18.5" WSM top grill too small?


 
M

Mario Chiaramonte

New member
Hi folks,

Does anybody else(everybody else?) notice that the top grill on their 18.5" WSM should be a tad bit larger around? It should really fit well enough so that it won't fall down, but it is possible to knock mine off the four side "pegs", because the grill doesn't fit all the way to where the lip for the lid begins. I just threw a rack of beef ribs on the top grate and the grate tipped and the ribs fell into the water pan! Oh no! Really, REALLY annoying. This should not happen. I'm wondering if I just, somehow, managed to get a top grate that was like 1/2" too small. Really, that's all it needs to be is about 1/2" or maybe even a 1/4" larger and it will not be able to fall through. This is the first time I've had this accident happen. I guess I should have had the second bottom grade affixed, so the meat wouldn't have made it down to the water. I'm thinking I better go put the bottom grate in there, right now! Wish I didn't have to disturb the meat, but it's better than it getting all wet later. I was able to bring the uncooked meat back in and wash it off and recoat it with rub, but I don't want to do that, after it's already cooked!

Please tell me I'm the only one with this problem and that my top grate was thrown in the wrong box somehow and that if I went down to Home Depot and bought another 18.5" grate, it'll fit perfectly. If not, what solutions are other people using?
 
Not a terribly common problem, but no, you're not the only one. We've heard complaints about this before.

No need for you to buy a new grate. Call Weber at 800-446-1071 and tell them your top grate {the one with handles) is so small that it tends to fall off the supports and down into the bottom. They'll send you another one for free.

Remember, top grate has handles, bottom grate does not. Top grate is slightly larger than bottom grate.

Regards,
Chris
 
Great, thanks Chris, I'll surely give them a call. I should have posted this sooner, so I could have gotten it taken care of already!

Yes, it is the top grate with the handles that is too small. The bottom one fits perfectly. I've noticed some people say their stock water bowl (I've got the post 2009, larger one) doesn't fit perfectly, but mine really does seem that it does fit perfectly. It's just the top grate.

I did go down and remove the top grate with the food and then put the bottom one in there, though. Having the done meat fall into the water would surely be disastrous!
 
Mario, another thing to do after this cook is put a couple of washers between the inside of the smoker and the grate mounting bracket, and also make sure your middle section is not out of round.
 
That's a good idea, Dave. That should also fix my problem. I don't think my middle section is out of round, thought, as my lid fits perfectly, and the middle section fits perfectly on the base, too.
 
Check your diameters. Top grate should be 17.5" bottom 17". If your top grate is 17.5" than the washer fix will do it.
If it is an 1/2" smaller than 17.5" than yep call Weber.
Wonder if they are mixing up and adding handles to the bottom grate accidentally.

Tim
 
Uhhh...how far from perfect is officially considered out of round? My middle section isn't perfectly round, it turns out. Measuring crisscross, one way is approximately 3/16 shorter than the other. The top grate isn't perfectly round, either. It looks like one way is about 1/8" shorter than the other crisscrossed way. I think adding some washers should be good enough to fix the problem.
 
As much as we'd like these parts to be perfect, they're not precision engineered and they don't have to be, as long as your grates aren't falling into your water pan.
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Out of round only matters to the extent that it causes a problem.

From what you said before, you have a tight fit with no gaps where the middle section goes into the charcoal bowl. Gaps are the biggest problem with out of round because they allow air into the cooker and make it a bit harder to control temp during cooking and extinguish the fire after cooking. If you don't have those gaps, or if they're less than 1/8", I think I'd go with washers to fix the problem.

Of course, a call to Weber saying the middle section is 1/4" shorter in one direction than the other and the top grate wants to fall down into the cooker and you'll have a free middle section coming in the mail...but it may not be perfectly round, either.

I think I'd fix what you got.

Regards,
Chris
 
Yeah, I'll just fix it with some washers. It's easy to control the temp on it, no prob. I don't think a new middle section is necessary. It is normal for there to be some smoke coming from between the middle section and lid, though, right? I read that it's not designed to be air tight, so I'm assuming that it's fine. It certainly cooks fine.

Thanks for all your help, guys.
 
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