I was in Lowe’s last night and had a few minutes waiting on my wife. As usual, I checked out the grill selection. One overall comment is that even if not what they used to be, the Weber grills definitely stood above the Charbroil and ‘what brand is that’ grills on display.
I decided to measure the Weber stainless rod grates found in the LX series grills and some of the Special Edition versions of the “regular” Genesis II’s.
The rods themselves come in at 1/4 inch:
That is certainly less than rcplanebuyer’s, but they are hardly thin little wires either.
The space between the rods works out to 3/8 of an inch. I really doubt you could get your finger much less a 3/4 inch steak through there:
That being said, rcplanebuyer’s are clearly much tighter.
My conclusion would be that rc’s are clearly the top drawer choice, but it wouldn’t be fair to malign the Weber ones that I saw as junk. For most grill buyers they would be more than adequate. I am not sure about the stainless composition, but I have restored a number of Genesis 300s with stainless rods. Some of these grills were real rust buckets as you all have seen. Still, I have NEVER seen a Weber rod grate with rust. Crudded up and neglected, yes, but no rust.
If I had crummy grates and wanted to buy new, rc’s would be the top choice and I would try hard to muster the extra money because it would be well worth it. But, if I had a set of Weber stainless rods already, replacing the with rc’s grates would be a much lower priority.