Char-Broil main burners are usually stamped steel tubes with a row of ports and a cotter pin or screw at the back. They rust when heat plates fail. Replacing them is a Saturday job if you match length and inlet. It is a leak if you buy a “fits most 4-burner” set that is 3/4 inch short.
Before you shop
- Count main tubes (not the side burner).
- Measure length and the inlet opening.
- Photograph the rear mount (pin, screw, strap).
- Read the full model string on the plate.
- Search Amazon or BBQGuys for Char-Broil plus that string plus burner. Compare the photo. We do not invent ASINs.
- If the heat plates are lace, buy plates in the same order. See heat plates.
Safety
- Tank off and out. Cold box.
- Do not bend the brass orifices on the valves. Those valves are the expensive part.
- Lid open for the test.
Procedure
- Photograph everything, including the crossover if present. Many Char-Broil carts use carryover notches instead of a separate crossover.
- Grates and plates out. Electrode off if it blocks the left tube.
- Pull rear pins or screws. Slide tubes off the orifices. If an inlet is rust-welded, twist the tube — do not pry the valve.
- Sky-check old tubes. Extra holes, split seams, crumbled inlets: scrap.
- Dry-fit the new set. Every inlet must swallow its orifice with the rear hole on the mount. If the last tube will not land, you have the wrong length. Stop.
- Pin or screw the rears. Refit electrode and gap. Refit plates over the port rows.
- Tank on. Soap the coupling. Lid open. Light each burner. Blue rows. A flame at the front shutter is a missed orifice — shut and reseat.
Side burner
- Separate short tube and a separate electrode.
- Do not steal a main-tube kit to invent a side burner.
- If the side burner valve leaks, that is not a tube job.
After
- Burn off oil. Recheck pins after the first heat cycle; stamped tubes walk.
- If a tube rusts through again in a season, the plate above it is failed or missing.
- Four tubes plus plates plus an igniter plus a tray exceeding a new Performance cart → repair versus replace.
Not affiliated with Char-Broil.