Webers awesome warranty and service


 
M

MartinB

TVWBB All-Star
My 22.5" kettle legs rusted thru.
the problem was the one touch wiper actually removed the porcelain over the spot welds where the legs were attached.
And then it rusted through in those spots. obviously the spot welding procedure distorted the bowl and caused the bump at that spot


When I discovered this a year-and-a-half ago.
I disassembled the kettle drilled through the legs and through bolted
to the bowl little stainless screws and nuts and lock washers.

for the bowl wiper to still work I had to take a pair of tin snips and cut little slots in it to pass over the screw heads.
But I took pictures..... I just misplaced them..... As it's easy to do on a computer with a hundred gb of pictures....

Then last year I heard about Weber's warranty.... I was reminded it was 10 years and my kettle was only 8 years old. but I had already bastardized it by bolting the legs and I didn't think they would like pictures of that too much.

Anyway I found the original pictures I took this weekend. So I filled out the warranty online
Got an email they wanted to register my kettle. All i could tell them that it was bought mid-December such-and-such a year based on the vent damper and at a store near me

Received a email back that a new replacement bowl is on order for me....



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New kettle bottom arrived very quickly by FedEx and was installed.
Now it was slightly different from my old one. My had two handles and this one only had one. Also the orientation of the legs to the handles was slightly different.

My fault possibly for not being able to correctly tell them what model I had.
In any case the bottom was from a 2015 according to the invoice and of course mine was 2011. So maybe that had something to do with it too.

In any case it's together and we grilled steak on it tonight.
Kind of makes me want a new top for my kettle now too..... There is a little rust around the handle.......... I mean it's not in danger of rusting through or anything it just looks a little bad with that new bottom on it maybe I'll touch that up with paint.
 
Some of the older but relatively recent kettles (depending on the store they sold at I believe) would come with one or two handles. It really doesn't make much of a difference. The one handle might have been the closest thing they had on hand that fit the age range for replacement.

As for the top handle some pics might help someone give you some ideas. You might be able to use some dish soap with water and 0000 steel wool to rub/wash off any rust that has taken place. Evaporust may also get rid of any rust if elbow grease isn't your thing. Evaporust just requires you to soak the handle in the solution for a period of time with a little scrubbing. Sometimes the rust can leave a bit of a stain on the porcelain and it can be difficult to remove without some scrubbing with the steel wool.

After you get it clean take some olive oil and put it around the previously rusty area and do a nice hot cook where the lid gets pretty warm to treat the steel. If the kettle is black you could also look into some high heat paint, but only use it on the exterior of the kettle as it isn't food rated. Other colors can be more difficult to paint match and will eventually burn up over time. I have used touch up paint on some of my black kettles or in areas where you can't see it on a color kettle so having a bit of it around is never a bad idea. Just not always the best option depending on what you are working with.
 
I often use touch up paint on black kettles that have the older welded on handles. It doesn’t always match 100%, but looks much better than rust
 
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