Weber Spirit control knobs suck

[jhagestad]

I just would like to point out that Weber must have purposely designed the control knobs for their Spirit line solely to generate future revenue from sales of replacement knobs. There's no way their engineers didn't speak up about this. The plastic female ends from the knobs get wrecked to shit every year against the steel male ends that are connected to the gas valves.  These female ends take more punishment than a porn star with six mortgages and a drug habit. If anyone has had success using different knobs for the Spirit line, I'm all ears. Thx!

[SixZeroFour]

Hi - Are you sure that the valve (pin) itself is not faulty/sticking/chunky?

Weber and most other manufacturers DO purposely design the plastic female receiver to strip out so that the metal valve pin itself isn't broken off instead (much more costly to replace). If you are stripping them out there must be something else going on...

The only time we ever sell replacement spirit knobs is if the customer broke them by accident (usually wind blowing over grill) or if they are all faded and worn out and they just don't like the look.

[Dave in KC]

Are you sure that the valve (pin) itself is not faulty/sticking/chunky?
If you are stripping them out there must be something else going on...
........if they are all faded and worn out and they just don't like the look.

I agree. Sounds like you need to lube the valves.  I have had over a dozen of the 200 and 300 Spirits
in the last year, and have never had a single problem with the female end of the knob.  The issue I
always run into is fading.  Fortunately, my wife has gotten really good at repainting the logo, which
saves a few bucks to replace, and makes a few more bucks with a much better appearance. 

[jhagestad]

Sorry for my ranting - thank you for your quick responses. 

I'm sure part of the reason for the gouging of the female end is that people forget to push the knob in before turning it. They'll twist it initially, get no gas, THEN push in and twist, but we've had this issue since we bought the grill.  Without the knob, I can push the valve in and twist it pretty easily, so I think it's user error.  And I can now understand the reasoning behind having the female end of these knobs be more of a "breakaway" style for safety reasons, but it's a royal pain in the ass when they're stripped.  We've had to replace the knobs every season, which is just dumb. 

We don't have that many people operating the grill in a given season, so I'll look into lubing up the valves and maybe etching a reminder on the grill panel to "PUSH, THEN turn". Thanks!