Wow! Nice to see so many fans of the grill I just purchased! I had Tuesday off (June 18) and was getting ready for a party that night. So I went to my local San Leandro Costco to get chips etc. Well, there on the floor were four Virco grills, one out of the box. I took one look, and wished I had brought my truck. I was back later that day with the truck and brought one home. IMHO a full size pickup truck is needed to carry this thing. I also had some ignitor problems but after adjustment of the gaps they all seem to work ok. I also fiddled with the connectors underneath the control panel and that seemed to help. I also found some fraying of the glass fabric cover on the ignitor wiring to the rear rotisserie burner, where it exits the back of the cabinet. I moved the whole cable up a bit to expose an unfrayed portion to the metal edge. I'm planning on wrapping the cable with some heat resistant tubing where it goes through that area, to prevent more fraying. I had a similar problem with a table-top patio heater I got at Costco a while ago. The ignitor cable frayed and shorted out on some metal. Easy enough to fix once I discovered the cause. I cooked a rib steak on it last night and it came out great. It was kind of hard to see some of that beautiful stainless get carbonized, but what the heck, it's a BBQ grille. The right door on mine has a very minor crease in it,which it took me a couple of days to notice. I'm not about to return this behemoth because of that! The burners all seem to function perfectly, with nice blue flames. Oh, I don't think the handle and the shelf are interchangeable. The spacing on the bolt holes are wider for the shelf than for the handle. Still have to hook up the rotisserie motor. I'll probably do a chicken tomorrow. All in all this is a beautiful, extremely well made grill. I've been using charcoal for years... I have a Kingsford egg shaped grille that I use to roast chicken and turkey. It comes out great, but I'm tired of all the smoke inhalation I inevitably get doing this. I also have a New Braunfels horizontal smoker with separate fire box. I have been consistently disappointed with the dried out results I get with this one. It's also very labor intensive, adding just the right amount of wood/charcoal and trying to keep the temperature even. I'm keeping both, because sometimes you just want that real smoke, but the Virco Classic will be my main grill. Faster and cleaner! Oh, and thanks to those who posted the info on the natural gas conversion. I'm going to order one of those kits right away. I'll have to run the gas line a considerable distance to the patio, but it will be worth it in the long run. One minor complaint: the wheel locks are very hard to get at... but they do work. Just for grins, I took a magnet to the whole unit. It's nearly all 304 non-magnetic. The only magnetic parts I found was the surround for the ceramic rear burner, and some nuts holding the chassis bolts under the cooking unit. As for the stainless burner tubes not holding up to heat, I hope they do ok. After all, they use stainless steel for automotive exhaust systems... which contain a lot more corrosive gases than propane.

450 degrees in just a few minutes (could go higher, but that was more than I needed just testing it). I did take a quick look yesterday at the Kirkland model while picking up food and a grill utensils for Memorial day. Noted the folded metal corners, screws, etc. which made me more appreciative of the Virco quality in welded stainless steel (lid, lip, etc..) that they ground to a perfect edge and fit. One minor thing that I did not like were how easy the utensil hooks can swing out. I will look for a rubber gromet or something like that to slide over the end to keep them in place. Did I mention this unit is heavy? Not near the 450 lb that the Costco claimed, but Virco did not skimp on stainless steel. Double wall doors, lid that feels immense, and a minor detail, but I really like the stainless steel skirt at the bottom as it makes it look permanent vs. portable (even though it has locking casters), and how about that cover bsbbq?! Fully insulated with velcro ties. For those interested, Costco has a Hoffritz (hoffritz.com)6 pc. stainless-steel and black santoprene (like rubber) grill set that includes a large turner, tongs, biiiig fork tipped knife, grill brush, basting brush, and a 10 x 16" (I think) grid grill. Sorry to push Costco, but I checked Walmart while getting some other stuff, and just two pieces (with wood handles) were more, so I am glad I waited.

zbull, I can only give you my experience. I too had excessive yellow flames with LP. Even after adjusting the venturis open all the way there was still some yellow tips, but it didn't seem to affect the cooking any. I had read some posts from one or two others that had a similar problem. They had contacted Virco and received smaller orfices to compensate and it seemed to solve the problem. I am at a higher altitude than many (4500) and I atributed this to the problem. When I received my conversion kit I noticed the size of the orifice was 1.70 mm which, not to be too technical, converts to about 16000 BTU output, not the 20K that the burners are rated at. I actually found this to work rather well for me as I am getting nice blue flames. I had to adjust my venturis all the way closed after installing my conversion kit, because the increased air supply was not allowing the gas to travel all the way to the end of the burner tube where the ignitor was. I only discovered this after lighting the burners by hand and noticing the flames did not go all the way to the end of the tube. Once I closed the venturis, this problem was solved and the burners lit fine again. I could probably increase the size of the orifice to both regain my BTU's and be able to open the venturis a bit, but I am getting plenty of heat. By my estimates with an oven thermometer, I am getting about 600 at the grates! More than enough to sear any cut of anything for me. I don't mean to get too technical, but it is more than just a yes or no answer. The bottom line, I think, is that the orifices they send you are undersized for the BTU's that the grill is rated for, and if you have 7" of gas pressure (same as I did) then you should have similar results. I think I might try and drill the orifices out one size larger, according to the charts, this should increase my BTU's to 18K per burner. Well see though. I hope this has helped to some degree.

The unit seems nice enough, especially for the sale price of $499. But, I look at what the grill has to offer and it's features, and I would be very hard pressed not to spend another $100 and go with the Members Mark from Sam's Club. Both the Kenmore grill that you are looking at and the one at Sam's are made by Grand Hall, so the quality is equal. The one at sears seems to have a few things I would not like. The plastic casters for one, they seem to remind me of cheap office furniture casters. Also, the grates are porcelin coated iron, the Members Mark is three seperate grates made of SS, so nothing to chip. The BTU's seem to be about the same for the side burner and rotisserie, but the entire grill is only 40K BTU's. That seems to me to leave only 18K for the three main burners, only 6K each! That seems alot less than the three 18K burners that the Members Mark offers totaling 54K just for the mains. If you really wanted to sear a steak nicely, I think the Kenmore might not do it very well. The included smoker box is nice, but that is an item you can pick up reasonably anywhere. I see a little SS on the lid, panel, and doors, but that seems to be about it. The Members Mark has SS hood, side shelves, side burner and practically everything you can see. The exceptions are a few items made from steel and the lid has cast alluminum ends similar to the Kenmore except they are not painted like the Kenmore seems to be. I do like the slide out tray for the lp bottle on the Kenmore better than the exposed one on the Members Mark, but that is probably a personal preference. The draw back is that you have less interior space underneath for storage of rotisserie, griddle, smoking chips, etc... In my honest opinion, it seems the Members Mark from Sams club is a much better value for only another $100. Even if you don't have a membership that's another $35. Still worth it! I am not trying to push the Members Mark (actually I own a Virco and love it), but for the difference in features and $$ I think the Members Mark is one hell of a grill for $599 if that is all you can spend. Now, of course, if you've got $799.........Well, the Virco can't be beat! (You Virco guys new that was coming) If you haven't seen the Members Mark from Sam's, I highly suggest you check it out. I have included a link below of Alek's site. A very happy MM owner who has an excellent site on this grill that is very informative. Good luck on your purchase. Oh, by the way, if you haven't seen pictures of the Virco, you can see those at MY web site! http://www.equinoxcs.com/Grillingweb/index.htm Here is a link that might be useful: Members Mark from Sams club