Weber side tables and heat?


 
David

David

TVWBB Pro
I am fairly new to a weber kettle, or OTP in my case with a side table on each side, and so far have not tested it laying something hot on it, ie, like an iron skillet when removed from the grate. Has anyone know just how hot resistant the tables are? My gut says, not too much as they are plastic of some sort, so I'm guessing I need to put down some kind of hot pad or the like on it. Comments? The pic is when it was new, not quite so pretty now.............................d

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i would not let anything hot near that plastic. this is a thing that i just don't understand about weber. makes no sense to me.
their new performer silver now has a metal fold out table. its the first new weber that has caught my eye.
so get some thick wood or plywood to put on top of that plastic before getting anything hot near it.
 
Thought so. I guess I need to head to the wood shop and see what I can do about a permanent "cutting board/heat pad" for this thing...........................d
 
I actually set my performer on fire, and I was surprised by how little damage the plastic table had.


I had charcoal and a fresh package of starter cubes on the bottom shelf under the kettle and under the ash bowl. I was starting a chimney in the kettle on the charcoal grate. The ash can was full to capacity. Some cinder material fell through the ash can and lit the paper charcoal bag on fire and naturally the starter cubes.

It probably had a good 4 or 5 minute head start while I was in the kitchen and then it took me about 30 seconds to get the garden hose over.


I burnt up the propane starter wires and hoses. The black plastic tilt-out contained was pretty melted (more than half gone), and the front plastic bumper was melted too. I replaced all of that. The table top though only sustained a little bit of bubbling on the top. I kept that piece original.
 
Darrel Williams said:
I actually set my performer on fire, and I was surprised by how little damage the plastic table had.


I had charcoal and a fresh package of starter cubes on the bottom shelf under the kettle and under the ash bowl. I was starting a chimney in the kettle on the charcoal grate. The ash can was full to capacity. Some cinder material fell through the ash can and lit the paper charcoal bag on fire and naturally the starter cubes.

It probably had a good 4 or 5 minute head start while I was in the kitchen and then it took me about 30 seconds to get the garden hose over.


I burnt up the propane starter wires and hoses. The black plastic tilt-out contained was pretty melted (more than half gone), and the front plastic bumper was melted too. I replaced all of that. The table top though only sustained a little bit of bubbling on the top. I kept that piece original.
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I'm not surprised. The Performer table is pretty dang tough stuff. I once had a charcoal briquette fall through a chimney and burn on the table for a while before I realized it. It barely left a mark.
 
by all means go ahead and use them without protection. when you get marks and such you will have to live with it. not me or anyone else. seen enough pics of damaged tables to convince me that they are not a great idea.
 
Dave Russell said:
I'm not surprised. The Performer table is pretty dang tough stuff. I once had a charcoal briquette fall through a chimney and burn on the table for a while before I realized it. It barely left a mark.
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Interesting. I looked it up on the weber site and they are made out of thermoplastic or set. Appear to be very heat resistant but no comments on what they can handle........so I emailed Weber for an answer.....................d
 
I have not set a frying pan on mine David but I have set a hot grill grate on it without it making a mark. Mine will scratch and has absorbed some grease so whatever it's made from is somewhat porus.
 
The response from Weber

"Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail. I apologize for the delay in replying to your e-mail. We have been experiencing a high volume of incoming e-mails.

Our thermoset work tables are made to withstand temperatures up to 350 degrees. We do recommend using a flame retardant pad or cloth if placing an item on the table directly from the grill's cooking surface."

So, there you have it............................d
 
David said:
The response from Weber

"Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail. I apologize for the delay in replying to your e-mail. We have been experiencing a high volume of incoming e-mails.

Our thermoset work tables are made to withstand temperatures up to 350 degrees. We do recommend using a flame retardant pad or cloth if placing an item on the table directly from the grill's cooking surface."

So, there you have it............................d
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No surprise there. My earlier point was to simply confirm the previous post, and to reassure that the table isn't some kind of junk plastic plastic that you have to be paranoid about protecting. However, it's obvious that it's some kind of plastic, so common sense dictates some measure of precaution when we're talking about hot and heavy cooking utensils and such, right off the grill.
 
It's raining right now, but if I can remember to, soon, I'll show how heat resistant this stuff really is.
I have an old Performer table to experiment with.
It is not plastic in the sense that many of us think of plastic.

If Weber says 350, I'm sure it's a fair amount higher.
I've set skillets on the old table that were hotter than 350.
The new one gets babied, more for staining worry than about heat worry.

My old table had a small crack on the side when I bought it, used, 4 years ago.
Last year I contacted Weber, and they sent me a new one, free.
Just wish it was the new darker color.
 
not everyone is going to measure their pot heat nor be aware of any issues with the table. weber sells thousands of these and most owners are going to mindlesly
push the limits with these tables and heat. there are always exceptions to the rules, folks that are aware of the issues and work around them.
but i have never seen heat and plastic work well together. if i had one you bet yer bippy i would be putting something over that plastic regardless of how aware i think i 'am.
just takes one mindless act to ruin a table. anyway, i'm done on this issue.
 
Yesterday I saw the Performer Silver in the local hardware store. It looks sturdier than the plastic to my eyes.
I have been looking for one of the older stainless versions, but if one does not come along soon......
 
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