In praise of “lowly” porcelain-plated stamped steel grates

While working on cleaning up some stainless grates for my in progress Stainless Rod Grate Showdown, I decided to also throw a set of old porcelain coated stamped steel grates into the cleaning pan - a plastic hot water heater overflow pan. They were pretty gross looking, and I wasn’t expecting much.

Wow! They cleaned up amazingly well and without a big struggle. So nice that my wife didn’t freak out when I brought them inside:





These were the first grates Weber offered with the Genesis grill, although mine must be of much newer vintage since there was little rust or damage. I have to say that porcelain is sure a lot easier to clean than stainless. I have at least a couple old sets of stamped stainless grates that I have ignored because I remember them as being impossible to clean up well. I will try them sometime soon using the same Sam’s cleaner I used in these porcelain grates, but I am not expecting the same easy clean or beautiful results.

These grates have largely fallen out of favor with the advent of stainless rods (and before that cast iron) that more easily produce good grilling results. Still, I think if you get them good and hot and oiled they can still do a decent job.

My plan is to save these for my on hold, but coming eventually, Genesis 1.5 project which I want to make as original as possible. These and using old-style porcelain plated flavorizer bars, I hope, will help with that.

Jon:
Those cleaned up fantastically. New used Genesis I just got came with SS grates. Still cleaning them. I want to see how they compare to my original CI grates which are getting tired. Also still have the GrillGrates I got for Christmas sitting in the box. As an old Swamp Yankee, I tend to stick with what I know and am comfortable with. I'll probably nurse the CI grates until they don't go anymore or get too rusty.

Wow...what did you use to clean them?

Those old type grates really are pretty decent. Tight spacing. easy to maintain

If you don't mind the inevitable rust/corrosion they will experience and the fact they don't hold heat real well, they are a great economical solution.

Awesome Jon. They look like new. I would also be interested to know how you cleaned them. Most of the porcelain coated grates I find in older grills are not salvageable. They are mostly rusted and/or have broken welds.

Stefan,
I really didn’t do anything special. Sprayed some Sam’s Club grill and oven cleaner and soaked for a little while in warm water with a lot of the Sam’s stuff mixed in. I think this set had to be fairly new and just greasy. I also had another set that may have been twenty-year old originals. Sagging and rusty, I didn’t even bother and added them to the scrap metal pile.

I am really glad to have one nice set for my Genesis “1.5” project if I ever get to it!

It sounds like you will covering all the bases jon as long as you have a set of CI grates in the mix as well.

Thanks Jon. I have to try that soaking with a pair of stamped SS grates I still have which are baked in grease but have no rust.

Let us know how that goes. I don’t think “stainless” will give up stains nearly as easily as porcelain does. The last set I cleaned about did me in. But that was before I found TVWBB and learned about better methods and cleaners. I really hope it works because I have several dirty old sets of stamped stainless that I ignore but might use in a flip grill if they can be made to look shiny again.

I’m with ya Jon. My first restore about 4 yrs ago I think was a 1000 that had stamped porcelain grates. They were still in fairly good shape so I opted to just keep using them while I shopped for an upgrade replacement. They looked original from the 20yr old grill and I just retired them recently because they were getting some small holes in them (rust) and replaced with some CI grates from a doner grill (which I really like now) but I was always quite satisfied with the stamped grates. Served me well.