Smokey Mountain Cookers in color


 

What porcelain enamel color would you like to see a Smokey Mountain Cooker in?

  • Deep Ocean Blue

    Votes: 21 38.2%

  • Smoke

    Votes: 3 5.5%

  • Slate

    Votes: 2 3.6%

  • Indigo

    Votes: 3 5.5%

  • Green

    Votes: 5 9.1%

  • Burnt Orange

    Votes: 7 12.7%

  • Fog Gray

    Votes: 3 5.5%

  • Crimson

    Votes: 10 18.2%

  • Copper

    Votes: 1 1.8%
  • Total voters
    55
John Burns said:
In order to make a shiny orange, we would have to make the grill in China. This is because we'd need to use cadmium in the porcelain enamel formula to get that bright, shiny appearance.

There are strict regulations in the US pertaining to the use/disposal of cadmium in manufacturing. Its the reason we haven't made bright red kettles since 1999, except for the Limited Edition Red Kettle from 2016/2017 (which was made in China) and I'd much prefer to make the kettles locally here in Illinois if I can.
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Makes sense. Then I change my vote to deep ocean blue!
 
John Burns said:
In order to make a shiny orange, we would have to make the grill in China. This is because we'd need to use cadmium in the porcelain enamel formula to get that bright, shiny appearance.

There are strict regulations in the US pertaining to the use/disposal of cadmium in manufacturing. Its the reason we haven't made bright red kettles since 1999, except for the Limited Edition Red Kettle from 2016/2017 (which was made in China) and I'd much prefer to make the kettles locally here in Illinois if I can.
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John,
It is so good to have you here on our board bringing insight and explanation where we would otherwise just have speculations.

I was sorry that the "Limited Edition" kettles didn't turn out as well as we all hoped. While I have seen a few that look nice, many I saw in stores had a poor quality finish and even chipped porcelain while still on the shelf. I agree with you that making them here should be a priority.
 
It's like the new appliances. Not shiny and smudge proof.
That would be another way, like a dull powder coat or primer.
 
Jon Tofte said:
John,
It is so good to have you here on our board bringing insight and explanation where we would otherwise just have speculations.

I was sorry that the "Limited Edition" kettles didn't turn out as well as we all hoped. While I have seen a few that look nice, many I saw in stores had a poor quality finish and even chipped porcelain while still on the shelf. I agree with you that making them here should be a priority.
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Percentage-wise, the vast majority of the LE Red Kettles were perfectly fine, but unfortunately there were plenty out there that had issues.

Being that it was such a high-profile product marketed to our most vocal and discerning segment of Weber consumers (kettle fans), there was no shortage of dissatisfied LE Red Kettle purchasers sharing their experience and photos on social media or in forums. There were far fewer that shared photos of their issue free LE Red Kettles.

That scenario lead to a bit of a skewed perception of the number of issues, and the situation reminds me of a frequent interaction I experienced during my time in Weber Consumer Care. I'd be helping a customer with an issue with their grill and they'd ask "is there a problem with this part/grill?" and my response would often times be something like "I'm the wrong person to ask because I only hear from the people with problems. No one is contacting us to tell us how there grill has no issues.".

Long story short, there were problems with the porcelain enamel finish on LE Red Kettles, but they weren't as bad as it might have seemed.

Regardless, keeping as much production local as possible is preferable to me because I can easily drive 30 minutes down I-90 to the factory in Huntley to work directly with the manufacturing team.
 
John Burns said:
Percentage-wise, the vast majority of the LE Red Kettles were perfectly fine, but unfortunately there were plenty out there that had issues.

Being that it was such a high-profile product marketed to our most vocal and discerning segment of Weber consumers (kettle fans), there was no shortage of dissatisfied LE Red Kettle purchasers sharing their experience and photos on social media or in forums. There were far fewer that shared photos of their issue free LE Red Kettles.

That scenario lead to a bit of a skewed perception of the number of issues, and the situation reminds me of a frequent interaction I experienced during my time in Weber Consumer Care. I'd be helping a customer with an issue with their grill and they'd ask "is there a problem with this part/grill?" and my response would often times be something like "I'm the wrong person to ask because I only hear from the people with problems. No one is contacting us to tell us how there grill has no issues.".

Long story short, there were problems with the porcelain enamel finish on LE Red Kettles, but they weren't as bad as it might have seemed.

Regardless, keeping as much production local as possible is preferable to me because I can easily drive 30 minutes down I-90 to the factory in Huntley to work directly with the manufacturing team.
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Your job sounds like fun!!
 
John Burns said:
Percentage-wise, the vast majority of the LE Red Kettles were perfectly fine, but unfortunately there were plenty out there that had issues.

Being that it was such a high-profile product marketed to our most vocal and discerning segment of Weber consumers (kettle fans), there was no shortage of dissatisfied LE Red Kettle purchasers sharing their experience and photos on social media or in forums. There were far fewer that shared photos of their issue free LE Red Kettles.

That scenario lead to a bit of a skewed perception of the number of issues, and the situation reminds me of a frequent interaction I experienced during my time in Weber Consumer Care. I'd be helping a customer with an issue with their grill and they'd ask "is there a problem with this part/grill?" and my response would often times be something like "I'm the wrong person to ask because I only hear from the people with problems. No one is contacting us to tell us how there grill has no issues.".

Long story short, there were problems with the porcelain enamel finish on LE Red Kettles, but they weren't as bad as it might have seemed.

Regardless, keeping as much production local as possible is preferable to me because I can easily drive 30 minutes down I-90 to the factory in Huntley to work directly with the manufacturing team.
Click to expand...

I would say the same would apply for the Smokefire.
 
John Burns said:
Percentage-wise, the vast majority of the LE Red Kettles were perfectly fine, but unfortunately there were plenty out there that had issues.

Being that it was such a high-profile product marketed to our most vocal and discerning segment of Weber consumers (kettle fans), there was no shortage of dissatisfied LE Red Kettle purchasers sharing their experience and photos on social media or in forums. There were far fewer that shared photos of their issue free LE Red Kettles.

That scenario lead to a bit of a skewed perception of the number of issues, and the situation reminds me of a frequent interaction I experienced during my time in Weber Consumer Care. I'd be helping a customer with an issue with their grill and they'd ask "is there a problem with this part/grill?" and my response would often times be something like "I'm the wrong person to ask because I only hear from the people with problems. No one is contacting us to tell us how there grill has no issues.".

Long story short, there were problems with the porcelain enamel finish on LE Red Kettles, but they weren't as bad as it might have seemed.

Regardless, keeping as much production local as possible is preferable to me because I can easily drive 30 minutes down I-90 to the factory in Huntley to work directly with the manufacturing team.
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When the LE Red first came out, I recall all the bad press, pictures, etc. I waited about 6 months after things seem to settle down & purchased mine via Amazon. It arrived in very good shape & was worth the wait!IMG_5667.jpg
 
John Burns said:
In order to make a shiny orange, we would have to make the grill in China. This is because we'd need to use cadmium in the porcelain enamel formula to get that bright, shiny appearance.

There are strict regulations in the US pertaining to the use/disposal of cadmium in manufacturing. Its the reason we haven't made bright red kettles since 1999, except for the Limited Edition Red Kettle from 2016/2017 (which was made in China) and I'd much prefer to make the kettles locally here in Illinois if I can.
Click to expand...
So what shiny colors can be made in the USA? After I know this I'll respond with my next question. I have a few options, but want this information first.
 
Chad-Burnt to a T said:
So what shiny colors can be made in the USA? After I know this I'll respond with my next question. I have a few options, but want this information first.
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We can make glossy colors in just about any shade, except for red, orange, and yellow. Which is why our current red/crimson and burnt orange are both matte. We did get around the issue for our Hot Rod Yellow color used on the 70th Anniversary Edition Kettles by making the yellow a slightly different shade than our yellow color used decades ago.
 
John Burns said:
We can make glossy colors in just about any shade, except for red, orange, and yellow. Which is why our current red/crimson and burnt orange are both matte. We did get around the issue for our Hot Rod Yellow color used on the 70th Anniversary Edition Kettles by making the yellow a slightly different shade than our yellow color used decades ago.
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So you can make yellow, just slightly different shade, how about slightly different shade of red and orange?

Also my thinking is flat black or olive drab green. A full blacked out version (murdered out) or colors like orange, gray, blue with blacked out anything shiny. Kinda in the car world experience. Anything shiny is black.
 
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