Jon Tofte
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I am working on a "secret project" Genesis 330. During my tax season, I could only piddle around with it, so I used the time to buy some parts to be ready. This grill has the 4th sear burner. I had one leftover Weber burner tube, so I only needed to buy a set of 3 (cheaper!). I was in a hurry and didn't do a good job of looking at the reviews on Amazon; I bought a set of UTHEER burners for $29.99 plus tax. I figured it would all work out.
THE GOOD: They are non-magnetic stainless and feel reasonably solid.
THE BAD: These burners have a notched end to fit between a tall and short post on the 300 series grills, but this one had a problem.
Here's how the OEM Weber (magnetic by the way) fits:
You can see that the notch on the right of the tube aligns well with the tall post and the flat side on the left rests on top of the short post.
Here's how my import burner tube from Utheer fit - or should I say DIDN'T fit. In my picture it doesn't look terrible, but in fact the tube will NOT stay in place:
It's been made UPSIDE DOWN!!!
Obviously, I can't flip it over, but for fun I tried:
Even if they had made the burner with the holes on the correct side, although the notch now aligns OK, the flat side on the left is too narrow and won't keep the burner from falling into the recessed area next to the post.
My Amazon return window expired already, since I bought and held this part over the winter. I reached out directly to Utheer, and much to my amazement, I got a call at 9:30PM from a very polite lady with an Asian accent (calling form China?) She sent me an email so that I could reply and send some of the above pictures and an explanation of the problem. She said in her email that this would be rectified. I stressed to her that it was just as important to me that the factory get it straight which side to put the holes in and that they needed to much more closely copy the OEM burner so that it would sit flat.
Not willing to wait for this resolution - although I am at least impressed the level of effort Utheer has started out doing for a thirty buck set of tubes - I went back to Amazon and reviewed options. I was ready to concede to an overpriced set of Weber OEM tubes, until I saw the offering from Qlimetal. $29.99. Great reviews, and buyer uploaded pictures (never trust the ad pictures for something like this!) showed that the Qlimetal ones were extremely close to OEM specs. I have always had great success with QLimetal flavorizer bars and grill grates. They currently offer the only viable 9mm stainless grates for the older Genesis grills.
Anyway, Qlimetal did not let me down. Their set even included a set of screws (magnetic) and an instruction sheet, both of which were nowhere to be seen with the Utheer burner set. The Qlimetal tubes are also non-magnetic, and they weigh in about an ounce heavier than the Utheer ones.
Here's a lineup with Qlimetal on the left, Weber in the middle, and Utheer on the right:
A closeup comparison, Utheer on the left, Weber in the middle, and Qlimetal on the right.
Notice also, that Qlimetal uses the "slit" openings like the OEM Weber version. I read many complaints on reviews of other non-OEM burners about this. Many of the ad pictures showed slits, but the tubes actually came with round holes. How much this matters, I do not know. I will leave that to people like @LMichaels who know way more about gas (Sorry Larry!) than I do.
In conclusion, I want to be clear that although I received a poorly made product from them, the jury is still out about Utheer's customer service and commitment to correcting their design/production problems. I never expected to get any response from them, much less a personal phone call. So, I am not writing this to bash Utheer. I will report back on what follow-up I receive.
I will, however, continue to praise Qlimetal. I am sure they have had misses, but I have such good success with their products, that I feel they try hard to rise above the pack of here today, gone tomorrow sellers of imported non-OEM grill parts. These burners are another good example of that. GIven that they must be 304 SS, they EXCEED the quality of the Weber OEM burners. I am very proud to put them in my "secret project" grill. More on that later...
THE GOOD: They are non-magnetic stainless and feel reasonably solid.
THE BAD: These burners have a notched end to fit between a tall and short post on the 300 series grills, but this one had a problem.
Here's how the OEM Weber (magnetic by the way) fits:
You can see that the notch on the right of the tube aligns well with the tall post and the flat side on the left rests on top of the short post.
Here's how my import burner tube from Utheer fit - or should I say DIDN'T fit. In my picture it doesn't look terrible, but in fact the tube will NOT stay in place:
It's been made UPSIDE DOWN!!!
Obviously, I can't flip it over, but for fun I tried:
Even if they had made the burner with the holes on the correct side, although the notch now aligns OK, the flat side on the left is too narrow and won't keep the burner from falling into the recessed area next to the post.
My Amazon return window expired already, since I bought and held this part over the winter. I reached out directly to Utheer, and much to my amazement, I got a call at 9:30PM from a very polite lady with an Asian accent (calling form China?) She sent me an email so that I could reply and send some of the above pictures and an explanation of the problem. She said in her email that this would be rectified. I stressed to her that it was just as important to me that the factory get it straight which side to put the holes in and that they needed to much more closely copy the OEM burner so that it would sit flat.
Not willing to wait for this resolution - although I am at least impressed the level of effort Utheer has started out doing for a thirty buck set of tubes - I went back to Amazon and reviewed options. I was ready to concede to an overpriced set of Weber OEM tubes, until I saw the offering from Qlimetal. $29.99. Great reviews, and buyer uploaded pictures (never trust the ad pictures for something like this!) showed that the Qlimetal ones were extremely close to OEM specs. I have always had great success with QLimetal flavorizer bars and grill grates. They currently offer the only viable 9mm stainless grates for the older Genesis grills.
Anyway, Qlimetal did not let me down. Their set even included a set of screws (magnetic) and an instruction sheet, both of which were nowhere to be seen with the Utheer burner set. The Qlimetal tubes are also non-magnetic, and they weigh in about an ounce heavier than the Utheer ones.
Here's a lineup with Qlimetal on the left, Weber in the middle, and Utheer on the right:
A closeup comparison, Utheer on the left, Weber in the middle, and Qlimetal on the right.
Notice also, that Qlimetal uses the "slit" openings like the OEM Weber version. I read many complaints on reviews of other non-OEM burners about this. Many of the ad pictures showed slits, but the tubes actually came with round holes. How much this matters, I do not know. I will leave that to people like @LMichaels who know way more about gas
(Sorry Larry!) than I do.In conclusion, I want to be clear that although I received a poorly made product from them, the jury is still out about Utheer's customer service and commitment to correcting their design/production problems. I never expected to get any response from them, much less a personal phone call. So, I am not writing this to bash Utheer. I will report back on what follow-up I receive.
I will, however, continue to praise Qlimetal. I am sure they have had misses, but I have such good success with their products, that I feel they try hard to rise above the pack of here today, gone tomorrow sellers of imported non-OEM grill parts. These burners are another good example of that. GIven that they must be 304 SS, they EXCEED the quality of the Weber OEM burners. I am very proud to put them in my "secret project" grill. More on that later...
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