A friend of mine and I both purchase Weber Grills Silver B and C respectively. I am very happy with my Silver C. My friend wishes he had spent the extra $50 on side burner. If you have the small amount of extra space, which is probably only the size of the side burner ( Aprox. 1 foot) and where you are buying the product there is not much of a sale price differential, then it seems like it would be worth the peace of mind to know that you will be happy. Also, that little extra room give you a place to put thing when you are not using the side burner. As far as cast iron grates are concerned. I am extremely happy with how easy it is to clean there porcelain grates. I use Amways stainless steel non- scratching scouring pad.. They make cleaning these grate totally a non-issue, the other ordinary household tools in my house did not work as well on the porcelain grates or stainless rotisserie. In fact, I am looking for someone who sells this Amway product. Amway's one box lasted us for more that five years at minimal cost. My friend also has porcelain grates which he is happy with, however like bsbbq he thinks the cast iron might work better with certain foods like steaks. We might end up splitting the cost of the cast iron grates set so we can both have cast iron and porcelain grates. I believe the cost of the cast iron grates at Home Depot are under $50 with porcelain grates being slightly less at other stores., so either way you go it will not cost you a lot to change your mind. On the main issue of buying a Weber Silver series grill, whatever your pocket book can afford and your space will allow, like myself I am sure you will be happy with your Weber purchase decision. However, I would like to let you know that I live in Southern California near the beach where the temperature is moderate and I donÂt have a wind problem, that might be a worthwhile question to find out if the Weber Grills are wind friendly.

I agree that you do need some air, but I don't think that you would be at risk unless you were making it air tight. I would think that would be kind of hard to do though. You still get a lot of air in from the sides where the rotisserie holes and slots are. I think the best source of air though is, as you mentioned, through the front area and around the drip pan. I think that is adequate for combustion air below the burners, I think everything above the burners tends to let more heat out than air in. In looking at other grills like my buddy's Weber, there are no vents above the burners other than the two rotisserie holes in the castings. The only vents are below the burners to let in air. His grill actually heats up quicker than the Virco. I am sure this is mainly because the grill is smaller, but I can't help but think that this is also, al least in part, due to the lack of venting above the grates. I think this holds more heat in kind of like an oven. I have experimented with using some foil to cover up the vents above the rotisserie and was able to keep more heat inside the grill, but like I said, just experimenting.

Mini-review of Expo's Professional grill and a comparision to the Virco. After five or six years of frustration using my Weber (not enough heat) I decided to consider an upgrade. I really wanted the Weber to work, but I just couldn't get the temp over 450F. One day at Home Depot I saw the Straublestone (misspelled, I'm sure) and felt that was an upgrade at a reasonable price. So, before buying that I shopped around to be sure of my choice. One of the trips included a trip to Home Depot's Expo Center. This place is loaded with all the high-end grills, very painful to go in there because I want to buy ALL of them. ;-) But on this trip they had a new grill called the 'Professional'. It was priced at $1000 (actually $999 I think) and upon inspection it looked almost as good as the others that they had and a considerably lower price. I also strongly considered the $900 'Jenn-Air' which is really made by Vermont Castings. I choose the Pro over the Jenn-Air due to construction. It was almost all stainless where as the VC was not. So I coughed up my $1000 and went home a happy kid with his new toy. Well, about three months later I spot the Virco during a trip to Costco. Sheesh, two hundred dollars cheaper and ALL stainless. So I set out to sell the Pro (at a loss, of course) and buy a Virco. But I ended up with the MM Y0660 as explained earlier in this thread. The Pro grill is made by Charbroil for the Expo Center. They have also introduced a smaller, 45K BTU, 3-burner model for $800. Both grills has an unlimited warranty on the SS, a 10 year warranty on the burners and a 2 year warranty on any other part. Both grill come with a heavy-duty rotisserie standard and no side-burner. I don't know if this is an option, but I don't think that it is. The grill does not include a cover. It did come assembled at no additional charge. These grills arrived at the Expo unassembled and they sub-contract the assembly at their store. The Pro grill, while still a good product, seems to be overpriced when compared to the Virco. The Pro grill uses four 15K BTU cast iron burners for a 60K BTU total, same as the Virco. I was able to reach an indicated 550+ and I could tell that it was noticeably hotter than my old POS Weber. The pro's single biggest weak link is its drip tray design. First, it's fabricated out of epoxied or powder-coated steel, not stainless. Second, it is only accessable from the rear which makes it a bit of a pain to clean. and third, the dang thing is so poorly designed that it barely slides in it's slot. The tolerances are so poor that it wants to come out of its track and fall on one side or the other. It's hard to explain, but trust me, it sucks big time. I was so frustrated that I was in process of designing a new drip tray to be fabricated out of SS to replace that sorry design. I was quoted $100 by a local sheet-metal company. The Pro's rear IR burner is set in a black powder-coated steel panel wheras the Virco uses SS for the panel. The Pro's flame-tamers are make of regular steel and are black powder-coated. These will NOT last very long. They were starting to degrade during the three months that I owned my grill. They have a two-year warranty so you can probably get a set or two for free before the warranty expires. The cabinet on the Pro is inferior to the Virco. The cabinet is a single-walled wrap of stainless that has a two to three inch opening all the way around the top. So it does not offer any protection from the weather, it will get wet in there if the grill is uncovered. On the front are two single-wall doors, just folded SS sheetmetal. The Virco's cabinet is far superior. The Pro's lid is folded stainless sheet that is spot-welded on the sides. The Virco's is welded, ground and polished and as a result looks much nicer. The Pro did have a double wall lid but the gap is quite narrow. In spite of this, it did not discolor on the outside during my short ownership. The temperature gauge worked well and seems to be reasonably accurate but I never calibrated it to be sure. The handle on the lid looked like chrome plated steel, not solid SS as on the Virco. The handles on the sides of the cabinet were also chrome-plated, not SS. The Pro grill uses beautiful, cast & machined SS knobs. These really looks impressive, even better than the Vikings and DCSs. So there is absolutely nothing really wrong with the Pro except for it's price point. It served me very well and I was willing to deal with the non-SS parts as needed. But when compared to the Virco, it seems like it should be priced well under the $800 range. The Virco is truly unbeatable under $1000, at least for now. Who knows, maybe next year Virco will have some competition at that price point. -Terry

The rotisserie produces delicious chicken. Yes, it does require trussing but since it's rotating it's self-basting and wonderfully moist. The other way to do chicken that's a bit less messier and also delicious is to use the rack on the lowest runner with the drip tray underneath. Make sure the chicken is patted dry -- I rub it with some olive oil and herbs or spices. Put it in the center directly on the oven rack and use autoroast at 400 for 1 hour 10 to 15 minutes. No need to truss though doing so will give the cooked chicken a better appearance (not always necessary) and may make it easier to handle. If you like the chicken on the stand this one should be even easier.