Whether you cook an entire meal on your BBQ once a week or use it twice a year to grill hot dogs, sooner or later you will need to repair or replace some BBQ parts. Even the best of grills wear out eventually, but before they do, individual burners will crust over, values will leak, knobs will fall off and heat shields will rust through.
Regular inspections and maintenance on the BBQ parts that bear the brunt of the work in your grill can keep your grill operating at it's best for years. The burner is the heart of your grill so it should be inspected and cleaned on a regular basis. Depending on how often you use your grill you might want to do this once a month or more. Your burner is working properly when the flame burns evenly around the perimeter of the burner at all control settings.
It's easy for individual holes in the burner to become clogged by cooking grease and just as easy to clean them out. All you need is a bent paper clip or wire coat hanger. A burner should last 2-5 years if properly maintained. Signs that yours might be nearing the end of its life include heavy rust (some rust is common on all grill parts) or discoloration especially along the seams. Replace it immediately if any spots have rusted all the way through or if the burner has started to split along the seams.
There are several places you can go to find replacements for burners and every other part that makes up your grill. While you might get lucky and find the exact part you need at your local hardware store, the Internet is quickly becoming the best and most reliable way to find the right replacement part.
Most major manufacturers maintain their own websites and will sell BBQ parts directly from their site. They are also the most likely place to find the user's manual and specification sheets that will tell you exactly how to affect the repair or replacement yourself.
For those times when you're not sure who made your grill, or that model is no longer being manufactured, you may still be able to use universal BBQ parts. There are a growing number of BBQ parts distributors online that offer both brand name and universal parts for sale. Of course, some universal replacement parts are safer to use than others.
Knobs are fairly standard items and could be replaced without a second thought. Burners that don't quite fit the dimensions of your grill cavity and need to be bent, or gas hoses or clamps that don't form a perfectly tight seal because they are not quite the right size, may appear to be economical options, but they could cause gas leaks or explosions that could destroy your grill and cause serious injury.
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