Charcoal Grate bending


 
J

Joe P

TVWBB Member
My WSM about 10 months old, only about 20 cooks on it. I just cleaned off the snow to fill er up and noticed the charcoal grate has started to droop down. Its about 1 inch concave in the center. I've had this problem with fireplace grates. Last time I used the WSM I used it for burgers over the charcoal ring-- hot burn I guess.

Any suggestions on this? I flipped it upside down for the Q I'm doing now. I guess gravity will correct it after this burn?

thanks
 
My charcoal grate droops down some, but I think that's a result of 10 years of use. I'm sure heat caused that to happen and you're probably correct that a very hot burn would hasten the process.

I believe I would leave it that way rather than turn it over. My guess is it wouldn't make much difference but you may get a little better burn pattern with MM when the middle is depressed rather than higher than the sides ? If its not really corroded, you might apply some pressure to the convex (?) side, as with your foot, and see if it straightens some.

Paul
 
I think it's quite normal. This happened on my Weber kettle some years ago so when the WSM grill went a bit out of shape I wasn't too concerned. Doesn't seem to affect the burn at all.
 
I grill with lump charcoal and use a second grate turned 90 degrees to keep it from falling through. I've had extremely hot fires and haven't had the grates droop. I dump the lump out when about 75% of it is glowing and quickly spread it out. Maybe it's the extra grate.
 
If it's sagging down that much, be happy, that is more you can put in for a longer burn time!
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I'll have to look at mine, I never noticed that. I also used 2 grates, one turned 90 degrees.
 
I noticed mine doing this after about 6 months. I just figured it was from me using a stick to push through the coals to try and get the ash to fall. It has been another year and it is still working fine. Quite rusty though. I will replace it when it breaks. Til then
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Mine has done the same thing. My solution....I just flip the grate upside down and cook that way with it until it bends back.
 
My current kettle is 23 years old and the charcoal grate has been drooping for nearly as long. It
still cooks very well and has never really bothered me enough to replace it. If you feel like
getting some excercise, you could flip the grate
upside down on the driveway and use a rubber mallett to beat it back into shape.
 
This has happened many times over the years. Both grates, the bottom one and the hinged grate both have bent. We just take them out, flip them over on a hard surface, and stand/jump on them to bend them back to straighten them. I'm sure over time, they might need replacement, but mine after 10 years is still bendable and hasn't broken.
 
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