A weird one


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
So here is a weird thing. The other day I decided to cook myself a pork chop and the wife a Wagyu burger on the Q with my newly acquired grates. Wife decided to toast her buns :D Anyway she forgot them and they did a little more than "toast". Well yesterday I go out there to do some chicken. While oiling the grates (cast iron ya know) I find a rough spot that did not clean off after I brushed them clean the night of her bun "fiasco". Well, I come to see where she over toasted (burned) her buns the grill is corroded and the surface is compromised. So the second time I used these Uniflasy grates simply over toasting a couple buns ruins them? WTH is in BREAD that can ruin porcelain cast iron?!
 
YIKES. You should be able to abuse those grates for quite a while before the porcelain coating gets compromised. Can we assume you just got a dud set? I assume you got them on Amazon and they are good about returns.
 
Yah, everone calls that coating porcelain. I am not so sure that is what it actually is.
 
Larry, can you post a link to what you bought so that we can avoid the item? And then I suggest that you contact Uniflasy with your experience...I have found that many vendors that sell through Amazon with bend over backwards to make it right to avoid a bad review, or if you bought it recently you can return it for a refund.
 
There's different types and qualities of porcelain out there.

There's super thin matte porcelain coated cast iron that some companies use. Then there's thick shiny porcelain enamel. Weber uses the thick enamel on the current generation of Q's.

I hate the thin stuff. It's super thin so it starts to flake off after a couple uses, or if a tiny bit of moisture gets on it. IMO, that's crap as I don't want to be ingesting porcelain flakes.
 
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Well after all is said and done yesterday I went out and was cooking catfish on there. Prior to doing so I gave them a good brush down. Turns out what I though was pitting was the crappy chemicals they made the buns out of had carbonized so hard on the grate it looked like pitting. After some good brushing dipping my Libman brush into some grapeseed oil as well and followed by a wipe down the carbonized chemical s*(t storm came off. Happy to say. Catfish did not stick, the cook was great and when done the grates brushed off easily. So still giving them a thumbs up on performance and at the least matching OEM for quality/performance factor. But again. I will caution against using the el cheapo alloy so called stainless rod type grates on a Q. You will get poor performance overall because the grates don't have the mass needed to absorb and release heat in a controlled manner making the Q the gems they are
 
Bruce said:
I guess for flip grills they are fine. I think for personal grills, I will go with the SS options.
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You are correct Bruce!! The stainless steel option is much better!!, and I speak from personal experience. not just opinion. As a person who grills just about daily, the stainless outperforms the cheap cast iron every time, and sears much better!! The best part is, it will not rust or flake porcelain in your food.
 
I use my Q grills for quick down and dirty grilling. If I want to do serious grilling, I have my Genesis 1000. And even then I have SS grates on that. I am by no means a master griller and I love the low maintenance of the SS grates. I have had Q grills far longer than my Genesis and the one thing that really irritates me is the way they rust out and start flaking chunks. I will trade the heat retention properties of the regular CI grates for a little less performance but a big gain in longevity and ease of maintenance.

For those serious grillers, I can understand the desire for the heavier CI grates. But, that is just not me.
 
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