What is the best mod for charcoal grate?


 
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dean

TVWBB Pro
I am fed up with charcoal falling thru the grate on the ends. I have an older 18 incher and to me it seems that weber could have welded one more steel bar there! I tried some wire once it worked for few cooks, that is it!
 
Bunch of folk just get a second grate and run it 90 degrees (perpendicular) to the other. You can wire them together for ease of handling if you wish.Personally: Bought a second grate and went to the welding shop. Added steel to the ends and then perpendicular as well. Plus handles .
 
I am the one that posted this. Any way, do you all know if you can buy the charcoal grate at a store, or is it a different size and you have to order it? I will just double them up and bolt them together perpendicular as some one said below! My old one is getting warped BAD, probably time for a new one any way!
 
Originally posted by dean:
I am the one that posted this. Any way, do you all know if you can buy the charcoal grate at a store, or is it a different size and you have to order it? I will just double them up and bolt them together perpendicular as some one said below! My old one is getting warped BAD, probably time for a new one any way!
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Where I live, all hardware stores that carry Weber products have the replacement grates. I have an extra one you can have, where are you?

Mark
 
I got a SJ charcoal grate at Home Depot. It fits just inside the charcoal ring. I wired all three together. One of my favorite mods!
 
I bought a grate at Academy Sports for about $5.00 and as mentioned by previous posts, just bought one that is a bit smaller than the ring, and I just laid mine in there perpendicular to the Weber Charcoal grate. Not sure why they need to be attached to each other,,,,,,mine hasn't gone anywhere !
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Academy Sports has an assortment of grates. I may have bought the cooking grate, but the last several cooks it's done great, and nothing falling through that I'd want to keep anyway. I then dump the ashes and small chips of Charcoal.

Works for me. Good luck.
 
I got the Smokey Joe charcoal grate from Home Depot as well...works like a charm! It fits exactly in the charcoal ring..no more charcoal sneaking through the sides
 
Not sure why they need to be attached to each other,,,,,,mine hasn't gone anywhere !
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I attached ours to the ring so that I could pick up the ring and shake the ash off the left over coals and have a nice bunch of contained clean coals for the next time!

Terry
 
No mods necessary, if you don't want to mess with it.

Use larger briquettes like RO chef's select. They won't fall through for sure..

...OR use Stubbs. They're not as large, but they're much fatter than Kingsford and you'll love how they spread on a kettle grate out of a chimney, as well. (Why do my skinny Kingsford briqs always seem to try to escape through the grate when I spread my coals?!!)

Seriously, I started a cook before daylight the other day with Stubbs and didn't worry about any falling through after I had one tight bottom layer. It was easy and the light from my floodlights wasn't even helping that much. Kingsford has had me almost cussin' before, though. Hopefully, Weber will have a "no-gap" grate when I need one, though.
 
When I first had my 18" my charcoal ring got slightly bent into an oval on accident. I didn't realize and went to build the WSM one day and realized the slight oval prevented the CC from falling through the gaps.
 
Originally posted by Terry Bailey:
I attached ours to the ring so that I could pick up the ring and shake the ash off the left over coals and have a nice bunch of contained clean coals for the next time!

Terry
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This sounds great. I'm not much of a handyman. When you guys say "wired", what kind of wire are you talking about? I want to wire the charcoal ring to the grate too.
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" what kind of wire are you talking about"
I used Rebar Tie-Wire same as the two on the top row of this link. Home depot should have some back where they store the concrete supplies.

Tim
 
Originally posted by JSMcdowell:
When I first had my 18" my charcoal ring got slightly bent into an oval on accident. I didn't realize and went to build the WSM one day and realized the slight oval prevented the CC from falling through the gaps.
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Yep....Mine's pretty round, but I do turn it so that the smallest diameter is at the sides of the grate with the gaps.
 
Originally posted by timothy:
" what kind of wire are you talking about"
I used Rebar Tie-Wire same as the two on the top row of this link. Home depot should have some back where they store the concrete supplies.

Tim
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Thanks!!
 
Originally posted by Terry Bailey:
As for the type of wire I used.....I used an old wire coat hanger and made the "ties" out of that.

Terry
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I wouldn't think that would last very long, what with the direct heat of the burning briquettes sitting right on top.
 
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