Peculiar Charcoal Grates

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I'm not sure if my 2 WSM's have defective charcoal grates or what. Each side seems to be missing the last bar of metal, leaving a 2"+ gap on each side. When you put the charcoal ring over the grate, it looks obvious that the charcoal will fall through each side.
I called customer service at Weber and the lady said that as far as she knows, the charcoal grates are not supposed to be like that. I gave her the serial # (2 letters) from the lid vent and she said they will send me 2 new charcoal grates on October 15 and FedEx will pick up the old ones the following day.
I asked a friend of mine online if his charcoal grate was like that, and he said he didn't think it was. Maybe there was a certain lot # of the grates that never had the outer pieces of metal bar welded to the grate. If so, they are unaware of the problem until now. Maybe I was the first person to let them know about it.
You can stick your hand through eack side where the gap is twice as large as in between all the other bars. I would hate to keep having charcoal fall through the holes every time they settle or get shaken or raked.
Has anyone else noticed their charcoal grates with spaces like this on the sides?
It looks just like they forgot to weld the last bar on each side.
Thanks.
 
The gap on both sides of the charcoal grate is a normal part of the design. To the best of my knowledge, such a gap is not present in the grates of other Weber charcoal grills. I'm not sure if it's supposed to serve any purpose, but it does allow charcoal to fall through. You can double-up two grates at a 90* angle to one another to fix the problem, but this tends to keep spent ash from falling through the grate, too.

Regards,
Chris

[This message has been edited by Chris Allingham (edited 09-17-2001).]
 
If you are using Kingsford and the Minion method, this will not be a problem. Unburnt Kingsford won't fall through the gaps.

Steve
 
The Gaps I am talking about are pretty big. Even whole unlit briquettes will fall through. How am I supposed to fill the charcoal ring if the briquettes are going to fall right through the sides?

Maybe I'll just get a piece of expanded steel cut to fit on top of the charcoal grate.

Or maybe I could take the charcoal grate to a welding shop and have someone weld a piece to each side.

The lady I spoke with at Weber customer service seemed to be familiar with WSM's, and she acted like those gaps are not supposed to be there.
 
Rocky,

Don't bother with the Weber lady, she doesn't know what she's talking about! Many of the pictures on the website like this one show that these openings are a normal part of the charcoal grate.

The charcoal ring is slightly smaller in diameter than the grate and will close off part of this gap, but a few unlit and lit coals will fall through. You will have no problem filling the ring with unlit coals when you setup the cooker. While I personally find this to be a minor annoyance from a design standpoint, it does not affect the overall performance of the cooker.

You can use two small pieces of expanded metal to cover the gaps if you like. Placing expanded metal over the entire grate creates the same issue as putting 2 grates at 90* to one another--it becomes harder for ashes to fall away during the cooking process, which tends to smother the fuel during long cooks.

Regards,
Chris

[This message has been edited by Chris Allingham (edited 09-17-2001).]
 
Thanks Chris,
I might have a welder just add a piece of steel in each side. Guess I better call back Weber today and have them cancel sending those 2 new grates.
 
Rocky,

A food grate from a Brinkmann smoker will fit nicely right on top of the WSM charcoal grate. These can usually be had cheap, and do a good job of keeping small pieces of charcoal from falling through. Another option.

George
 
Rocky,

I have a simple & cheap solution to your problem. Go out & purchase a Weber charcoal grate #72501 & place it inside the charcoal ring on top of the other grate--it's a perfect fit. Just don't rotate it 90 degrees. It does the trick, no briquettes falling down the side & no smothering of the fuel during long cooks. Hope this helps.

Jason G.

------------------
Jason G.
 
I had originally done that. It wasn't a perfect fit like they had said it would be. The replacement was about 1" - 1-1/2" diameter smaller than the charcoal ring is.

Not a problem anymore anyhow because I just dropped the charcoal grates off at a welding shop and they are going to add a 3/16" rod to each side to divide the large gaps. They will charge about $10 per grate to add these.
 
Hello from Weber:

I figured I'd better say something so it doesn't look like I'm hiding.

It seems to me that those gaps are there to act as handles for removing the charcoal grate. But I must admit, they could allow coals to fall through. This hasn't been a problem for me, or maybe ignorance really is bliss, but I will watch it in the future.

There is nothing I could recommend for this either, except to try to avoid those gaps when you are loading the ring.

Take good care,

Weber Dave
 
I would rather just use the regular size gaps between the rods for lifting out the grate. You don't see any other charcoal grates from Weber Grills or any other companies with gaps like that on the sides. Must be a reason....like the charcoal falls through.
 
I don't suppose simply bending the charcoal ring slightly into a barely oval shape would solve the problem?
 
hmmmm, I don't think I would personally want to try that because the porcelain finish might crack off. The easiest solution I have found is to just have someone weld a piece of 3/16" rod in each gap or if you know how to weld do it at home. I suppose there are other ways of doing this: Maybe with some pliers twist some pieces of coat hanger or other thick wire between the gaps or a piece of foil with some holes in it or small pieces of expanded steel to fit the gaps.

I went with the welding method for a more permanent solution. To get both of my charcoal grates done it might cost $20 max (probably less...haven't got them back yet).
 
I should have looked first -- I didn't think that part was porcelainized, but it is. We bent it just a little and stopped at the first sign of hearing the porcelain crackling. But the ring was just enough out of round so that the gaps in the grate are now equal to those between the rods.

I'll let you know if the ring begins to show any signs of deterioration.

Like Weber Dave says, "Ignorance is bliss," but now that I know about the gaps, it probably would have bugged me!
 
LOL..
I haven't even used my WSM's yet, but those gaps caught my eye immediately when I was assembling them. And I would have noticed for sure as soon as I added charcoal to the ring. I have seen many different charcoal and cooking grates for lots of smokers and grills and this is the only one I have ever seen with gaps. That is why it caught my eye so fast.
 
I just picked up my 2 charcoal grates from the welding shop. They look great!! Look like they come from the factory with no gaps.
The minimum welding charge there is $20, but I had also ordered a 23" x 23" piece of 11 gage expanded steel to put in the bottom of the 24" x 24" firebox of my Klose Pit. The total charge for everything was $21.20 !! The charcoal grates must have only taken 15-20 minutes to weld, so he probably just gave me the piece of expanded steel.

Now, my 2 thermometers should be delivered any time now, I keep looking out the window for UPS. Once I mount those, I will take the last 3 pictures on my roll of film and then drop off the film to get developed. Then I will have the pictures of those Rib Racks some people asked me about. I ordered 2 more Rib Racks since they look so good.
 
If you center the ring on the grate the gap is not a problem. I wire my rings to the charcoal grate for easy of dumping unburned charcoal.
Jim
 
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