Gas grill too hot? Why the temperature will not come down.

A grease fire inside the firebox produces heat independently of what the burner knobs are doing. If turning the knobs down does not visibly reduce the flame or temperature, and you can see flames through the grill vents or around the lid, you likely have a grease fire in the drip tray or on the flavorizer bars.

The correct response to a grease fire:

1. Close the grill lid. This cuts off oxygen and is often enough to extinguish the fire.
2. Turn all burner knobs to off.
3. Close the propane tank valve (clockwise).
4. Step away and wait. Do not open the lid again for at least 5 minutes.
5. If the fire persists or grows and escapes the grill, use baking soda, a fire extinguisher rated for grease fires, or call the fire department. Never use water.

Once the grill has cooled, clean the drip tray and flavorizer bars before your next cook. A grease fire that happens once will happen again if the grease is not removed.

Full grease-fire prevention guide: gas grill flare-ups.

Most gas grill lid thermometers measure air temperature at dome level, not at the cooking surface. Grate temperature is typically 50 to 100 degrees higher than the lid gauge reads. This means a lid reading of 400 degrees could mean 450 to 500 degrees at grate level. Conversely, a grill that looks dangerously hot from the lid gauge may actually be in range at the grate.

To get an accurate reading, use an instant-read thermometer held at grate level, or a grate probe clipped to the grill grate. If the grate temperature is within your intended cooking range, the lid thermometer is likely reading incorrectly, not the grill running hot.

Our best grill thermometer guide compares instant-read vs leave-in options and picks the ones worth buying.

• Know the real temperature

  Grill thermometers and probes

  An accurate grate-level thermometer is the only way to know what you are actually cooking at. The lid gauge is a rough guide at best. For full recommendations, see the thermometer guide below.

  Read the thermometer guide →

A two-zone setup is the most practical heat management technique for a grill that runs consistently hotter than your recipe needs. Turn one burner (or two on a three-burner grill) completely off. The off side becomes your cool zone where food can finish cooking with ambient heat rather than direct flame.

Sear over the hot side, then move the food to the cool side and close the lid. The grill stays at its natural running temperature but the food is no longer directly over the flame. For fatty cuts and chicken, this also reduces flare-ups.

If even the burner on its lowest setting produces too much heat for what you are cooking, the two-zone method is often the only fix that does not require replacing parts.

Light one burner at a time and slowly cycle its control knob from high to low, watching the flame. On a correctly functioning burner, the flame should visibly reduce in size as you turn toward low. If you can turn the knob through its full range with no visible change in flame size, that control valve is likely faulty or stuck.

Try this on each burner individually. If one or more knobs show no response, the problem is isolated to those valves. If all knobs fail to throttle, the problem may be upstream in the manifold or regulator.

Note whether the valve turns smoothly or feels gritty and stiff. Grease can foul valve o-rings over time. If the knob turns but only in certain positions, the valve may need replacement rather than cleaning.

Regulators are designed to maintain consistent gas pressure. A failed-open regulator passes more gas than intended to all burners simultaneously. This is less common than the bypass (which restricts flow), but it does happen, especially on older units.

The reset procedure:

1. Turn all burner knobs off.
2. Close the propane tank valve.
3. Disconnect the regulator from the tank.
4. Wait 30 seconds.
5. Reconnect and hand-tighten.
6. Open the tank valve slowly over 3 to 4 seconds.
7. Light the grill and check whether the burners now respond to the knobs.

If the reset restores normal throttling behavior, a temporary regulator fault was the cause. If the problem persists, the regulator has likely failed and needs replacement.