Righting a wrong through Weber Grill maintenance

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Nathan’s passing. In those 12-months, we’ve all felt his presence frequently. Many of those times for me occurred duck hunting last season. Another time occurred planting cypress trees on the farm. Another one was his opinion on me losing my sunglasses in the Spring River last month (think Red Foreman’s opinion of Eric). Another time reminded me just how sick he was during the week I stayed at his house in August of ‘23.

During that week, I used his Weber grill several times. In the process of cooking on it, I quickly realized the wings to the bottom vent of the grill were completely rusted out, which eliminated any possibility of regulating the temperature. For anyone that knew Nathan, they knew he would never stand for such disrepair. He loved Weber grills, and for it to fall into such a condition was an indication to me of just how sick he was. I made a vow to myself then and there to fix it.

The part finally got ordered, and I had the opportunity to stay at his house for a few days at the beginning of this month.

As I got started replacing the old part with the new, I found the task was a little more challenging than I had given it credit. The rectangular-shaped piece goes through the kettle as shown below, and controls ash going through the vent down into the kettle.

On the other end from this handle is a notch. The instructions to remove the old handle simply said to rotate it, dislodging the notch. That proved to be easier said than done, and a YouTube video wasn’t much help. After banging off the collected debris from many years of use, I could see the notch in the old handle but couldn’t get it to move. After a few hours of this, I found a piece of steel laying around, leveraged it through the rectangular handle, and twisted. Eureka! It was that simple [facepalm]. So … the lesson for those facing a similar problem is work from the handle end instead of the notch end.

The metal piece on top of the grate is what was left of the former vent.

Good as new

When I finished this project, I felt an unexpected wave of relief come over me. It was like righting a wrong, or correcting a miscarriage of justice. I knew somewhere this put a smile on Nathan’s face.

Last night, Nathan’s 12-year old, who has become quite the cook himself, grilled chicken on the same grill. At some point during this process, I got a call saying there was a problem with it. As it turns out, the bottom vent had not been opened. Nathan’s 12-year old learning the importance of airflow while grilling would have also brought a smile to his face. I didn’t get to try it, but I’m sure the chicken was excellent. Love y’all.