Grate Care?


 
S

Stone

TVWBB Super Fan
All of my grates are covered with rust witin a year, if not sooner. I'm in New York, so it gets a bit wet and humid during the summer.
I'm curious what people do, if anything, to protect their grates? Do you store them inside when they're not being used? Do you scrape them immediately after cooking? (I usually leave the gunk until the next time I need them.)
 
I assume your referring to the stock nickel coated grates. If so fighting rust is a losing battle especially. I made the switch to the stainless steel grate for my Performer about 2 years ago and its been great. It did cost me a bit though, I think I paid around $60 direct from Weber. You could also switch to cast iron, but rust is a issue with them too unless properly seasoned and cared for following cooks. I have yet to switch to SS in my smoker though. I usually just get a new grate when I need it and let the charcoal grate rust up.
 
Thanks. I guess I'll just replace when necessary. The charcoal grat on my 18.5 smoker is pretty much gone (granted, it's more then 10 years old). But I'm annoyed by the amount of rust on fairly new cooking grates. Not sure if I want to spring for the SS.
 
I usually clean most of the heavy crud after use of the WSM and then spray with a good coat of the spray PAM made for grills. The oily coating has protected mine for over 2 years now in humid SC.
 
For me it depends on the grill and I think related to the percentage of use that grill gets. My cast iron for my performer is my biggest challenge. It gets used more in the warm weather because when it's cold, I limit the amount of time I'm out grilling, therefore the Q gets used in cold or rainy weather. The Q comes with cast iron (at least the old ones) and for me, they stay perfect year round. That's because they have a constant layer of grease on them from use. The performer starts to get nice, but then I get a good fire going, they turn white, the carbon buildup gets burned off, and it's back to square one. The key is to spray them down with canola oil after they cool off a bit, but that never happens because dinner is done and I'm off doing something else and forget about the grates. So I leave them rusted, brush them well before a fire, and after the temp is set while using spray, wipe down with a cloth to get the rust and oil up and then start cooking. Now that I write this, I see why I went back to my SS 22" grate and the Craycorts are hanging up on a long nail in my garage! I should sell those things.
 
I have not had any real misery with any of my grates, when they really got funky, I just replaced them. The GBS has changed that due to its initial cost, I don't think I will simply replace it very quickly. But, that said, cleaning is not a big deal, I generally brush before grilling and I'm good to go, the WSM does take a fairly low effort albeit, time consuming, soaking phase to get the residue off. The cleaning is also a bit therapeutic, the time spent let's you consider what the next project will be and how that cleanup will be accomplished!
 
Sometimes I clean them and sometimes I don't, It's just surface rust, not pitted ,so a brush and a burn cleans that off.
Wipe down it with an oily paper towel cleans any residue.:)

Tim
 
On both my Weber Mastertouch and WSJ Grills I have "Grillgrates.com" type grates on-top the regular Weber Grates and they do a great job and to boot do not rust.
 
I clean my grates after every use. Prior to using I use paper towel dowsed in vegetable oil and rub it over the grates. My WSM is stored indoors when not in use. My grill stays outside until the snow comes then it gets put in the garage. (If I ever get a $1k grill you can bet it will be stored inside).
 
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