Replacing a rack from a grill. What would you recommend?

[Inferno]

Measure grate size. Go on Amazon and look for one that size or larger (and cut down).

My BBQ burners rusted out (don't judge me for using gas) and I found better replacements for $30 or so. That's all it took to fix my $500 BBQ

 

[pontiac428]

I had to laugh about nickel cladding wire to appear as stainless. Fresh from the mill, I bet they look great! But nickel diffuses into the metal matrix, and with lots of heating and cooling, the iron will migrate to the surface right through the nickel, begin to oxidize, and the whole thing falls a part. It's not well suited for the application. Solid rod of any grade stainless would be longer lasting than cladded rod- yeesh!

 

[Jake M]

Hello,
I curb-shopped and got an own an outdoor grill. It works, but when I was cleaning it I noticed that it's stainless steel rack rods had cracks and sharp edges all over them. I was uncertain why SS would peal like that and I decided to shave off the sharp edges. Well it didn't go as planned. Underneath the SS rods appears to be plain steel or maybe iron. I'll post some photos so you can see.

Its stainless clad, and it's the new in thing from offshore grill manufacturer's and online sellers who don't claim otherwise. Given that you have "caps" on those grates, dollars to donuts they're original. A lot of the replacements just "clad" the whole thing. I've got no idea how they do that, but those caps are apparently more trouble than the other way since it seems to be an OEM thing.

I decided to discard the old racks and I wish to install new ones. Of course, I'm planning on using SS. My question is, what would be a cost effective solution? A rod, a pre-made grill, like this one? Do you have a favorite online shop that sells such stuff at reasonable prices? I have been using zoro, which is better than ebay, but for a 6ft 304 3/8 rod they want >$22. Which is a bit steep IMHO.

Thanks!

PS: The nearest place where I could buy metal is a 3 hour trip just one way, and that's assuming moderate traffic. So traveling to buy metal is a whole day trip for me.

Personal opinion- If somebody makes a NON coated, NON ceramic cast iron grate for that grill, grab it. Treat it like cast iron cookware, and it'll last a really, really long time. As well as a bit of thermal mass. That's a good thing. I'm not a big fan of the enamel ones. If you've got an "outdoor grill" that lives outdoors, instead of being wheeled out when you need it, they suffer. The porcelain comes off in shards that look just like your stainless shards. If the preheat or the burn-off gets a little higher than you meant for it to, it cracks, and that will expedite the process. Porcelain shards in your burgers just ruin the whole picnic. If that's out of the question for any reason, if you can find a make and model on that grill, check the Amazon sellers for stainless grill grates that specify "solid stainless steel". There's a few out there, and you can imagine that they are more expensive than those who don't specify, or specify "solid bars", without specifying exactly what it's solid with.

If you're in a pinch, stainless or "regular" expanded metal works great. The flattened stuff is very "spatula friendly", but the "as pulled" stuff if you clock it the right way is clearly not as smooth, but surprisingly is still pretty OK. It can be cut very easily and quickly, and often gives the option of a one piece grill, where it may not have been an option otherwise.

Me, personally....... I tossed my last set of coated cast iron grates long ago. Been through several options. I am pleased with the set I got most recently, 7mm bars, which is a bit thicker than pricepoint grills tend to be, Yet still spaced in a customary way, the gaps are no wider than any other similiar sized grill. Good mass, "better" grill marks than thinner grates, and just work like stainless. Are they solid stainless? Well, they're not magnetic, and three years (I think, therabouts?) and I still havn't seen their insides. The brand was Grisun, sold by Grisun, fulfilled by Amazon. I think that's a "pass" on the magnet, but not all genuine stainless grill grates are non-magnetic variety, so I don't know how you might confirm a fail. But if cost/benefit works out to you ordering a premade "regular" grill grate, those are the ones I had good luck with.

That said, if/when these "die", which at the rate I'm going, could be a long while, honestly... I'm gonna go back to the mild steel, 3/4 - 9ga flattened expanded metal. Maybe stainless, if I feel fancy when the time comes, but I use the grill year round, so the mild steel aspect never bothered me enough to say so. The one piece grill might dip in the center some as the heat gets to it, but it's not much. Clearly visible, but not affecting the function. But for me, besides just food I tend to toss a lot of veggies on the grill too. I found that flattened expanded metal surface and the one piece/no splits aspect very conducive to that. YMMV.

My .02 only. This is the kind of thing where EVERYONE has their preference, and regardless what they choose, NOBODY is wrong.....



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[pontiac428]

Stainless steels are very easy to identify with a good ol' spark test. The nickel keeps the color orange toward orange-red, the plume is small to medium size, and if it doesn't branch it's 300 series. Identifying stainless by spark is cake compared to alloy steels. It's a destructive test and somewhat subjective, but before field-portable XRF, it was how all identification was done. Sure, assayists had chemical tests and crystallography, but those are laboratory tests. Hobby machinists aren't completely helpless, we often rely on techniques that are generations old and still work for our purposes.

 

[JPMacG]

The welds on my grate have clearly been plated over. I think the grate was welded from steel rod, then plated. The plating is uniform without buildup at the edges, so I suspect electroless nickel.