WEBER 9mm SS grates

[George Si]

Hi
I had purchased a set of SS grates from rcplaner a few years back for a restored silver B. my new grill came with the porcelain enamel grates and I was ready to order another set pf Dave's SS grates. Luckily, never won on a lottery ticket, I was talking to Weber about a parts issue, and the rep and I got to talking about things and I happened tp bring up why the E335 didn't have SS grates. Anyway, he offered to send me a pair of Weber 9mm SS grates for the issues I was having and the fact that parts were on backorder, etc. well, I call this my first lottery win. Don't know if the guy was a Supervisor or whatever, but I didn't complain. may not be Dave's quality, but they were about $175 cheaper. love to hear comments about these grates Thanks G

 

[Rock Weiler]

I have the 9mm grates on my Weber.
Some prefer the cast iron ones but I'll never go back.
The zero maintainance of the SS is awesome and they leave nice big grill marks. Enjoy!

 

[MikeCantell]

SS forever, cast iron is lowball imo, some folks love them But I aint 1 of them, do they work? yes do they rust if you don't use the grill for awhile? yes, stainless no

 

[Jon Tofte]

Hi
I had purchased a set of SS grates from rcplaner a few years back for a restored silver B. my new grill came with the porcelain enamel grates and I was ready to order another set pf Dave's SS grates. Luckily, never won on a lottery ticket, I was talking to Weber about a parts issue, and the rep and I got to talking about things and I happened tp bring up why the E335 didn't have SS grates. Anyway, he offered to send me a pair of Weber 9mm SS grates for the issues I was having and the fact that parts were on backorder, etc. well, I call this my first lottery win. Don't know if the guy was a Supervisor or whatever, but I didn't complain. may not be Dave's quality, but they were about $175 cheaper. love to hear comments about these grates Thanks G

So, George, have you actually already received and used the Weber grates? I am very curious about what others who have them really think of their quality. They certainly look very nice to me and I think are one of the big plus features of the "special edition" models.

 

[Bruce]

My EP330 came with SS grates but they were more like the 7mm sized one....maybe 8mm at best.

 

[George Si]

These are thicker and quite heavier than the ones on the Costco grill. They r surely at least 9mm and as thick as my ones I used to have from Dave on my Silver B. I have used them a few times and a lot easier to maintain than the porcelain enamel

 

[Greg M]

I think the main difference between the weber grates and the rcplanebuyer ones is the spacing. With the rcplanebuyer being closer spaced. I'm sure the weber grates are good quality.

 

[LMichaels]

Actually Dave uses the same spacing as Weber used to on the older grills. IIRC .25" but I might be off a little. I am sure he does better than on the newer Weber grills though. As the ones I have seen on the new grills looks like nearly .5"

 

[Greg M]

Actually Dave uses the same spacing as Weber used to on the older grills. IIRC .25" but I might be off a little. I am sure he does better than on the newer Weber grills though. As the ones I have seen on the new grills looks like nearly .5"

That's what I was referring to. The newer weber grates look to have pretty wide spacing. Didn't know it was a half inch.

 

[Jon Tofte]

I am not sure I agree. I wish I had measured the SE Genesis grate when I saw it in person. Here are a couple pictures. Looking at them, the spacing seems entirely reasonable to me. Probably not quite as tight as Dave's but they also don't look to be 1/2" either. I would say they look pretty decent. I do have grates from the current generation Summit that, while very thick, have very wide spacing. I honestly don't think these new Genesis grates are as widely spaced as those:

 

[Bruce]

An easy way to tell the spacing vs rod size is to flip one grate upside down on top of the other. RCP grates barely fit together with very minimal gaps....if they were not very carefully spaced, they would not mesh.

 

[George Si]

Trying to include pic with a ruler. To me, taking the slight indentation where "0" inches would be, the measurement doesn't seem to be 1/4 nor is it 1/2", so I will settle for 3/8" or slightly less. But next time at son's place I will measure Dave's grate width

 

[Greg M]

I am not sure I agree. I wish I had measured the SE Genesis grate when I saw it in person. Here are a couple pictures. Looking at them, the spacing seems entirely reasonable to me. Probably not quite as tight as Dave's but they also don't look to be 1/2" either. I would say they look pretty decent. I do have grates from the current generation Summit that, while very thick, have very wide spacing. I honestly don't think these new Genesis grates are as widely spaced as those:

View attachment 26251

View attachment 26252

Maybe weber went back to a tighter spacing? That does look pretty reasonable. All I know is I read a post on this forum several years ago by Larry about the spacing being way too wide. I remember making a point to look at a weber grill in a Lowe's and noting that he was absolutely correct. The spacing was definitely wide enough for most vegetables and even some thicker steaks to easily slide through.

 

[Jon Tofte]

Trying to include pic with a ruler. To me, taking the slight indentation where "0" inches would be, the measurement doesn't seem to be 1/4 nor is it 1/2", so I will settle for 3/8" or slightly less. But next time at son's place I will measure Dave's grate width.

Dave's may be a little tighter spaced - .403", but if so not so much compared to that grate to be a huge deal to me. That is very different from the Summit grates which, while having very nice thick bars, also has wide spacing - MORE than a half inch - between them.

 

[Bruce]

Here are the measurements I got off my RCP grates after I got them.

 

[Julian Vrieslander]

I have the Weber 9mm SS grates on my SE-335. Measuring with a caliper, I get 9mm for the diameter of the bars (no surprise), and also 9mm for the spacing between bars.

As for the value of these grates, it's a mixed story. We have only had the SE-335 for a few weeks, so my opinion may change with time. Before this grill, we had a Genesis Silver B, with Weber's cast iron grates. I had no complaints about them. No problems with rust or cleanup. The thick 9mm bars seem to contact a greater total area of the food. That's nice if you are into big fat grill marks (I am not). My early impression is that these SS grates are more prone to food sticking than the cast iron ones we had before. Cleanup is pretty easy, not much different than what we did with the other grates. Note that these grates are really heavy. As I wrote, in another thread, I had to find a special tool for safely lifting these things in the middle of a cooking session (to switch out my smoke bombs).

I suspect that Weber includes the 9mm grates on their high-end and special-edition grills as a marketing feature. There are probably lots of people who like the fat grill marks, and others who simply think that bigger must be better.

Meathead's book advocates for SS but he recommends thin bars - less contact area with the food, more inter-bar space for radiant heat to get through.

 

[Jon Tofte]

At 9mm spacing, those new Weber Genesis II grates would actually be TIGHTER spaced than the ones made by Dave Santana (aka “rcplanebuyer”).