Big tab, Little tab

[Fo Sizzle My Nizzle]

I see people mentioning the big and small tabs on the vents. What's the difference (other than the size) and why do we care?  Enlighten me!

[Troy]

probably regarding age

older grills had smaller tabs

REALLY old grills had a square tab
slightly newer (60s) had round tab
then they shifted to a larger tab

[Craig]

Like Troy said, it helps in determining the age of a kettle, particularly before 1979.

[Fo Sizzle My Nizzle]

So what date range are the round tabs?  I have a red and a limey I'd like to get narrowed down.

[Craig]

Do you have pics of the kettles? 

[Fo Sizzle My Nizzle]

Do you have pics of the kettles? 

I'm going to break all the kids out tomorrow. I'll get some pictures then. Both of my metal handles have small round ones.

[Craig]

I look forward to seeing those. I did some looking and found the post on your lime kettle.  Its got the large tabs on the bowl vents and the engraved "WEBER" on the lid vent. That one should be a 1976-1977 kettle. BTW, thats a sweet kettle!
 
http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/weber-kettles-accessories/limey-bastid/msg38613/#msg38613

[Fo Sizzle My Nizzle]

So if those are big tabs, what do the lil tabs look like?

[Craig]

So if those are big tabs, what do the lil tabs look like?

Prior to 1975, the bowl vents had a single small tab identical to the tab on your limes lid vent. The tab on the lid vent was changed to large by 1978.


I'm borrowing some photos for visual aids here. Credit goes to Zorknards2 & Jeff for the first two photos. I hope its ok to use these.

Here's an example of the "squared" small tabs. From zorknards2 1956 black kettle. This style would go until the early 60s.




Here's an example of the bowl vents after the early 1960s, but before 1975. This is from Jeff's Patent Pending avocado 22.5.



Around 1975, Weber retooled the bowl vents to the large dual tab style. This is from my 1978 brown kettle.



 

[Fo Sizzle My Nizzle]

Thanks Craig!