If you’ve been reading this blog, you know I’ve been “nursing” along my not-so-old “Made in China” natural gas barbecue. This stainless steel beauty has been rusting away little by little, every day since I bought it 4 ½ years ago. Asian manufacturers are very apt at copying good American designs and then paring down the amount of material in the product in order to slash the price. This is surely the case with my Mandarin monster.
It has rusted so badly that there are gaping holes everywhere around the grilling and burner areas. I've replaced the four main burners but everything else is disintegrating. Sometimes the flame blows out because the wind just blows right through the holes. The timing of the rise and fall of this Cantonese contraption seems to go very closely with our country's (and USA's) collapsed economy which, as most of our workers say, is very much tied to all this Chinese junk.
The very structure of the barbecue, the most important parts are NOT stainless steel. It's mostly made from ordinary, painted, and very thin, mild steel and therefore is quickly crumbling away. The stuff that sales are made of, the cosmetics, the pretty parts like the drawer and door fronts, the huge lid, the sides and knobs which really are stainless steel still look like new. Wendy blames my placement, under the roof overhang where rainwater continuously deluges it for the problems. I contend that has nothing to do with it. It is made to sit outside and if it was engineered correctly then rain should not bother it. Indeed, the rusting parts are all under the cover of the shiny stainless sheet metal and don't even get wet. Simple fact - plain steel rusts.
Regardless of who’s right, I need it to get to the five year mark, a self imposed minimum lifetime that I believe a gas grill should last. Five years means it has to make it another 6 months before I can bring myself to fork out another $500 or so. In fairness I do use the grill more than most people - all winter - since it is handily positioned as I mentioned under the eaves on the deck just outside the back door. Still, it is the principal of the thing - it shall make five years!
I was graphically reminded the end is in sight for this old Chinese tin cooker when yesterday Wendy, seemingly ignoring my admonitions against ever touching the thing, simply and innocently opened the front door of the lower cabinet. The door, which I don’t remember ever opening before, promptly fell off. You see the door was all that was keeping the bottom shelf (to which the castors are bolted) from pushing itself up through the two sides. The other door then followed suit since the lower hinge points were themselves anchored to the now free lower shelf. Crash!!!
Here you can see, the whole thing leans precariously forward after crashing down to kneel on the deck.The front wheels buckled up as the bottom of the cabinet released its grip on the two sides and both doors fell free.
We can only imagine Wendy's shock and surprise as this massive Manchurian marketing marvel bowed to her, as it is customary in Asia, then sank and collapsed onto the deck. Bits of orangey brown, crumbled rust flakes were widely dispersed around the area. No personal injuries or damage to surrounding buildings was evident so there was no need to call 911 this time.
My son Tim and I wedged in some bricks to take the weight of the hulk, gingerly balanced the structure back to vertical and set the two doors back in just for show.
This time I mean it – DON’T EVEN TOUCH THE THING!. We’ll see if it, and our economy make it ‘til Spring.
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