SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20170516-EC9C3-2147400460. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Weber Spirit. Source model text: Spirit Gas Grill. Incident: In September of 2016 I was grilling outside my house using my Weber Spirit Gas Grill (Serial Number NT6307550). I went inside for a moment to get a plate and when I came out I smelled burning plastic. I opened the grill and didn't see anything awry but noticed that there was a flame shooting out of the gas supply line leading from the propane tank to the burners. I immediately turned off the gas at the propane tank and extinguished the fire. Upon examination I found that the ignition switch and one of the burner knobs had melted, dripped onto the gas supply line and eaten through it such that it developed a pinhole leak. This happened in the span of 2-5 minutes. I've dutifully cleaned and service this grill (purchase in September of 2008) and never had any issues. I've reported what happened to Weber but have not heard a response. I googled what had happened and found other people mentioning their igniter switch had malfunctioned and melted the entire assembly as it appears to have done for me. There appears to be a defect and this could have been catastrophic had I not been able to turn the gas supply off.