I've had my Weber Kettle for just a little over six years. About three years in, I bent my one-touch blades by trying to use them to move spent lump charcoal. No problem, I had also acquired a PBC at that time so the Weber basically became my direct-grilling and smoke-roasting grill. However, time and primarily heat took their toll and one of the blades broke off. Time to replace them.
I ordered a replacement blade set from Amazon (not the Weber OEM, but a knock-off, because I will always save a few dollars now to ensure future grief later lol) back in September, but kept putting it off due to seeing YouTube horror stories of people having to use angle grinders to get these things off.
As it turns out, this was shockingly easier than anticipated! Come follow along with me.
Here you can see the condition of the original blades. The leftmost one is completely broken off and the other two are bent up and corroded.
Once I cleaned as much ash out of the kettle as I could, I turned it over and got to work on trying to get the handle out.
I used a flat-blade screw driver to chip away as much rust as I could around where the handle needs to rotate to come out. But, no matter what I could chip away -- including a good portion of the bottom washer -- the handle just would not turn. Well, that is why they make plumbers' wrenches. It made easy work of it. In the photo below, you can just barely see the little tab that needs to be facing up for the handle to slide out.
This next part took a bit, but not too much effort. I had to wiggle the handle back and forth and back and forth while pulling to wiggle it out of the rings, but it finally came out. No angle grinder needed. (If it had remained stubborn, I probably would have used a pair of pliers to just rip apart the rings.)
I used a rubber mallet to pound the rings gently until they fell through, allowing it and the remaining blades to fall out to the ground. Here is what is left of the bottom washer.
Farewell, original Weber One-Touch System. You served me well. I cooked my first pork butt and ribs with you.
Okay, now to get the replacement system in. The blades are numbered and you have to align some slots and some holes, but it is decently obvious how they should go. Videos using the Weber OEM system show that they should snap together. Mine did not, possibly as a result of using a knock-off brand, but this didn't seem to make any difference in the end.
Here they are sitting in the Weber.
If you look closely, they are not flush. You will need to weigh them down with something heavy. A bag of cat little did the trick. (Be careful not to crush the blades!)
Now, while holding the replacement bottom washer in place, slide the handle in and rotate until it clicks.
Here we are! Good as new!
Ten, maybe fifteen minutes of work at the most and I was done. Far easier than I anticipated.
As my set of replacement blades came with no instructions, here is a four-minute video I found that clearly shows how they go together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HXmNBZEtos
I ordered a replacement blade set from Amazon (not the Weber OEM, but a knock-off, because I will always save a few dollars now to ensure future grief later lol) back in September, but kept putting it off due to seeing YouTube horror stories of people having to use angle grinders to get these things off.
As it turns out, this was shockingly easier than anticipated! Come follow along with me.
Here you can see the condition of the original blades. The leftmost one is completely broken off and the other two are bent up and corroded.
Once I cleaned as much ash out of the kettle as I could, I turned it over and got to work on trying to get the handle out.
I used a flat-blade screw driver to chip away as much rust as I could around where the handle needs to rotate to come out. But, no matter what I could chip away -- including a good portion of the bottom washer -- the handle just would not turn. Well, that is why they make plumbers' wrenches. It made easy work of it. In the photo below, you can just barely see the little tab that needs to be facing up for the handle to slide out.
This next part took a bit, but not too much effort. I had to wiggle the handle back and forth and back and forth while pulling to wiggle it out of the rings, but it finally came out. No angle grinder needed. (If it had remained stubborn, I probably would have used a pair of pliers to just rip apart the rings.)
I used a rubber mallet to pound the rings gently until they fell through, allowing it and the remaining blades to fall out to the ground. Here is what is left of the bottom washer.
Farewell, original Weber One-Touch System. You served me well. I cooked my first pork butt and ribs with you.
Okay, now to get the replacement system in. The blades are numbered and you have to align some slots and some holes, but it is decently obvious how they should go. Videos using the Weber OEM system show that they should snap together. Mine did not, possibly as a result of using a knock-off brand, but this didn't seem to make any difference in the end.
Here they are sitting in the Weber.
If you look closely, they are not flush. You will need to weigh them down with something heavy. A bag of cat little did the trick. (Be careful not to crush the blades!)
Now, while holding the replacement bottom washer in place, slide the handle in and rotate until it clicks.
Here we are! Good as new!
Ten, maybe fifteen minutes of work at the most and I was done. Far easier than I anticipated.
As my set of replacement blades came with no instructions, here is a four-minute video I found that clearly shows how they go together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HXmNBZEtos
Comment