WGA - GrillGrates don't fit due to the lid hanger, notching the grates voids the warranty?


 
J

Jacob - Grillin’

TVWBB Fan
My lid will not seal, not even close, due to the tabs for hanging the lid. I called GrillGrate, they seemed to know this was an issue, and said I'm welcome to cut a notch in the grate however it will void the warranty. Alternatively I can send them back for a refund. Thoughts? Am I missing something here?
 
Since they only have a 90 day warranty I'd either cut them or push GrillGrates to cover the return shipping for the refund since they knowingly sold you a product that does not work as advertised with your grill. They are a pretty good company, but if the product doesn't fit as advertised, they should make it right since it is their error.
 
Grillgrates have been up front about this for some time, i.e. at least one or two years. So either you send them back or make a notch in them. What is the warranty really worth?
on the other hand, if you have a warranty claim clearly unrelated to your notch I do hope that they will be a decent company,
Mikael
 
MikaelB said:
Grillgrates have been up front about this for some time, i.e. at least one or two years. So either you send them back or make a notch in them. What is the warranty really worth?
on the other hand, if you have a warranty claim clearly unrelated to your notch I do hope that they will be a decent company,
Mikael
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If this is a known issue, I wonder why they wouldn't notch them out from the factory?
 
Jacob - Grillin’ said:
If this is a known issue, I wonder why they wouldn't notch them out from the factory?
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Fair question! maybe it isn’t cost effective, it would add an extra step, probably requiring manual handling, the extrusion and cutting I believe is highly automated. But this is just me guessing, I agree with you on the fundamental question.
Mikael
 
Well! I notched them. However the top of the grillgrates themselves still push on the lid enough to keep it open an easy 1/4" all the way around.

Super disappointed. I would send them back but, lol, warranty voided by notching them out. I guess I could grind down the top edges enough for the lid to fit, but I'm done messing with them.

I honestly don't know how anyone can be satisfied with these on the WGA unless they literally only do direct grilling
 
Well since you are into it now. I'd go ahead and grind the ends down on an angle to match the lid. You loose a little grilling surface along the edge, but you'll be able to close the lid all the way.
 
I had these on my radar to purchase for my GA.
Is this on the Charcoal or Gas?
I also saw where rcplanebuyer makes some beefy SS rod grates for the GA, might get those instead
 
Kyle in Woodstock said:
I had these on my radar to purchase for my GA.
Is this on the Charcoal or Gas?
I also saw where rcplanebuyer makes some beefy SS rod grates for the GA, might get those instead
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This is on charcoal. I think it would be fine on gas, maybe lose a little heat, but it's not like charcoal where you're regulating airflow to control temps. I might pull out my gas WGA and see if the interference is the same as the charcoal.

They offered to refund me but I have to pay shipping. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet, the fact that they will make me "whole" makes me lean towards grinding the edges to fit. But still a little annoyed, my WGA charcoal is about a year old. Maybe weber made some drastic change. But I don't see how these would pass QC testing

Ultimately, if I had known to look for this, it would be less obnoxious to cut them to fit before seasoning them. At this point, I will need to really burn them totally clean so no aluminum chips get stuck anywhere.

LOVE my other rcplanebuyer stuff. But $70 wow. Ultimately, I think I'm going to cut my losses so to speak. Order the PKGo @ $270, and use the grillgrates for searing steaks on the main grill.
 
Jacob - Grillin’ said:
This is on charcoal. I think it would be fine on gas, maybe lose a little heat, but it's not like charcoal where you're regulating airflow to control temps. I might pull out my gas WGA and see if the interference is the same as the charcoal.

They offered to refund me but I have to pay shipping. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet, the fact that they will make me "whole" makes me lean towards grinding the edges to fit. But still a little annoyed, my WGA charcoal is about a year old. Maybe weber made some drastic change. But I don't see how these would pass QC testing

Ultimately, if I had known to look for this, it would be less obnoxious to cut them to fit before seasoning them. At this point, I will need to really burn them totally clean so no aluminum chips get stuck anywhere.

LOVE my other rcplanebuyer stuff. But $70 wow. Ultimately, I think I'm going to cut my losses so to speak. Order the PKGo @ $270, and use the grillgrates for searing steaks on the main grill.
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$70 is a little pricey.....about the same as the GrillGrates after taxes and shipping that come out to $63.
I'm waiting to see if another ebay coupon pops up. They had a $25 off coupon that I missed out on.... $45 is a little easier to take than dropping $70.

I'd be pretty annoyed if I were you. They really should design the grates to actually fit the grill without any modifications.
I did see this on their product page:
***please be aware that if the lid of your grill has tabs to hang it from the back they may interfere with the lid closing completely***
 
Kyle in Woodstock said:
$70 is a little pricey.....about the same as the GrillGrates after taxes and shipping that come out to $63.
I'm waiting to see if another ebay coupon pops up. They had a $25 off coupon that I missed out on.... $45 is a little easier to take than dropping $70.

I'd be pretty annoyed if I were you. They really should design the grates to actually fit the grill without any modifications.
I did see this on their product page:
***please be aware that if the lid of your grill has tabs to hang it from the back they may interfere with the lid closing completely***
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Yep. The problem is, it’s not just the tabs. The top of the grates themselves still hold the lid open. So their warning about this is in my opinion not representative of the product issues.
 
Last update, checked these with my WGA gas

These will work better on the WGA gas, however it still holds the lid up by about 1/2". It won't matter as much since you're mainly doing direct grilling, and a little extra airflow on a gas grill doesn't matter. However for the WGA charcoal, ultimately if you want the lid to seal similar to stock grates, will require quite a bit of material to be removed - about 1/2" square to be removed from each top rail. I'm not going to do this for a couple reasons, one it's difficult to make it look half decent doing this with an angle grinder. Two I don't like the idea of raw exposed aluminum in a food contact area on a charcoal (IE super hot) grill.

At this point I'm throwing in the towel and pre-ordering a PKGo for my portable charcoal needs
 
Jacob - Grillin’ said:
Last update, checked these with my WGA gas

These will work better on the WGA gas, however it still holds the lid up by about 1/2". It won't matter as much since you're mainly doing direct grilling, and a little extra airflow on a gas grill doesn't matter. However for the WGA charcoal, ultimately if you want the lid to seal similar to stock grates, will require quite a bit of material to be removed - about 1/2" square to be removed from each top rail. I'm not going to do this for a couple reasons, one it's difficult to make it look half decent doing this with an angle grinder. Two I don't like the idea of raw exposed aluminum in a food contact area on a charcoal (IE super hot) grill.

At this point I'm throwing in the towel and pre-ordering a PKGo for my portable charcoal needs
Click to expand...

I was browsing around eBay and there are lots of cool accessories for the Go Anywhere sold in Germany. SS grates, griddles, two zone charcoal dividers, etc.... Just unfortunately not able to ship to USA

I also noticed KillaGrilla makes a set of SS grates for $65 shipped for the GA
 
MikeLucky said:
I bought this for my GA Charcoal. It's actually a heavier gauge than the original and at that price it's a great choice. I'm about to cut it in half so I can put them in the bottom of the grill for transport and fit my small chimney and charcoal and tongs and such.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075R7N2SF/?tag=tvwb-20
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Did you have to cut it at all for it to fit in the grill? Quite a few 1-star reviews saying it doesn't even fit as it should.
 
Jacob - Grillin’ said:
My lid will not seal, not even close, due to the tabs for hanging the lid. I called GrillGrate, they seemed to know this was an issue, and said I'm welcome to cut a notch in the grate however it will void the warranty. Alternatively I can send them back for a refund. Thoughts? Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
Hi Jacob, Brad here from GrillGrate. We sell a ton of the GA GrillGrates. We have seen a handful of times with the lid does not seal tight, but not that many. We always thought it might be model / factory tolerances. Its a big seller in Europe and Australia and I think there are a couple of production facilities. I checked with my gang- they did have one call from a gal on this subject in the last several weeks. First I am pretty sure you can remove the existing grates? With charcoal especially a bit of a loose fitting lid is likely a good thing. You should not have to cut a notch frankly. I'll talk with my gang about the warranty issue. The Weber Go Anywhere & GrillGrate is one hell of a combination we hear it around the world! Thanks. Brad
 
Hi Jacob, I just found our customer service reply to you from the 4th. She said it right. Go ahead and enjoy them, use your GrillGrates. If you are not happy after seeing how they do- by all means return them for a refund. It is a nice combination. You may want to check your SPAM folder Wendi emailed you on 9/4 at 11:02AM. Thanks,Brad
 
BradB said:
Hi Jacob, I just found our customer service reply to you from the 4th. She said it right. Go ahead and enjoy them, use your GrillGrates. If you are not happy after seeing how they do- by all means return them for a refund. It is a nice combination. You may want to check your SPAM folder Wendi emailed you on 9/4 at 11:02AM. Thanks,Brad
Click to expand...

Thanks Brad, yes I did get the reply, that if I pay to ship them back y'all will issue a refund. I appreciate that. I decided to keep them since by the time I pay for return shipping I'm in deep enough to use them on another grill.

My frustration is, and granted this is a sample size of only two grills, but my older 2013 WGA gas and newer 2019 WGA charcoal both have lids that are held open by the crown of the grate itself. Your website says that there may be lid tab interference, but that can send people down a slippery slope of cutting an access notch for the tabs (easy to notch) then finding out it's in fact the crown of the grate itself blocking the lid (difficult to notch)

Respectfully I really strongly disagree about a loose fit being a good thing, particularly with charcoal. The more you can control airflow via the top vents the better. The gap in the lid opening means the top vents have to be closed up for the same temp, which is not ideal for charcoal. It also means you can't seal up the grill to snuff out the charcoal.

Ultimately, I do understand the frustration and complications of making parts while also dealing with an OEM making changes out of your control. I think you are all handling this well. But you might want to add that the grate top itself might hold the lid open or that some custom fitting may be required. It would've been a lot easier to make some notches before I "seasoned" them and discovered the interference.
 
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