Oh dear, the enamel is gone
Small cracks in the enamel are more of a visual than a functional defect. The two spots in the picture were caused by the lid falling down several times. However, this was several years ago. And although the grill is often outside, it has suffered very little here.
Usually you notice it at some point when cleaning: the enamel on the kettle grill has chipped off. How could that happen? After all, you bought a premium model. And now this... Text by Markus Mizgalski
What is enamel?
Enamel is a fused glaze that can serve two purposes. On the one hand, it serves as a protective layer for metals, but on the other hand it can have a decorative character. This layer is made up of components that form glass and those that ensure adhesion to the base metal. Depending on its composition, enamel can have different colors and properties. It is applied using heat. The silicates contained in the enamel become an extremely hard glass, which then essentially forms the usually very robust coating. But what destroys this coating? The answer is quite simple: the same thing that can destroy any other glass - heat or mechanical force. Heat is an obvious choice; because the glaze is melted, it can also be liquefied again. Mechanical force is used when a hard object falls on the surface or the enamel itself falls on a hard surface. As a rule, however, the enamel only flakes off when the load is very high and very localized. Of course, the enamel itself can be faulty, for example unevenly thick or not completely opaque. The latter is usually noticed when assembling a grill and is corrected without hesitation by most manufacturers. Nevertheless, chipped enamel is not a big deal. There is a certain risk that water will run between the metal and the top layer and rust will form. But anyone who has invested 200 euros or more in a grill may still not like it when something like this happens. Especially not if the chipping occurred during normal use.
Grilling at 300 °C?
This inevitably leads to the question of what constitutes normal operation. To answer this question, it is actually worth taking a look at the operating instructions. Sometimes there are a few things that users should avoid. For example, manufacturers of gas grills with rear burners may recommend that all burners plus the rear burner should never be running at full load at the same time. Or that the warming rack should be removed when the rear burner is in use. This is understandable and there are good reasons for this. But what if such "safety instructions" lead to people wondering how a grill should be operated at all? In fact, some instructions for charcoal grills still contain instructions not to operate the grill at temperatures above 300 °C. And it is precisely because of this advice that manufacturers have refused to replace enamel parts under warranty in the past. Now we are asking ourselves how this is supposed to work. Of course, it is no problem to keep the circulating air temperature measured on the lid thermometer below 300 °C. But that doesn't apply to the charcoal grate. If you push glowing briquettes to the edge for indirect grilling, the temperatures there will definitely be much higher. For example, we measure a good 450 °C and more on the embers with standard briquettes. With our kettle grill, the outside of the sheet metal still reaches a good 260 °C when set up for indirect grilling. Mind you, we didn't turn the grill into a forge or use it as a steak machine. In this scenario, which is also typical for normal use, we reach temperatures of over 650 °C on the embers. On the sheet metal and thus on the enamel, we still measure almost 500 °C in the area of the adjacent coals.
Our measurements show that temperatures of 300°C in a charcoal grill are quite unrealistic. Briquettes glow at over 450°C and heat the metal accordingly
With charcoal, the temperature rises to well over 650°C: but this is not an unusual setup for grilling steaks
What do the manufacturers say?
We found this 300 °C specification in older Rösle manuals, but also at Outdoorchef. Rösle has since removed this passage from the manuals; it is no longer found in the current versions. Apparently they now believe that this specification is hardly compatible with the normal use of a grill. At Outdoorchef, on the other hand, the downloadable instructions (Charcoal Manual) for the Chelsea and Kensington grills still contain the following wording: "Always monitor the heat development in your grill before adding more charcoal. Careful dosing is necessary so that the temperature rise can be kept under control. To protect the food being grilled and the grill, temperatures should not exceed 300 °C (626 °F). Temperatures that are too high can deform grill parts." Curiously, there is no corresponding note for the gas grills. On the contrary: Here, Outdoorchef even advertises on the website for the Montreux that it can heat up from zero to 300 °C in ten minutes. Unfortunately, the manufacturer itself was unable to provide any information despite repeated requests. However, it is safe to assume that, like Rösle, the Swiss also believe that their enamel can withstand higher temperatures than 300 °C. After all, we know from tests in the past that with the large gas kettle grills, temperatures of around 500 °C are possible with the appropriate setup. And that is definitely what the manufacturer wants.
And that still means almost 500 °C on the sheet metal and the enamel (red dot). But this is usually not a problem for the coating
Conclusion: If the enamel on a grill actually breaks off during normal use, the coating is probably dirty. How far you try to make a warranty claim here will depend on the extent of the damage. Because a dent in the lid or the base of a kettle grill usually means that you get the part in question replaced, but not the attachments. So you have to dismantle the grill accordingly. A lot of work if the damage is only half the size of a 1 cent coin. If it gets bigger over time, however, you should take action and at least try to get a replacement. Nevertheless, in the end, this is not a license for pyromaniacs. If you think you have to completely burn through your 57 kettle by burning ten kilograms of restaurant charcoal in it in one go, don't be surprised if the grill doesn't survive. What many people forget is that if you blow enough air or oxygen into charcoal, you reach temperatures at which not only does the coating melt again, but the steel underneath can also be deformed. After all, it is no coincidence that you can also forge with charcoal.