Warranty, 2, 5, 10, 25 or lifetime, it's all limited.
No one really reads that bit in the manual in small print explaining how the warranty works and in a lot of case's will never need to use it, but there are those that will be unlucky enough to end up needing to go back to the shop because of an issue. Now there are many brand's out there in the market and even I won't have heard of them all but I do know this, each brand will have its own rules to their warranty but every brand call's it Limited. (That said im happy to be told if there is a BBQ brand out there that doesn't limit its warranty).
So this is something I have had a lot of dealing's with and I have had different experiences from both the customer of the BBQ and the maker of the BBQ. Good and bad and people walking away smiling or angry as hell this can be something that takes a week or months and in some rare cases years to deal with and having been the middle man I've seen some funny and not so funny case's.
Ok first of I highly recommend that the warranty be 1 of the important items on the list of why you should buy the particular BBQ you are looking at, that and a little research into how well rated the brand is your going for. Now for me the warranty should be a good example of the product but this isn't always the case as some of these 25 years and lifetime warranty's are not worth the paper they are written on. You should read into the print or get the sales person to explain the warranty to you, make sure its clear about whether you have to cover your BBQ or not, in some cases they even state that the BBQ should be put away in a garage or shed. Napoleon BBQ's that have lifetime warranty on are to me a bit of a con as you should gather from this line out of their warranty "From the sixth year to 25years
NAPOLEON will provide replacement parts at 50% of the current retail price." Why don't they just put a 6 year warranty on it then offer you a 50% discount on part's after the 6 years. So as you can see checking the small print is pretty important as just because it say's lifetime warranty it doesn't mean it is.
Now this does not mean that they are all like this, Weber warranties are very clear and laid out very well. You only have to pick up one of their product guides and go to the back page and every BBQ they do is there with the warranty laid out. Outback warranties are pretty straight forward too, normally you will find this either at the front or the rear of the manual book that will be inside the box for the BBQ.
Swiss Grill are also Dancook and Dancook charcoal BBQ's are pretty good and come with a 15 year limited warranty but for me I don't like how you have to clean them, its not simple. Then you move to the Swiss Grill range and it all goes downhill, you start of with their low range Icon BBQ's and they all come with a 3 year limited warranty. The BBQ it's self feels low grade and to me I really do wonder why, i'll show you with a comparison of a Weber E210 Classic and a Swiss Grill Icon I300 what you get for a small price difference:
So this is something I have had a lot of dealing's with and I have had different experiences from both the customer of the BBQ and the maker of the BBQ. Good and bad and people walking away smiling or angry as hell this can be something that takes a week or months and in some rare cases years to deal with and having been the middle man I've seen some funny and not so funny case's.
Ok first of I highly recommend that the warranty be 1 of the important items on the list of why you should buy the particular BBQ you are looking at, that and a little research into how well rated the brand is your going for. Now for me the warranty should be a good example of the product but this isn't always the case as some of these 25 years and lifetime warranty's are not worth the paper they are written on. You should read into the print or get the sales person to explain the warranty to you, make sure its clear about whether you have to cover your BBQ or not, in some cases they even state that the BBQ should be put away in a garage or shed. Napoleon BBQ's that have lifetime warranty on are to me a bit of a con as you should gather from this line out of their warranty "From the sixth year to 25years
NAPOLEON will provide replacement parts at 50% of the current retail price." Why don't they just put a 6 year warranty on it then offer you a 50% discount on part's after the 6 years. So as you can see checking the small print is pretty important as just because it say's lifetime warranty it doesn't mean it is.
Now this does not mean that they are all like this, Weber warranties are very clear and laid out very well. You only have to pick up one of their product guides and go to the back page and every BBQ they do is there with the warranty laid out. Outback warranties are pretty straight forward too, normally you will find this either at the front or the rear of the manual book that will be inside the box for the BBQ.
Swiss Grill are also Dancook and Dancook charcoal BBQ's are pretty good and come with a 15 year limited warranty but for me I don't like how you have to clean them, its not simple. Then you move to the Swiss Grill range and it all goes downhill, you start of with their low range Icon BBQ's and they all come with a 3 year limited warranty. The BBQ it's self feels low grade and to me I really do wonder why, i'll show you with a comparison of a Weber E210 Classic and a Swiss Grill Icon I300 what you get for a small price difference:
Now just looking at it with blinkers on most people would go with the Icon I300 as it can be £100 saving but look at it in the long term. Weber has a 25 year limited warranty for good reason, the materials its made from are far better than that of the Swizz Grill, you leave that Weber in the garden and forget to cover it over or had a late night party and its to hot to cover and it rains don't worry. The Weber warranty will still stand if you do get any issues with the BBQ, where as with the Swiss Grill you won't get the same service, if they worked out you hadn't been covering the BBQ that is warranty void. Also if you don't cover the Swiss Grill you will soon pay for it before the following season comes round. On average most people look to replace their BBQ within a 4 to 6 year period which don't seem to bad but average price paid is between £400 to £600 so you are looking at around £100 a year for that BBQ.
Now if you bought the E210 classic for the full price of £399 this BBQ will serve you the 25 years the warranty gives and longer, thats not just me saying it because I read the print either, I know this from customers I had come into me saying how happy they are with said BBQ. You will probably replace the cooking grates and flavourizer bars at some point which will cost around £120 to £140 but you will probably only do this once if you have looked after them correctly. So in 25 years with the new cost of the BBQ and say some parts replaced you have spent, lets be silly and say £650, that has only cost you £26 a year! So value for money and best investment has to go to the Weber.
As an added bonus if you say wanted to buy the next model up in the range or better in 10 years you could happily pass this BBQ on or if you wanted sell it as this is the one make of BBQ people are happy to buy second hand!
Now if you bought the E210 classic for the full price of £399 this BBQ will serve you the 25 years the warranty gives and longer, thats not just me saying it because I read the print either, I know this from customers I had come into me saying how happy they are with said BBQ. You will probably replace the cooking grates and flavourizer bars at some point which will cost around £120 to £140 but you will probably only do this once if you have looked after them correctly. So in 25 years with the new cost of the BBQ and say some parts replaced you have spent, lets be silly and say £650, that has only cost you £26 a year! So value for money and best investment has to go to the Weber.
As an added bonus if you say wanted to buy the next model up in the range or better in 10 years you could happily pass this BBQ on or if you wanted sell it as this is the one make of BBQ people are happy to buy second hand!