How come the vintage blacks hold up so much better than the colored grills?

[AZ Monsoon]

Many of the vintage colored grills have a fair amount of battle scars while the black grills in comparison have far less in my experience. Any particular reason for this?

[jcnaz]

Great question.
My black kettles, even the 50-year-old ones, don't get "blow-outs" at the grate strap welds. colored kettles seem prone to this phenomenon.
 

[Hell Fire Grill]

I bought my first brand new Weber grill in Portland Oregon in 1987 and black was the only color offered. Same with the second and the third one! The colored grills were not common in stores here and if you did see one it more expesive. A westerner or sequoia were were less common than UFOs, almost like they were keeping them secret.

[austin87]

I feel like there were just more blacks produced so the ones that have survived tend to be in better shape. Colored ones were always more rare so there were just fewer available to still be in good shape years later.

[pbe gummi bear]

It's because the colored grills are sprayed with porcelain twice- black first then the color. The thicker layering causes more cracking and crazing due to the difference in thermal expansion between the steel and porcelain layers. There could also be something about the colored porcelain composition that makes them weaker.

[1buckie]

Far as I can tell, they're all blackies at birth......the color is (it seems) added on over a base coating of black....

Got a deal on a K Code redhead at an estate sale for a buddy at work & when I took out the hex nut sweeps to replace them, under the washer area was pure black clean porcelain.....almost like it was coated with the washer in place, but it just had scraped the red off from use since 1988......look at chip & heat blow-out closely & it always seems there's black under that color......might even make the color a little more prone to chipping & flaking, just a guess......

[Craig]

What Gummi and 1buckie said about the porcelain layers and colored grills

[swamprb]

I mothballed 5 Redheads and 1 Blue 22" kettles yesterday, and was amazed at the amount of red porcelain that just popped off the bowls. Could have been the weather, it was in the mid 30's

[GregS]

i've had the lemongrass up to 450+ on winter cooks and she's never popped porcelain.

i think the newer colors are painted thinner than the older colors. 

[swamprb]

Far as I can tell, they're all blackies at birth......the color is (it seems) added on over a base coating of black....

Got a deal on a K Code redhead at an estate sale for a buddy at work & when I took out the hex nut sweeps to replace them, under the washer area was pure black clean porcelain.....almost like it was coated with the washer in place, but it just had scraped the red off from use since 1988......look at chip & heat blow-out closely & it always seems there's black under that color......might even make the color a little more prone to chipping & flaking, just a guess......

Absolutely!

[pbe gummi bear]

i've had the lemongrass up to 450+ on winter cooks and she's never popped porcelain.

i think the newer colors are painted thinner than the older colors.

I'm pretty sure the kettles are robotically painted now. Thinner porcelain will dry faster and be less prone to cracking.