David Somerville was kind enough to send me one of these bottom grill grates for evaluation purposes. I received it today from Amazon and have not cooked on it yet, but wanted to share a few initial impressions.
In terms of size, David's grate appears to be spot-on when compared to the stock Weber bottom cooking grate. Both are just shy of 17" in diameter...16-7/8".
Weber stock grate (left) and David's stainless steel grate (right).
In terms of weight, David's stainless steel grate is 11+ ounces heavier than the stock grate. However, the difference between these two grates is not as noticeable as it is between his stainless steel top grate and Weber's stock top grate--a difference of 2 lb 3+ ounces!
Weber stock bottom grate
David's replacement bottom grate
In terms of construction, David's grate has 27 bars with two support bars below that are spaced 5" apart. Weber's grate has 21 bars with two support bars below that are spaced 2.5" apart.
In terms of "fit and finish", my sample of David's grate has two small issues: 1) The bars are not cut flush to the edge of the hoop; and 2) The grate is not as flat as the Weber grate--it moves up and down slightly when you push on one side of the grate or the other. Neither of these things impact how the grate fits in the WSM, and to be fair, it should be noted that Weber stock grates are sometimes not perfectly flat, either.
Weber grate with flush cut bars (left) vs. David's grate with bars extending past edge of hoop (right).
All in all, I'd give this grate a "B+"; if the bars were properly trimmed, I'd give it an "A".
