Do you cover your outdoor gas grill? (vinyl, stainless steel, outside)

[ansky]

I have a new stainless steel grill. Is it necessary to cover it while not in use? Looking around my neighborhood it appears that most people do not use covers. I know people that have had grills for 20+ years and never covered it. One thing I noticed with my old grill is that the vinyl cover seemed to still allow in moisture and then that moisture would sit on the grill for days after a rain storm. It seems like if I left it uncovered everything would dry out faster. What do you think?

[dedratermi]

I used to cover it but the last 2 covers seemed to do a better job trapping water in than keeping rain out. Whenever I would take the cover off days after a rain storm, the top of the grill would be wet. So now the grill stays uncovered.

[00molavi]

We bought one last year and my wife bought a cover that was on clearance. We park it under the deck, but the deck is not water proof. So far the cover has done a nice job, every time we need to use the grill, I just take the cover off and things are clean and dry underneath. I have noticed quite some fading in one year (for the cover), so not sure how long it will hold up.

The bottom line is, anything that gets stored outside should not be very valuable to the owner, that's why we went for the cheaper grill, figure we have to buy a new one every 3-4 years.

[coastal chic]

We use a cover now, but only because the palm tree it sits under dumps all kinds of stuff on the grill. In our last house, we did not cover it.

[swerver]

Cover. The grill came with one, plus a couple times I've left it off and it rained, water got inside and flooded the drip pan, making a mess. I expect it to last a long time so, I'll just keep covering it, not too hard.

[haggardhouseelf]

We cover ours, but we also store it in the garage. In Oregon, it's so wet for so long, we don't take our chances!

[Cattknap]

Our small gas barbecue sits on our large screened in porch and it stays covered when not in use - it is a very heavy duty cover that came with the barbecue and it really does keep the water out.

[spacelord75]

I have one of the Weber spirit series grills (not the high end genesis) and bought a Weber cover. I was perplexed with why it had so many mesh slits in it, which would obviously allow water to come into the cover. I then researched and found that rain is really not the purpose of the cover, but more so to protect from falling debri and the sun. In fact, the slits on the cover are there to allow air flow to help eliminate condensation inside the cover, which can cause mildew and rust (or so I read). At any rate, I am super lazy and usually leave the cover off and the grill has been fine for 5 years.

[skel1977]

Yes I cover my grill. I dont want it to rust, i dont want leave and dirt to cake the outside of it and i dont want birds or bees to nest inside it, nor do i want it to rust from water.

[todd72173]

I have a weber grill on wheels and store it in garage during winter. However, I use a cover all the time when it is outside. Cover reaches the ground so no water ever gets inside. Best charcoal/gas start grill.