Ken, Nick is bang-on with his explanation of the stainless. With the the 310, jumping from the "E" to the "S" gets you the stainless lid, and door inserts. The rest of the Q and internals don't change. In this case, it's purely cosmetic.

Depending on how fussy you are, and how often you BBQ, you may get frustrated with the stainless exterior. It takes alot more maintenance to keep that clean shiny look.

You're supposed to clean them????

Given that mine now has lovely mold spots all over the interior, I guess so...

How does one clean the interior of the grill? Are you supposed to disassemble the things every month or so?

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Given that mine now has lovely mold spots all over the interior

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Mmmmm.... Yummy!

When I'm done grilling, I'll turn all the burners on "high" for a post burn-off while I'm eating. This gets the gill up past 700 degree's and eliminates any juices or grease left over. Most of the time there is just white ash left, which can be easily brushed off the next time I fire it up. Granted, I'm hooked into my natural gas line, so I'm not worried about running out of propane.

Once a year, I'll tear the whole thing down and give it a "proper" cleaning.

On that Weber you're looking at, the ENTIRE BOTTOM of the pot is actually a drip tray that slides out. It makes it really easy to clean all the garbage that falls down there.

The other thing - I was always taught not to cover my BBQ or A/C. My old man was a beleiver in "it traps moisture and rots out sooner". Seems to have worked for the both of us.

Huh... well, I've been covering it, so I can't argue with that one. I'll probably end up with the E210, but a guy can dream. Either way, it'll be better than having to disassemble, clean, and replace bits on this one.

I LOVE the slide out drip catcher in my Weber. I clean the grills, flavorizer bars, and interior sides of the thing once a year, but I scrape out the drip catcher as soon as it starts looking nasty.

Does anyone else put sand in their drip pan/catcher? Someone gave me that advice long ago. Buy one bag a year of kiddie sand from a place like Toys R Us. It absorbs the grease, and you just dump it and you're ready to refill it.

I find it very effective.
Rich

Must...resurrect...thread...

Anyway, my wife is giving me an upgrade from the Spirit E210 to the E310 for Father's Day (woo!). I was wondering what the advantage of the SS flavorizer bars and cooking grate was. It's $50 to get them with the grill at Ace Hardware, and at least $100 later on. However, another store is running a no-sales-tax sale this weekend. They don't have the option to get them with the grill.

While porcelain is probably the easiest to clean when new, it tends to chip over time, exposing the steel underneath to moisture + oxygen = rust. Stainless steel will last you the longest, especially the nice and thick stuff Weber uses. No rust, scrubs clean pretty easily.

You can always upgrade down the line if you're concerned about laying out up front.