1980's Weber 22" Kettle ( Re-branded Sears Kenmore)


 
ChadRex

ChadRex

TVWBB Super Fan
I am curious if anyone here has a Weber kettle like the one my old man passed down to me.

It's a Weber 22.5"Kettle Re-branded as a Sears/Kenmore sold exclusively for Sears.

Some of the Features:
  • Standard Black Weber kettle complete with the standard 2 wheels and tube legs, I have replaced these as they wore out.
  • a black drip pan with vent holes that sits below charcoal grate inside kettle
  • Cooking grate is a porcelain coated steal style cooking grate.
  • The lid handles are black plastic with Kenmore logos

I will take pictures and try to find date stamps on the dampers, I believe it is a 1980's era grill, my father got it at a Sears store in the midwest.

I am curious how many of these are out there, I did a google search and no luck..

Post pictures later..
 
Chad Bman said:
Is is a Happy Cooker?
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Mahalo Chad, Thanks for the reply,
after a Google of "Happy Cooker" I would say it is almost identical with the exception of the "Happy Cooker" wording.

Mine has Kenmore on the black plastic handles, Is this NOT an actual Weber?? I was under the impression it was made by Weber to be sold and re-branded under the Sear/Kenmore name as an "economy" Kettle? Its my understanding that Weber made the grills for Sears.

All the grates, wheels and Weber parts fit perfectly. ( As mentioned above i have replaced the wheels and legs.)
Mine was bought by my old man and passed down to me after I bout him a Weber Performer.
It is in excellent condition, new wheels & legs had to replace one lower vent damper,
Always stored covered, in garaged when not in use. Have smoked Turkeys on it for the past 20 years.

If it's not an actual Weber it is one hell of a knock off that has held up over the years.
I liked the addition of the internal ash basket, and Porcelain covered grill grate.

I will have to get around to taking detailed pictures...

Mahalo,
ChadRex
 
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It's my understanding from reading all sorts of stuff on the internet (gotta be true then, right?) that Weber never let their product sell with some other name on it. If Weber made it, Weber stamped it with their name. Here's a bit of reading info for ya.

The Happy Cooker company or Unarco Home Products as it was known was located in Paris Illinois in the 70's. their primary business was stainless steel kitchen items . They added a porcelain enamel plant right next door in the late 70's and were looking to grow the business , when someone came up with the idea of a BBQ . They began to produce a kettle style porcelain enameled BBQ that looked very much like a weber , it was also more affordable and they managed to land a deal to supply Sears, which got Webers attention .Unarco was careful not to straight up just copy Weber , they changed the leg sockets , the lid , vent sizes and other small details but ultimately their design was to close to Webers and a patent infringement lawsuit arose forcing them to cease production immediately . Naturally Weber won and my source seems to remember it was a case of The Happy Cooker being told to not do it again or Weber would if fact prosecute , Anarco agreed and in the early 80' s Unarco relocated to Louisiana never to produce another BBQ . The old Anarco plant in Paris is a super fund cleanup site and many of the employees are gone or relocated to Louisiana when the company did leaving behind a grill with a short and checkered past as a copy cat . My sources include the Paris chamber of commerce , the editor in chief of the Paris area newspaper for over 40 years as well as the current owners of Anarco which is the Franke Company. After 40 plus years memories are vague at best and some folks I spoke with still think that Weber was somehow involved with the Happy Cooker but that was never the case.

As far as The Happy Cooker goes if you have one , well they only lasted a hand full of years my source wasn't sure of the dates only that it was late 70's and by the early 80's Anarco was gone. He said if you could find the date that they relocated you would find the final year or production , he did not know the first year of production exactly . For me it makes them a great part of a Weber collection because in fact Weber was involved , just not in the way many people thought . I have an e- mail sent to the former VP of The Happy Cooker division which I hope can shed some light on dating these for future reference .
~reply from VP snip~
To answer your question, the Happy Cooker was made by UNR right there in Paris in the Simington Plant. We bought the plant from Eagle Pitcher to porcelainize sinks. When that product didn't pan out we developed the Happy Cooker.
Years later as a result of Chapter XI, UNR sold the equipment and tooling to Weber who moved it. Don't know where.
Hope this helps.
~snip~
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I had an Uncle that lived in Waukesha, WI that worked at Sears for years and years.
Remember him arguing with my dad (many years ago) about a grill that he sells (sold) at Sears that was the best.
At that time, the only grill we had was one of those round dish types about three inches deep and the cooking grate was raised and lowered from the center of the grill using a lever.
Similar to this ▼ without the rotisserie.


Then, my dad bought a Weber, a small 18" yellow kettle. Made my uncle furious!
Not much later, my dad also won a Weber (a 22" red kettle) in a church raffle.
That's when my uncle blew up and swore that Weber copied Sears' grill.

Reading the article above brought back many memories of those long summer days when Uncle Bob fumed :)
 
Jim I remember that grill. My dad had one when I was young. I have been searching craigslist for one of those for quite some time. Still have not found one yet. My dads had the roto. If they sold it at Sears that doesnt suprise me. My parents bought almost everything they owned there.
 
Steve, I do not know where my dad got that old grill from, maybe Sears... I do remember him telling me to go find stones to fill a coffee can so he'd put those stones on the bottom of that grill. Got air flow around the lit charcoal.
About the same time he invented the charcoal chimney using two coffee cans wired one atop the other with holes in the side and long nails thru the base of one of those cans...
 
I think many folks in the 60's had one of these shallow round grills with the adjustable lever for grate height. My grandfather had one, but in forest green. He could burn hamburgers real good on that sucker! :)
 
how about reciting the alphabet twice then your name and address before he would flip those burgers.... uh huh!
that's what we did while the burgers and sausage was grillin'....
like, a lesson learned before you could eet.
 
Chris Allingham said:
I think many folks in the 60's had one of these shallow round grills with the adjustable lever for grate height. My grandfather had one, but in forest green. He could burn hamburgers real good on that sucker! :)
Click to expand...

Haaa, that made me laugh! It sure was a simpler time back in the day and the equipment and food probably wasn't as "sophisticated" or as good on the grill as now but the memories are sure better!
 
We had one of those shallow grills as well (sans roti)! It was light blue and rust as I recall. And I don't mean the color rust...LOL. Perhaps it was actually rust and light blue! :cool:
I was just at my moms house and she still has the grate - that is surprisingly in very good condition.
 
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