have a safety built in that prevents them from letting gas out too fast if it "thinks" it has sprung a leak. Turning the burner on too fast can trigger that. Try again -- first let all the gas out of the system by having the burners on and the tank off. Now turn the burner off and open the tank valve really slowly. Now turn the burners on slowly and light it. If that doesn't do it, you may need a new regulator. See here: http://bbq.about.com/od/gasgrills/a/aa081206a.htm.
posted by Framer at 2:46 PM on March 17, 2009

Update:

The venturi tubes were all clean and empty. So I scrubbed down as much as I could, and just removed webs as I saw them and put the thing back together.

I took Framer's advice when I tried lighting it again, and I'll be damned if my grill doesn't work again! Thanks folks!
posted by rocketman at 8:45 AM on April 21, 2009