We pick the Weber Genesis E-315 Gas Grill
Spend the extra $170 on the Genesis E-315, unless pans are how you cook outdoors. It gives 513 sq in of grate against 428, two clear side tables and twelve years on the cookbox. The E-435 answers with a Sear Zone, 82 BTU per square inch against 76, and a 12,000 BTU burner set into its left table. Our reviews score the Genesis higher, and nearly all of that gap is reliability.
What actually differs
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Two ways to free up grate
The E-435 makes room by moving pans off the grill onto its side burner. The E-315 simply starts with 85 more square inches. One cooks elsewhere; the other is bigger.
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Two prep tables against one
Both Genesis side tables are fixed and free for platters and prep. On the E-435 the left one is a burner well under a hinged cover, so a pan there leaves one surface for everything else.
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The Spirit wins the heat score and loses the long one
Our Spirit review scores heat higher, for the Sear Zone and the extra burner. Our Genesis review scores long-term reliability 2.5 points higher, because the side burner sits in Weber's two-year tier.
The scorecard, side by side
Both reviews are scored on the same six weighted categories, each bar on the same 0–10 scale, and every cell carries the reason that review gave. A row is marked won only where the two differ by a tenth or more. How we score →
Even heat is the whole claim, but 39,000 BTU over 513 square inches is not a dense fire.
Four burners and 35,000 BTU unchanged from the E-425, with 12,000 more sent where no grate sits.
Twelve years on cookbox and lid, ten on everything sitting in the fire, five under the rest, better cover than rivals at this price.
The side burner appears in none of Weber's longer warranty tiers, so the paid-for part carries two years.
Porcelain-enameled lid and cast iron grates, stainless Flavorizer bars, painted steel doors, 162 pounds of cart.
Cast iron, stainless bars and a closed cabinet, but one side table is now a recessed burner well.
Electronic ignition, six tool hooks and two fixed side tables, against an assembly job and 162 pounds.
Every burner lights on its own, though the fifth knob hangs under the table instead of on the fascia.
The listed $899.00 buys area and warranty years, while the Crafted grillware that widens its range is charged separately.
No Genesis is listed under $899.00, and the four-burner E-415 asks $1,199.00 against this grill's $729.00.
The grease tray pulls straight out, but chipped enamel corrodes and paint carries only two years.
The grease tray still empties in one motion, but the burner well is a second surface catching boil-overs.
Published figures that differ
Quoted from each maker's own specifications, as each review records them. Figures the two products publish identically are left out — only the differences are listed.
Which one is for you
You want the bigger grate, two clear prep tables and the longer written cover, and can spare $170.
Check price →You cook sauces and sides in pans outdoors and want a marked sear side, for less money.
Check price →More head-to-heads
Every score and figure on this page comes from our own reviews of these two products, linked above. We have not tested them side by side in one place; the comparison is between two full reviews, each built from the maker's published specifications and documentation. Prices move, and the ones quoted are the ones each review checked on its own date.