9 Common Issues With Weber Grills

While Weber is known to be the best grill brand for barbecue lovers, the brand is not without its problems. Not only are there sometimes lemons (a given with any product), but there are some problems that tend to crop up more often across various models.

Some of the issues customers have with Weber grills are purely cosmetic or are just annoyances. However, there are other problems that prevent buyers from using their grills altogether or may even make them potentially dangerous to use. With Weber grills being so expensive, you hope that you have a grill that will last you for years to come. However, if your product fails after the warranty has ended, you don't want to end up with an expensive, unusable brick of a grill on your patio. So, be sure to check out the one-star reviews for the models that interest you to see what people are complaining about before you commit to such a pricey purchase. That's exactly what we did to see what customers are complaining about the most. These are the nine most common issues that we found reviewers complaining about with various types of Weber grills they purchased.

Some of the common issues with Weber grills reveal themselves the moment customers unpack the box. Many reviewers have mentioned pieces of their grills arriving cracked, scratched, dented, and having broken pieces straight out of the box.

Oddly enough, some reviewers find that the exterior of the box looks fine and that everything is packed securely. Yet, when they open the package, everything already looks heavily abused, bent, and twisted. So, some of these damages may be happening at the factory level. Granted, other times, it's clearly the packaging that's to blame, with no padding to keep items from getting damaged in transit.

Sometimes, the damage is just aesthetically unpleasant, like banged-up, bent, or scratched legs or side panels. However, other times, the damages render the grill unusable, such as arriving without the controller attached. One person ended up going through three grills after returning ones with various damaged parts. So, they quickly found that the problem they were having wasn't just a one-off.

Once customers unpack their grill, another problem often reveals itself after they try to put it together. One of the complaints we've seen most often in reviews for Weber grills is that the grill was missing one or more vital parts. There aren't a whole lot of non-essential parts that come in the box when you buy a grill. So, if you end up missing parts, it can sometimes mean that you can't use the grill at all or end up with a rickety one. We're also sure some customers have wasted time looking for pieces they thought they'd lost before realizing they were never in the package in the first place.

Some parts that customers have discovered were missing from the box include cooking grates, bolts, washers, screws, entire lid handles, stands, charcoal baskets, and wheel attachment parts like pins. One person even reported that every single hardware item necessary for putting the grill together was missing from their box.

Some reviewers have come away extra annoyed after requesting that the company send them the missing parts, only to receive the wrong parts or not receive the right parts for months. So, they're essentially sitting around with a useless grill while they wait.

Reviewers complain that the workmanship of Weber grills is not as good as previous versions they've had. They often find the metal to be thinner and more bendable than previous iterations. For example, the frame may start to bow under the weight of the propane tank. The grill also seems to rust more easily, even if made from stainless steel. Plus, there tend to be more plastic pieces than in previous models.

Sometimes, the parts just never work right because of design flaws or factory mistakes. Reviewers talk about lid locks that never work adequately. One common complaint with collapsible models is that having a lid that unlocks itself causes the heavy cast-iron grates to fall out when moving it into a vertical position for transport. Then, there are lids that never fit the lid holder, dampers that don't fit the lid shape, oval lids that won't fit a round grill, and bolts that keep falling off and making the legs fall off. Factory mistakes might include holes for hinges drilled in the wrong place for the doors to ever work properly, or propane tank hookups installed backward.

Some customers have had random pieces start falling off the grill and breaking within a few months. One complained about a pneumatic closer that broke and made it difficult to collapse their portable grill. Plastic parts also easily break, like plastic lid locks and lid handles.

Customers have also received Weber grills with paint problems or that developed paint problems over time. With paint missing, especially on the exterior, the products will surely rust more quickly and need to be replaced sooner than they would if the paint stayed intact.

Sometimes, grills simply arrive with paint or enamel already rubbed off or not even painted completely, exposing the bare metal to the elements. Some customers have returned paint-damaged grills only to get grills with chipped paint in other areas as their replacement. There have also been complaints of the paint flaking when turning the top damper or when the handle rubs against the bowl. Other times, the paint peels after some other part of the grill malfunctions, causing a fire at a temperature the paint can't seem to withstand.

Some customers have complained about paint flaking off inside the grill cover and falling into the food after years of owning the grill. However, on Weber's website, it says that this isn't paint but actually non-toxic deposits of grease and smoke that are finally peeling or flaking loose.

One common issue we've seen people complain about with non-charcoal grills is problems with temperature regulation. This is extremely annoying because you expect to be able to set the temperature and forget it. However, if the temperature is fluctuating from how it's set, it can take forever for your food to finish cooking, or you may end up scorching it.

Reviewers with this problem have various complaints. Sometimes, the grill never reaches the temperature at which it's set, with higher temperatures like 400 or 500 degrees Fahrenheit being seemingly impossible to reach. Sometimes, the grills start out working well but lose the ability to reach top temperatures over time. This seems to go beyond one of the gas grilling mistakes of opening the lid too often, since opening up the lid also seems to cause the temperature to plummet in electrical models, too.

Some temperature regulation problems have grills heading toward the 1000-degree range instead, which can be dangerous if the grill starts to melt or melt items around it. Reviewers mentioned that their pellet smoker grills would refuse to maintain or rise in temperature, yet the pellets would sometimes suddenly light up in a ball of fire. With heat regulation a problem like that, it's not a bad idea to keep a high-quality fire extinguisher handy as a safety measure.

Speaking of keeping a fire extinguisher handy, there have been a variety of Weber grills that can't withstand the heat the grill generates and end up melting or catching on fire. So, maybe more temperature testing on parts would be helpful for the company for future models.

Weber's portable electric grills seem to have a problem with plastic parts that melt or warp when heated. One reviewer said their grill caught fire after they finished cooking, even though it was unplugged. Everything plastic melted, rendering the grill useless for the future.

In one instance, a customer reported their gas grill flaming up, which caused all the plastic parts to melt and drip. Others have talked about having the plastic legs on their grill start to melt when the grill gets too hot. Not being diligent to clean the grill well every time also seems to cause problems, as it causes the grill to catch on fire and melt any plastic parts on the exterior of the grill, including the body of the grill itself, when not made of metal. In one such grill, the heating element has to be unscrewed each time to unscrew the pan underneath to prevent it from catching fire. While it's easy to neglect the full cleaning process when it's inconvenient, there are some grill parts you simply can't forget to clean without negative consequences.

Unfortunately, pressure regulator problems seem ridiculously common with some portable gas models. Regulators control the flow and pressure of gas between the grill and the gas tank, and problems can leave your grill without any flames or with only low flames. If your gas grill is making a humming sound, it may be a sign of a regulator problem.

Some reviewers have had the regulator on their propane grill fail within weeks or months of purchase. One customer who looked more closely at the regulator noticed that the threads weren't straight and couldn't really align well with the frame, while another had their threads simply strip after a few months. Such design flaws can cut down the average lifespan of a Weber gas grill considerably.

In some instances, Weber has offered to send out a replacement part. Even worse, the company has sometimes told customers that they didn't have a replacement regulator available for particular models, making repair impossible. Unfortunately,  even the replacement parts Weber offers don't seem to last long. Several reviewers mentioned their second replacement regulator failing within weeks or a year. No longer being under warranty, the company has asked them to spend $50 to $60 for the replacement part.

Not all of Weber's charcoal grills are created equally when it comes to their ash catchers. It seems that some of the smaller, cheaper ones have poorly designed ash catchers. With one of the smaller grills, the ash catcher is very much exposed. So, one reviewer had a fire start on surrounding patio furniture after the wind blew embers out of the shallow, exposed catcher. Another grill has the problem of the tabs holding the ash catcher failing as they get hot. Then, it releases the ash catcher such that the ashes dump everywhere, which is certainly a burn or fire hazard. So, the designs seem to sometimes make certain models more dangerous than they should be.

Granted, some of the ash catcher design flaws are just annoying. For example, reviewers say that the ash catcher in one model doesn't connect to the legs properly, such that it catches every time you try to empty it or put it back on. Thus, the design makes a mess when emptying it, and then it's difficult to reattach.

Once you really become serious about grilling, Weber smoker grills can be extremely tempting. However, one of their biggest problems is that, since they're more high-tech, that tech sometimes fails. While plenty of smoker grills have no tech problems at all, customers have found themselves extremely flustered when software problems have left them with a grill that is essentially an expensive brick on their patio because it will no longer work.

Some reviewers have had problems from the first moment they try to use their grill, such as being unable to connect the grill to the Wi-Fi system or needing a software update. Other times, the whole thing will stop working, throwing up an unresolvable error code or requiring unplugging and replugging to get it working again. Even worse, it seems that sometimes customer service is no help and may not even know what a random error code means.