I will just leave this here


 
I agree with you Josh. Great grill, but sadly the Ducane name no longer seems to be much of a draw in the resale market. You can sell a low-end Weber much easier than you can a Ducane or Broilmaster (another really excellent grill).
 
Jon Tofte said:
I agree with you Josh. Great grill, but sadly the Ducane name no longer seems to be much of a draw in the resale market. You can sell a low-end Weber much easier than you can a Ducane or Broilmaster (another really excellent grill).
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This Ducane looks like the real deal! SS throughout. Solid looking knobs and hardware.

I was at the store looking at a $4,000 brand new Summit this weekend and from the outside yeah oooh shinyyy. Which is what they're going for I guess to snag a buyer in this day and age. Looked very cheaply made. The knobs didn't fit nicely. They were kind of crooked and flimsy. Cheap plastic clips exposed. Everything is thin as possible. The grates look decent but otherwise nothing to brag about. I wouldn't trade a 30-year-old Weber for it. Certainly wouldn't last half as long as one of my 30-year-old restored Weber's

Also checked out the Napoleon grills with similar conclusion. Unimpressive to me.

Maybe my expectations are too high.
 
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Josh Dekubber said:
This Ducane looks like the real deal! SS throughout. Solid looking knobs and hardware.

I was at the store looking at a $4,000 brand new Summit this weekend and from the outside yeah oooh shinyyy. Which is what they're going for I guess to snag a buyer in this day and age. Looked very cheaply made. The knobs didn't fit nicely. They were kind of crooked and flimsy. Cheap plastic clips exposed. Everything is thin as possible. The grates look decent but otherwise nothing to brag about. I wouldn't trade a 30-year-old Weber for it. Certainly wouldn't last half as long as one of my 30-year-old restored Weber's

Also checked out the Napoleon grills with similar conclusion. Unimpressive to me.

Maybe my expectations are too high.
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I think anybody that's willing to roll up their sleeves and work on one of the classic Gennys would come to the same conclusion. Fortunately for us, many aren't willing anymore as convenience and appearance have overtaken workmanship and skills.
 
I think Weber used the Summit/Vieluxe blueprint on those big Ducane models. They're really tanks. I recall seeing them in places like Home Depot, and being quite impressed. I seem to recall stumbling across an online "owner's club" for them.
I'm wondering if you hid the badge and sold as "Premium Stainless Grill" you would not get some takers. The nice thing is odds are you will not need to be dealing with "bad or corroded/rusted out" parts and panels. It's just gonna be cleaning and polishing. TO get an impressive grill to sell. Hell slap a Viking badge on it and 90% would never know :D
 
LMichaels said:
I think Weber used the Summit/Vieluxe blueprint on those big Ducane models. They're really tanks. I recall seeing them in places like Home Depot, and being quite impressed. I seem to recall stumbling across an online "owner's club" for them.
I'm wondering if you hid the badge and sold as "Premium Stainless Grill" you would not get some takers. The nice thing is odds are you will not need to be dealing with "bad or corroded/rusted out" parts and panels. It's just gonna be cleaning and polishing. TO get an impressive grill to sell. Hell slap a Viking badge on it and 90% would never know :D
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How much did they sell for? About How long ago?
 
I don't know Josh. The thing with Weber and Ducane as I understand it was that Weber bought them out and then transferred production over to China. Of course it makes sense they didn't last long after that. But keeping the brand alive and thriving was not Weber's real intent as I understand it. They were using the brand as a test for transferring production over seas without while being able to distance the actual Weber brand from the experiment. Eventually Ducane was closed down which I think was pretty much expected but Weber got what they wanted and that was experience and experimentation with moving production overseas. As it turned out, a lot of that experience was likely valuable when Weber actually did start to move some of it's production over to China about 7-8 years ago.
 
Bruce said:
I don't know Josh. The thing with Weber and Ducane as I understand it was that Weber bought them out and then transferred production over to China. Of course it makes sense they didn't last long after that. But keeping the brand alive and thriving was not Weber's real intent as I understand it. They were using the brand as a test for transferring production over seas without while being able to distance the actual Weber brand from the experiment. Eventually Ducane was closed down which I think was pretty much expected but Weber got what they wanted and that was experience and experimentation with moving production overseas. As it turned out, a lot of that experience was likely valuable when Weber actually did start to move some of it's production over to China about 7-8 years ago.
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Okay thanks Bruce
 
That is actually a relatively brilliant move, to let another brand fall on the sword and learning what I would think was incredibly valuable information on the process.
 
How much did Weber actually save by using this plain Jane control panel on Spirit E300 grills instead of just using a Genesis control panel. I can't imagine it costs much more to add the extra printing. Balance that out with having to redesign and retool the manufacturing process along with the less desirable appeal and I think it was a mistake.

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It might have been to make it a universal international control panel. I can't read it clearly enough, but it looks like the few words on there are in more than one language.
 
Eric, that is a disaster grill. Obviously converted from NG to LP and probably not done right. He is gonna be sitting on that grill for a while.
 
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