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Weber Summit S-470 Gas Grill Review

Weber Summit S-470 Gas Grill Review
April 10, 2020

When we bought our home a few years back, our real estate agent new I was into grilling so she gave us some money towards a grill as a closing present.  Naturally, excited about having a backyard as opposed to living in an apartment, I went in search of more than just an entry level grill to fully embrace my dreams of home ownership.  I was looking for something with a lot of space so I could grill for all our friends when they came over, something with loads of power to to sear steaks or bake pizzas at high heats and a few other bells and whistles like a rotisserie and a side burner.  The Weber Summit S-470 Gas Grill is what we landed on.  

Weber Summit S-470 Gas Grill in our backyard

Weber is one of the dominant grill manufacturers with some of the most popular grills in virtually every segment of the market and I can understand why.  As of the date of this article, I'm up to 14 grills at home (is that a problem???) but we still use the Summit S-470 as our daily driver - it gets more use than any other grill in our fleet and it's by a fairly wide margin.  It's not just because of the convenience of having a gas grill (that certainly helps) but there are a bunch of other reasons too that we wanted to cover off in this review.

Ribeye on the Weber Summit S-470 Gas Grill    Rotisserie Chicken on the Weber Summit S-470 Gas Grill

Tomahawk Steak on the S-470 Gas Grill    Steak Sear on the Side Burner of the Summit S-470

Key Features

  • Large grill surface with ~580 sq. inches of grillings space. 470 sq. inches of that is on the main grilling surface and the other 112 sq. inches is on the warming rack.
  • 4 burners totaling 48,800 BTUs of power with each burner being rated at 12,200 BTUs.
  • The grill has a sear station which is an additional burner in the middle of the grill rated at 10,600 BTUs.  This is perfect for crank up the heat when you're searing off steaks.
  • Smoker box with dedicated burner (6,800 BTUs) that will ignite whatever wood chips, chunks or pellets you put in the box.
  • The rotisserie has a fold-away motor and a 10,600 BTU infrared burner on the back of the grill.
  • The side burner is rated at 12,000 BTUs so it's good for cooking up anything in a frying pan while you grill.
  • The S-470 comes in both a propane model and one with a natural gas hook-up.  The natural gas hook-up was about options
  • There are two large stainless steel side tables that have six hooks to hang your BBQ tools from.
  • There are lights on the burner knobs and a light on the hood handle that are battery powered

 

What we like about the Weber Summit S-470 Gas Grill

Here are the best parts of having splurged on this grill.  We have used this grill at least once a week including through the winter for the last three years, so these comments come after LOTS of experience with the grill.

  • It's a real work horse with loads of space.  For the past couple of years we have hosted our work summer BBQ at our house which as meant we're grilling for more than 20 people.  It's at times like that I'm glad choose a grill with this much space.
  • Almost no hot spots.  This is one of the main reasons we invested into the grill.  When you're grilling for a large group and you fill-up the BBQ you don't have to worry about moving your proteins around the grill to get even heat.  Whether something's in the middle of the grill or at an edge, you're getting a reasonably even amount of heat.
  • Solid grease management with almost no flare ups.  This is another really important grill criteria for us because we love cooking burgers with 80/20 chuck and other well marbled proteins like ribeyes and sausages.  We haven't had any issues with flare-up, the renders just drip down onto the flavorizer bars vaporize to add a really nice smoky flavor to our cooks.
  • Loads of power with over 60,000 BTUs when the sear station is turned on.  With the burners on max we have been able to max out the hood thermometer at 750F.
  • The grill is really durable and comes with a 10 year manufacturer's warranty.  We grill A LOT and in the three years we have owned the grill we haven't had to replace any components yet.  The heavy duty 9 mm grill grates are still in great shape, the igniters still fire and the black hood hasn't faded at all even though being left in the sun.  The only sign of ware is on the underside of the flavorizer bars but we probably have another 3 years of use out of those before they'll need to be replaced. Solid customer service
  • The rotisserie motor folds away beneath one of the side tables and the rod and clamps can be stored under the BBQ itself.  We have so many BBQ accessories, tools and rubs stored in the house, we're always pleased when manufactures come up with a way like this to store accessories in the grill itself.

 

Drawbacks to the Weber S-470 Gas Grill

While we really enjoy our gas grill, there are a few drawback or shortcomings you should be aware of.

  • The grill is a little pricey and definitely a splurge.  As of the date of this article the propane model was $2,099 and the natural gas version was $2,149. 
  • The batteries for the lights have to be replaced pretty frequently.  I'm not sure why Weber didn't opt to require the grill to be plugged into an electrical outlet. 
  • You sometimes need to trigger the igniter multiple times before the burner actually lights up.  But on the plus side all of the original igniters on the grill still work which is pretty remarkable.
  • We have had the rotisserie motor freeze on us in the winter due to extreme cold temperatures.  So we have resorted to bringing the motor inside the night before our winter rotisserie cooks to warm it up which works just fine.
  • The only fuel source is propane/gas and you don't have the option of wood or charcoal fuel.  At least you have the smoker box if you want to augment the flavor profile, but it's still not the same as the multi-fuel grills.  With that said, some of the multi-fuel grills on the market can cost upwards of $10,000 and some as much as $30,000. 

Accessories

The great thing about this grill is it comes with virtually everything you need which is very different than some of our other grill reviews like the Weber Kettle or the Cuisinart 360 Griddle where we view the accessories as essential.  There are really only a few things you might consider getting for your Weber Summit.

  • You'll want to get a cover for your grill.  If you're spending this much on a grill you're going to want to protect it.  Also, for some reason the birds see my uncovered grill as a bullseye... honestly, I just finished up our deep spring cleaning and within an hour the birds had already targeted it!
  • If this is your first grill, then you'll want to pick-up a set of BBQ tools.  Just the basis like a flipper for burgers and tongs for sausages
  • You're going to want to keep the grill grates clean.  I'd highly recommend buying Grill floss.  It's inexpensive, does an amazing job scraping all of the debris off your grill grates and it doesn't leave any wire bristles behind that could potentially get in your food. 
  • If you like pizza, then you might consider getting a pizza stone.  If you do, I'd highly recommend getting one with an enamel exterior.  They're a lot less likely to crack on you when they're heating up or cooling down.