Not sure if I'll ever buy a coloured Kettle again

Yeah they are gorgeous when they are unboxed and you put it together and it's kind of like it just looks too good to light up and get dirty. I always take a photo straight after I assemble it coz as all well know, you'll never see it as new and as clean as this ever again.

So it gets christened with a nice meaty morsel or two and you'll notice some oil runs going down your nicely coloured enamel but it just multiplies eventually......fast forward a few years and some of that beautiful paint is looking a bit ordinary, maybe some chips appearing and more black spots.

So is the story of my 2007 model Performer grill in Sage Green. Yeah most the paint is still intact but many hundreds of high heat cook-ups is really taking it's toll. There are quite a few spots near where the lid folds back in the carrier where the paint looks chipped, I've never seen if there's been any paint on the concrete but you can plainly see the black paint underneath which in it's own way a blessing as if there wasn't paint underneath, I could've been faced with a rusting kettle bowl.

I've never mistreated the kettle, never dropped the lid....oh ok maybe once, but it's still in better nick than the bowl as far as paint is concerned but years of smoke have really discoloured the nice pastel sage green it used to be.

I really had the elbow grease out today with a good detergent...umm well it was my blue Kitten Wash n polish detergent for the car and whilst i got 60% off, there's the 40% i could not budge and I also noticed there's a lot of pitting on the lid and I'm wondering if that's come about by the intense heats from the Kettle Kone that sends my temp gauge off the dial.

Also I read less than 12 Months ago that the paint coming off the bowl is or could be caused by hot coals against the inside of the bowl which possibly makes the metal in the bowl expander greater than normal which in turn might start shedding the top coat.

I admit I started cooking this way watching many you-tubers from the US do it where they dump a chimney of coals against one side of the kettle and nothing against the other side.....whether that theory is true or not, I don't know but it sounds like it could be a reasonable assumption.

The poor old table is hanging in there, after a goose of a furniture removalist stood on the bloody thing to put something high in the truck, lucky he was only the size of a jockey but heavy enough to put a split in it.... The Performer is a beast of a grill, and is as sturdy as it was new but I don't think I'll go for another coloured one... maybe just stick to black. These things are over $900 new these days and mine is the gas starter model.

Thankyou for reading

Davo

Quote from BBQbushy

Sorry but ….

Yeah ya right Bushy....I'll take some tomorrow....after washing the two kettles today inside and out, I ended up dirty than they started so I had to hop in the shower and it was dark not long after....so I'll take some pics and put them up on this thread.

Quote from yakabot

Still have my pre 86 or 76 ( before they dated them) and it's still fairly red, and still in the back garden with weeds growing around it. I really must remember it if we ever move house

Do you still use it Yakabot or it's only a Garden decoration? lol. when was the last time it seen heat inside?

Quote from Bilda

Use a charcoal basket to prevent coal touching enamel.

I've been doing that more now since the idea came up about hot coals touching the metal inside might be causing the pitting and paint loss on the outside. Doesn't seem to hurt the black paint underneath the colour though. I really liked the idea of pouring a lot of coals on one side and leaving the other side empty. I've decided that between now and Xmas I'm going to buy a SNS and that would make it last longer. Going to buy one for the Jumbo joe too.

Following up from yesterday's post I took some pics this morning to show what I meant.

Yes I do think now that not always using baskets when I was dumping coals on one side coz they just never held enough coals for high heat grilling and considering I've had this kettle for 15 years now, I guess the amount of cook ups this thing has done, it's probably not as dire as I think but still what was a nice sage green kettle is looking a bit drab.

I'm kind of tossing up whether to sell this Performer and replacing it with another or maybe one of those new SNS grills or renovate this one with a new table, wheels and lid slider/holder, it could last me another 15 years.

A new Performer now is RRP $939

There are a few little rust areas I'm keeping my eye on but will need to apply something that will withstand the heat. Is your kettle a coloured one Gumb or is it just the black one? I can't recall.

i'm considering to put a temp guage where you have yours but maybe an inch higher. Your Weber seems to be in reasonable nick.

I found that the ashpot on my Mastertouch plus a better design and a lot easier to take off and replace than the one on the Performer.