Do they have a website? I am interested in finding out about one.

Sorry Rubeus, Costco Canada doesn't have the Virco. The guys at my local Costco in Surrey B.C.informed me that they wouldn't be getting Virco grills because the company is located in the USA, and that Canadian Costco's only get items supplied by companies in Canada. Yeah, I would love to have a Virco, but Costco isn't cooperating with it's Canadian members to supply us. The current offerings at local Costco's are not even worth considering. Write an e-mail to Costco right immediately, specifically asking (demanding) them to bring Virco's into Canada. Virco in California doesn't have a website as far as I know.

I did send an email to Costco canada.
REquesting this grill.

The email address is "ServiceCanada@Costco.Com"

All Canadians please email and request the VIRCO

Maybe they don't have them in BC...but they do in Ontario. They're all sold out though

Where have you heard about them or seen them in
Ontario.
I'm in the GTA and I havent' seen or heard about them

Sunil

Many of the GTA area Costcos had them in mid July, but they were sold out by the end of July. I drove to Michigan to get mine; the U.S. stores will check stock but the Canadian ones won't. One interesting thing; we were told by several Costco locations that they weren't ordering any more grills this year, but a friend, after seeing ours asked and was told that Costco hadn't anticipated the popularity of the grill and were ordering more...Good luck!

janieb22, could you tell me the price in $cdn that Costco was charging for the Virco in the Toronto area? I hope that lots of Western Canadian Costco members will rattle their buyer's chain so that Costco will have some Vircos for us next year. After all, it seems like the rest of Costco's North American members have had a chance to snag a Virco!

Good news for Virco Classic hunters in Western Canada. A Costco rep reports that the grill is on order for this region but that the exact delivery date is not known. Once they have cleared out the Xmas stuff maybe a few Vircos will show up. Here's hoping!!

Good news for Costco members in Western Canada. The Virco's should be arriving in warehouses by the end of October. The price is $1299(cdn) and is item #238079. Should make a great Christmas gift for the discerning Grill Chef.. Can smell the rotisserie turkey already. Cheers

Could a Virco owner tell me if you can swap ends for attaching the side shelf and handle on the Virco Classic? The space I'm planning for the grill would work out better if the side shelf was on the right and the handle on the left. Thanks for your help.

You cannot switch the shelf and handle. The holes on the handle side are not in the same place as the shelf side.

Virco Classics are now available at Costco in The Lower Mainland of BC. They arrived today and when I picked mine up I noticed that the main burners were "relabelled" 15k BTU (down from the original 20K). I wonder if they have changed the burners, the valves, or have they just recalibrated the original configuration to more accurately state the BTU output? Now I have to do a NG conversion and I'm wondering what BTU value to use. BTW on the way to the Costco checkout at least five people stopped me to ask about the grill. It is impressive!!

technimac,
Did anything else on you Virco appear to be different from the details reported in length on this site? ie comes with h/duty cover etc.
Were they indeed selling for $1299.00 (cdn)?

Weirdo,
Everything about the grill is the same (includes HD cover and HD stainless rotis) according to the specs and pictures on this site and on BBSQ's page. The odd thing is that in the manual that accompanies the Virco, the main burners are listed as 20k each and the side/rotis as 12k each. In any case I had to convert to NG, so I built a manometer, found the gas pressure to be just over 8 WC" and set to work on the orifices and valves. I ended up with the main orifices drilled with a #50, and the "low" on the valves to a #56. For the side and rotisserie burner I went with a #54 for the orifices. I'm very pleased with the results. The mains have great two-toned blue flames that get the flame-tamers red hot over the tail-end of the burners. On low with one burner going, the temp stays just below 200F. The side burner works well, and I can control the flame level with the knob between "High" and "Off".
One strange thing is that the black lettering on the control panel doesn't seem to be very durable. When I cleaned the stainless panel with Windex, the cloth was black from the lettering. Hmmm....
All-in-all the Virco is a beautiful grill for $1300 CDN (the US price at $799 converts almost exactly to this amount). I did see a Vermont Castings non-stainless grill at the local gas BBQ shop listed for well over $2000 CDN with side burner and cover extra. So the Virco is great value for the money.

For anyone living on Vancouver Island, I saw one in the Costco store in Nanaimo yesterday.

Ann.

technimac,
Any chance you could provide me with the dimensions
of your unit? I need to know the length & width of the main grill with and without the handle and side table. I'm constrained by my deck size and wonder if it might fit without the table and/or handle attached.
Thanks for your posts.

Weirdo,
Are you in Canada? Do you need these in metric(LOL)? I just measured my grill and it is: 26" deep, about 45" long (without the 3 1/2"handle and 13"side shelf), and 46 1/2" high. The grates are 19 X 31" (all 3 together).
I actually poured a new stamped concrete patio to accommodate this grill and it's infrared patio heater partner, so there is enough room to move it around a bit.
If I had a limited area deck, I would even consider extending that by cantilevering or whatever to give this grill the room it needs to be part of my living space.
I would like to thank all the folks who have contributed to the Virco "knowledge base" on this forum. AleK, thanks for the great conversion info and pics. BSBBQ, for the details on orifice size and more (great pics of you, Delray and the Vircosaurs) and continuing tips on installation. Spamdam_rich for keeping the threads going and more(even if you aren't an "official" CGE). Meagain, even while I toiled away on a 20-yr-old Shepherd 1000 (so corroded it was almost like "open-air cooking"), you inspired me to wait until the Virco arrived in my area. I hope you are still using yours often (Rotis turkey coming up?). Ann_T, Great biochemistry lesson on turkey brining that I applied to pork shoulder with pretty good results on my first go at it. I think Vircos in our area will be raising the bar on brining and rotis roasting thanks to you.
My next attempt will be cedar planked salmon (both local products)for my in-laws, so I had better not screw it up.....
Oh yes, a quirky thing about the grill. One ignitor uses a common (cheap) AA battery, but the side burner uses an AAA battery (even stranger is that the hole in the SS panel for this seems designed for the AA sized ignitor).
Finally I hope that THS will reconsider their subscription fee decision (hey, a little more advertising is better than that) because it will kill the forum as an important meeting place for many of those who have a lot to share.

Technimac,

Read your post on the NG conversion. Great info on the drill sizes. I've just bought my Virco from Costco in Burnaby, B.C. yesterday. It never dawned on me that this grill has such a following. Did you have a hard time getting to the orifices on the main burners. I tried to remove a burner and it wasn't easy and real bugger to get back into place. I'm assuming I have to remove the front valve cover and expose the manifold to get to the orifices. I also notice that the flame tamers do not sit completely in the notches on the frame. Only one edge will sit in the notch. Also looking straight down on the tamers does yours cover up the burners because on mine the middle is ok but on the ends I'm tempted to bend the burners. Probably not a good idea.

Hoss649, Welcome to the Virco club!
I had to remove the front control panel, the manifold on which all valves are mounted, but NOT the burners. The orifices are ON the valves. So you have the whole works on the manifold once it's removed. Yes, I noticed that the "u-shaped" burners extend out from below the flame tamers (which fit fine on my Virco), and this is in a critical area where "stuff" can drip on them at a point where the ignitors are. This also creates a "hot spot" immediately above that area.
THis week Save-on has pork shoulders "2-for-one" sale on. Try following the brining and smoking tips on this site and you will like your Virco even more. Maybe divide the shoulder in half (shank and butt pieces). Leave the fat on for juiciness, but be prepared to empty the drip tray several times during cooking.
I tried one last week and used the upper rack for smoking with the outside burners off and the center burner on low. I put a double foil pack of aged local "Vine maple" wood on a 10"x10" piece of 1/8" SS atop the center burner which I then left on Med/low (275deg F) and cooked it for about 6hrs. I had to replace the "smoke pack" every 30 min or so, but the result was pretty nice. Even teen boys loved the soft maple flavour and brining effect. A nice end to a record-breaking sunny fall season. Good luck with your Virco!

Hi Technimac,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm going to go with your drill bit sizes but I noticed that you did not drill the valves for the catalytic and side burner. Did these work ok in the low position? I believe I can get the # drill bits from Busy Bee Tools in New West too. Love those 2 fers sales @ Save-on. We'll certainly give your cooking tips a try. I've got a covered deck where I can enjoy the smells of summer bbqing with the onslaught of soggy winter weather.

HI Hoss649,
Before you drill those rotis and side burner orifices to #54, perhaps try the Rotisserie one at #56. It may be high enough to do the trick (after all it's radiant IR cooking I think). The side burner is fine at #54 (it beats my indoor 13k gas stove burner in a water boiling contest). You don't have to disassemble the rotis and side burner valves, because neither has a "low" setting. Each tapered valve has two large holes while the other 3 have one large(high) and one small(low). I control the flame for the rotis and side burner with the knob somewhere between "high" and "off". The "low" printed on the control panel for the rotis and side burner is meaningless.
One other "Virco Quirk" is that the heavy duty casters that rotate and lock don't totally rotate and seem to lock-up too easily,dragging the wheels on the concrete. So I disassembled them, removed the locking mechanism (two pieces on each wheel) and now the grill rolls easily without the wheels locking and scraping on the patio. BTW Those wheels are indeed HD with roller bearings inside a steel sleeve.
Try this link for NG Conversion tips - http://www.komar.org/bbq/mm/convert/

Quote: (posted by technimac)
"I actually poured a new stamped concrete patio to accommodate this grill and it's infrared patio heater partner, so there is enough room to move it around a bit."

YEs, a large patio indded, one wich i slaved over making during the summer...

UGH!... memories

Hi Technimac,

Thanks for the tips. I've been to the komar site and its great but actually talking to someone that's had sucess with the Virco is priceless. My casters are doing just as you mentioned. They're locking up even when they're not supposed to. Gotta jackup the grill for a wheel alignment.

Hi Technimac,

Conversion done and working well. Just a precaution for others, the screws on the valves are really tight so make sure you use right phillips driver. Push hard when turning and the screws will snap loose. I slipped on one and in orderd to complete the conversion I had to drill and extract the screw. I was getting pretty close to ordering the kit. This grill is also a permanent install so I'm going to run the gas main with two shutoffs and have one on the inside of the unit. I was going to clamp the pipe with 2X4 over the hole for the propane and lock the doors with a U shape bike lock. This should provide security and safety. Hope everyone has a great grill weekend even if the weather doesn't co-operate.