After less than a year in service, all of our Perfect Flame's burners are cracked, one so badly that there is absolutely NO way to adjust the heat. Everything is torched. And, like others, DH can't even get the bolts off to replace them IF he could get replacements. Of course, as everyone has already found out, Lowe's does not offer any help. They carry a couple fo peripherals for the Perfect Flame, but not parts like burners. They tell you to go to the manufacturer. And guess what? The manufacturer told us to go to Lowe's. RUNAROUND! The gentleman at Lowe's was so solicitous and said that he would call the manufacturer for us and get back to us in a couple of days. It's been 2 weeks and no call yet. Don't think there will be, do you? Bottom line (for us, anyway) is that we will never again purchase a "store" brand. It will definitely cost us more, but we will buy only a name brand like Weber, CharBroil, etc. Something at least that we know we will be able to purchase parts for.

Hey Everybody! I know the lot of you haven't been able to sleep over this so I thought I'd fill you in. First off, as usual, I was saying one thing and meaning another. The grill was really, really, greasy. A soaking in straight simple green and a green scotchbrite pad cleaned up all the grease quite nicely. The outide of the grill looks like new (many envious manly men types at the bbq yesterday). What I meant to be saying all along is that the CARBON build-up is what I'm trying to clean off. The three day soak in simple green didn't do anything to it. I'm talking a 1/4" thick layer of hard baked on carbon on the the grates, the burners on everything inside the grill. Just like the top of a piston in an old V-8... Someone earlier suggested a grinder...well, I took your advice. I was able to acquire a cup brush with brass bristles for my 4.5" angle grinder. With the angle grinder I was able to clean off the grates, the burners, the inside of the grill pretty darn well. All the grates and burners came out looking almost like new, just a little blued from the heat. I actually wore the brush out almost completely...and I still have some more to go. The grill worked pretty well, not sold on the smoker feature. It just made a LOT of smoke for about an hour and then burned out. Love the two sear burners, they were handy for cooking the marinated chix breasts. this big grill does suck through a lot of propane and towards the end I had to switch tanks out because one was icing up and I lost pressure. All in all, $400 well spent I think. Mads

DH is a Weber charcoal grill afficianado - I pretty much stay away from the grill - which pleases both of us. So BBQ forums are one thing I don't do much with. We recently got a Big Green Egg however which was kind of my idea based on all kinds of things I won't bore you with. One thing we learned about when we were looking into the BGE was lump charcoal vs. the briquettes we'd always used. Now that we've used it I would never go back to briquettes - we now use it in our Webers and our BGE. So that's something you might want to look into if you aren't already familiar with it.

There are: good, better, best, premium. You have almost good. Why are you concerned about the paint flaking off, it it happens? Are you in a ocean humid coastal environment? You read some negative things, did you read any positive things? If you get Your grill too hot, the metal will expand, the paint adhesion will lesson as the metal cools. That is what happens. One doesn’t have to prep and paint their grill.