Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsWeber Spirit E-310 (NG) gives a solid confident grilling experience.
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2017
I assembled it pretty easily. Opted for the Free Amazon Assembly, which was a complete JOKE. They never showed, tried to reschedule and them said they would call me back when they could find a contractor in the area... never heard from them. In truth, I was mad enough at Amazon for all this mess that I sent the unit back to them and bought it for the same price at Target.com with my RED CARD and got another 5% off so it was cheaper there. The base did come bent like some others reported on here but this was Fedex fault, not Weber. Weber customer service sent me a new base and 5 days later I was assembling the grill. Went very smoothly.
Two things that tripped me up:
1. there was a part listed for a SP-310 which I thought was my SPIRIT 310 grill, its not. I have a E-310. The SP-310 part listed is REALLY FOR A SP-310 so if you have a E-310 ignore that part and bolts bag and move on.
2. I thought the cross bars holding the grill on the base were forgotten!! But they were cleverly embedded in the side of the cardboard backing which my wife found when I told her I was missing them. I am sure someone else will run into this so I mentioned it.
Went to home depot and got the 1/2 to 3/8 inch bushing for my NG line as well as a 3/8 inch nipple for the Weber parts to mate with the bushing. A little pipe dope and everything ready to go.
First grill was burgers and everyone loved the taste. Have cooked several tenderloins on it and each was perfect. No learning curve, heats up to 500 degrees per the temp gauge plenty fast, and flame tamers work great. Made me look like an expert on a new grill right out of the gate. I expected to have to "learn the grill" but it was very intuitive and solid. Hot enough that I have to go down to about 40% on the burners after heat up or the tenderloins start to cook too fast due to too hot. So there are not any BTU problems that I can tell.
I will say on the comments of Weber quality that this grill is made economicallyand I do like very well made things generally but as a consolation to recognizing that fact I am ok because it has it were it counts. I wouldnt say its "made cheap" but I would say they cut corners in areas in build quality that would clearly benefit their bottom line. i.e. initially I thought the side tables are flimsy and thin, didnt like that it has a strange plastic louvered lid handle, and thought the gauge of the base and sides and back of the grill could have been a bit more robust/heavy... but they are really minor after I put it together its solid enough and when I started using it and enjoyed the first steaks on it - I am happy and simply dont care about or notice that anymore. Even the plastic louvered lid handle that I have to grab all the time is ok because I noticed that it doesnt get hot at all - so maybe that was the reason and part of the benefit... maybe. :-)
I have had grills that cost twice as much, require two arms to lift the heavy well made lid, beautifully engineered and built like a tank with 6 burners to grill for a small army but they were more finicky and often would require more skill and practice to get the food right and required lots of babysitting not to burn the food, plus consumed a lot more gas.
So if you are just a family of five, for example, and want a grill thats easy, cooks well, and one that you can share the grilling tasks with anyone in your family then this grill requires very little to produce great results. I love it.