Top grate on new 18.5 keeps falling in


 

Mark Orth

TVWBB Member
Anyone else? There are 4 tabs supporting it and it seems like if you touch it at all, the grate moves off one of the tabs and your meal can fall into the fire. I don't remember this problem with my older WSM.
 
That one has popped up a few times over the years. Seems to be either an out of round condition or slightly smaller grate.
One easy fix was to use a few washers as shims between the bracket and body.

Tim
 
I've had that happen to me 3 times in ten years and it happened in the same night...Never before and never after... Still don't know why it happened to this day.
 
As was mentioned above, the two grates are a different size (for the life of me, I cannot come to a logical reason for that:confused:). At any rate, if you have the grates mixed up you CAN have a problem with the grate falling down.

I put handles on one of my grates and that helps to keep me from making that mistake.






Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
New msm at store and i notice the top grate won't sit flat and easily falls. Remembering this post I take a look. Sure enough the grate is not flat and is bent a bit vee like. I take it out and straighten it. Surprisingly the grate bends easily. Now it sits flatter and steadier but can still move around too much and can fall in. The unit may have been put together in a hurry and/or made poorly. Either way the grate was flawedps. Yes, bent with the grain not across all the slats/bars. Would not think a heavy load would last very long
 
As was mentioned above, the two grates are a different size (for the life of me, I cannot come to a logical reason for that:confused:)

The smaller bottom grate is easier to slip by the top cooking grate supports. Both cooking grates have handles. The one that has concaved shaped handles is the bottom one.
 
Mine slipping off had nothing to do with the it be the bottom grate or me mixing them up...Was diffenently the top grate and has never happened since that one night.
 
Wow, glad I found this post. I just scored an 18" WSM locally for $100 and have the same issue. If you move the grate completely to one side, it will fall off. This does not happen on my 22" WSM. I'm probably going to add a few washers like recommended here and see if that fixes it.
 
That one has popped up a few times over the years. Seems to be either an out of round condition or slightly smaller grate.
One easy fix was to use a few washers as shims between the bracket and body.
What he said! If the lid fits well, then it's probably a cooking grate that's a wee bit out of spec. The washer trick will fix it.
 

 

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