New Q 1200 Grate Rust


 

KevinUSA

TVWBB Member
I purchased my new Weber Q 1200 a few months ago and I noticed the grates started getting a light brown coloring on them….rust. My grill is always covered outside and it hasn't rained here in a very long time. I use a soft wired brush to clean the grates, as approved by Weber and I never use a metal scraper. The porcelain enamel coating is supposed to be thicker than the previous versions. I contacted Weber and they are going to send me out new grates, but I still have to wonder why they are getting rust in the first place. It's very disappointing.
 
Ditto what Jason said....

After I cook on mine I scrubb and with a paper towel I apply oil while it's still warm.

Yup, ditto.

To the OP, there's no failure on the grates part, it's just fine, and Weber is foolish to send another grate again proving the people on the phone there too often know little of their product. The same will happen to the new grate if you do not change your maintenance. You need to keep it seasoned. If the oil and grease from cooking is not staying on the grates, you need to oil and season it yourself.
 
Are you sure it's rust? I noticed on my CI grates (both my Wolf and my Q220) they get a brown residue that can look like rust but it's actually the "seasoning" on it.
 
My grates shouldn't need "seasoning", because they have a Porcelain Enamel coating on them. That's the point of the coating.

I also looked at a friends Weber Q with the same type of grates and it also has rust on the exact same areas of the grill.
 
With the heating and cooling cycle, at some time the coating will crack. I found that bacon grease coats my formerly porcelain-coated grates very well. They lasted for a while on my Q's, but porcelain and cast iron don't heat and cool at the same time I figured, that's why that nice finish on the grates gave out.
 
With the heating and cooling cycle, at some time the coating will crack.
I understand that, but as I said in my first post, this grill is only a few months old. If the porcelain enamel cracks this soon, then they might as well not have it at all.
 
We all gave you some good info, no need for relatively hostile tone here. Call Weber. As for "needing seasoning" they don't necessarily need a seasoning process but become seasoned over normal use (or at least should). Unless I am cooking something fatty I always will brush my hot grill grate and than wipe with some oil.
I have never seen the coating "crack" as it truly is not a coating on top of the metal. Like the old glossy type. My Q220 is about 7 years old and the grate looks like new, by following my process. So call Weber if you're so inclined, unhappy or unwilling to follow advice
 
We all gave you some good info, no need for relatively hostile tone here.
I looked over my posts and don't see where are you getting a hostile tone from my post. But if you read that, I'm sorry. As I stated in my original post my grill is only a few months old and the porcelain enamel shouldn't be cracked already and allowing rust to form on the grate. The rust is only on the top of the outer edges of the grates, which is kind of odd. But as I said in my post I did contact Weber and they are sending me another set of grates.

My friends Weber Q 1200 is the same age as mine and the grates are also rusting, in the same areas. I know that Weber went with a thicker (glossy) porcelain on the Q 1200 grates than the 120 had. So for rust to form so quickly on it seems to me that there is an issue with this thicker porcelain coating.

UPDATE: Now I question whether this brown coloring is rust at all. Tonight after grilling, I let the grill burn on high for 15 minutes as I usually do to burn off food particles and then use a wire brush to clean the grates. Well, when I used the wire brush the outer edges of the grates went from black to brown. At first I thought maybe this brush has brass bristles and that's what is coating the grates a brown rusty color, although not sure why only the outer edges. But after examining the bristles, they clearly are stainless steel. So I'm stumped.
 
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