My Char Broil propane grill has only one heat setting now—low. Preheating with the cover closed give a temperature of 250 degrees. Things cook very very slowly. I checked the venturi’s, one had a spider nest, and I cleaned that out. The other three were fine. I unscrewed the regulator, turned the burners to high, waited two minutes, turned the burners off, screwed in the regulator, turned the ignition burner on, slowly turned on the gas and still had low flames. I have gas in the tank. What else can I try to fix this problem?
There should be a ventilation hole on the regulator. Did you check to see if that was obstructed? Possibly try blowing it out with compressed air.
If the gas in the tank is low, it can affect the pressure, so the bbq burns low. This is the symptom I notice right before I run out of gas.
The OPV, in addition to being an overfill protection device, will restrict the gas flow if too high a gas volume is being delivered. This will happen if you turn the gas grill valves on before opening the main valve at the tank. The large volume of gas being delivered trips whatever device is designed to slow down the gas flow in the event of a hose rupture.
I’ve had it happen before. You should shut off all of the gas knobs, wait five or ten minutes, then slowly open the main gas supply. Then you can try the gas grill valves.
Corrosion can reduce the size of the holes where the flame emerges. You can go over the burner with a wire brush, or use an awl to clean out the holes. Try not to expand the holes beyond their original size though, that can make the burner less efficient despite the appearance of more flame.
Are you sure there’s gas in the tank?
Are you using your own tank, or do you do a tank-exchange? If this problem cropped up when you changed tanks, it’s most likely a bad tank.
What you’re describing sounds either like the tank is almost empty, or the excess-flow preventer (part of the current “OPD” valves) is jammed. I’ve had this happen before and the fix is pretty simple - disconnect the tank from the grill, pick it up a foot or so, then bang it straight down against the ground a couple of times. If you hear a “ping” or click from inside the tank, you’ve successfully un-jammed the OPD valve and you should have normal flow again. If there’s no pings or clicks, don’t go ape and start bashing the tank against the patio - one or two smacks on hard ground should be enough.
I saw the teeny tiny vent hole. It seemed open. I will blow it out with compressed air though. The grill is only a year old, so corrosion is not a problem, although I did check.
The regulator came with the new grill, so that does not seem to be a likely problem.
I think that there is plenty of gas based on the weight of the tank but will refill the spare tank and try that out later.
Now it is acting weird. I got the old tank and filled it. It was not empty, it only took 13 pounds. Then I tried to attach it to the grill. The grill does not light at all. Back to the old tank. It lights and I am not yet sure if it is working correctly, hard to see the flames in the daylight, but they are blue.
If it means anything the side burner lights as well.