Wow, Such Grates!!!


 
THyde said:
Plus it's all preference anyway. Roy I am glad that you are finding your setup, I'm a big fan of the heavy stainless rods. With the rotisserie receptacle, natural gas and a light outside I'm really just about completely good. Except of course that I need to re do the wood slats. For what it's worth, I feel like even after I get those redone, it's just going to make another part of the grill stand out as needing attention. Kind of like painting your house.
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I get that. Now that I've been tempted to refinish wood slats, I'm gonna be in the same boat.
 
THyde said:
Plus it's all preference anyway. Roy I am glad that you are finding your setup, I'm a big fan of the heavy stainless rods.
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Just for reference, here's a chart of the thermal conductivity of metals. Guess which metal is at the bottom of the pile? I'm just curious about why the fascination with thick heavy stainless grates...with ss pots and pans, they typically sandwich aluminum between plies of ss, or put on a copper bottom to improve the heating characteristics. I can see an advantage to the thin stamped ss grates that Weber makes and would not consider them inferior.

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(source: https://www.nuclear-power.com/nucle...ty/thermal-conductivity-of-solids-and-metals/)
 
LMichaels said:
Because that is the wrong measurement to consider for the application. It's not conductivity but retention that makes them perform better
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Yeah, I've wondered about that...but other than sear marks, how does the heat retention contribute to cooking the protein? There is such a small area in contact with the protein that I really doubt that conductance plays much of a role in cooking...it's the heated air that does the actual cooking. Could you cook a steak just by heating the grate? Maybe, but you'd have to move it around a lot! I'm not trying to rock the boat here, and if you are happy with your grates, great! But the main function of a grate is to hold the protein out of the fire.
 
Me too. It seems to me that it might take SS grates longer to heat up, but they will. Conversely, my assumption is that they will retain that heat that much better.
 
I think people just adjust to cooking on whatever grates they have. I remember being a teenager working at restaurants and there was always a "hot part of the grill" on the flat grill, and on the flame grill we had we zoned it for warm and hot. This was the case at many restaurants. But the point is that we adjust to our environment. I really like the RC grates and the Chargon. I have had no issues with sear marks being more or less than what I want, and I think as long as you're happy that's the most important thing. All that said, I'm a scientist too so I wonder what the material's impact is on something like sear marks, but I think Jon Tofte did that experiment not too long ago.
 
Roy-Parallax said:
It's good to know that people have preferences and there's not an unambiguous "best" choice. Never thought about it but the stamped ones do have small spaces between the grates. Haven't had the chance to grill veggies on the Weber yet. When I tried it on the CharBroil, results were not good (as they tended to slip through and that thing did not cook evenly).
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Roy, you can always use a grill basket for your veggies. I prefer the Weber one with the slits as opposed to the ones with the round holes as the food gets stuck in the holes at times. They come in different shapes and sizes too. I know, I am just being another enabler.

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BPratt said:
The fat stainless rods look cool and that’s all that matters
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That's as good a reason as any!

Moving on from grates now...Roy, I'm aware of your dietary restrictions...do you have any issues with fried foods? We had the proverbial 1.5lb ribeye tonight on the griddle...we both just love that all over crust! The ribeye has got to be the king of steaks. We've roti'ed a rib roast from time to time but the crust from cutting a roast into steaks is just...heavenly. Maybe your kids would like chicken fried on the grill?

I've got to give myself a Like for the ribeye 🤩! I was rummaging around in the freezer...hmmmm, let me see, tri-tip or ribeye, ribeye or tri-tip...wasn't much of a debate...
 
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Grate, now all this talk about different metals has got me questioning the WBS grate I have.

Think I have still have the old one-piece so may have to do a comparison cook. Assumed heftier was always better. (no comment).
 
MichaelLC said:
Grate, now all this talk about different metals has got me questioning the WBS grate I have.

Think I have still have the old one-piece so may have to do a comparison cook. Assumed heftier was always better. (no comment).
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Other than the grill marks that everyone loves, I don't think it matters. It's the heated air that does the actual cooking...unless you use a griddle.
 
Roy-Parallax said:
Someone gave me a veggie dish the other day. The Summit guy gave me an insulated glove and a big-*** spatula. The 2000 guy gave me all these toys including a rack of some sort. Don't know what it's for.
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Love my big *** spatula (also known as a "turner", which is what it does). Get your grates screaming hot, throw the protein on, wait a bit, use your turner and rotate the protein about 45deg. Voila! Diamond shaped grill marks. Or just use a griddle for the crust! Or use both! Or not.

This is the one I have, but there are many other sizes available.

 
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Ed Pinnell said:
Just for reference, here's a chart of the thermal conductivity of metals. Guess which metal is at the bottom of the pile? I'm just curious about why the fascination with thick heavy stainless grates...with ss pots and pans, they typically sandwich aluminum between plies of ss, or put on a copper bottom to improve the heating characteristics. I can see an advantage to the thin stamped ss grates that Weber makes and would not consider them inferior.

View attachment 45314

(source: https://www.nuclear-power.com/nucle...ty/thermal-conductivity-of-solids-and-metals/)
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I don't see titanium! I remember someone picking up a grill that had custom made titanium grates that were like valued about 10x the cost of the grill.
 
Joe Anshien said:
I don't see titanium! I remember someone picking up a grill that had custom made titanium grates that were like valued about 10x the cost of the grill.
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Those are some expensive grill marks! o_O

Only chart I could find that compared titanium to other metals...from reddit, of all places!

source:
1644731583618.png

Note that this one shows the diff between 304, 310, and 316L ss, showing the effects of changing the corrosion-resisting chromium/nickel percentages.
 
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Ed Pinnell said:
Love my big *** spatula (also known as a "turner", which is what it does). Get your grates screaming hot, throw the protein on, wait a bit, use your turner and rotate the protein about 45deg. Voila! Diamond shaped grill marks. Or just use a griddle for the crust! Or use both! Or not.

This is the one I have, but there are many other sizes available.

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Though we've been grilling outdoors for just over a year, we've had a big spatula like that for years. Was convenient for flipping burgers in the pan.
IMG_20220213_012847.jpg

When I picked up the Summit, the owner gave me this thing. I don't know if you can tell from the photo but it's way larger. My first reaction was to think it was a scoop for picking cat poop out of the kitty litter. Truth be told, that's why it's been sitting in the sink since I got it. Not sure I can get that image out of my head even though I'm sure the guy just used it as a spatula. Besides which, I could wash it thoroughly, bleach it and run it through the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle. If I can get the image out of my head.
IMG_20220213_012830.jpg
 
If it were me, I'd trash it. It doesn't look like anything special, and yeah, if you think of kitty crunchies every time you look at it, and not knowing where it's been, that's no bueno. Funny you should mention the cat box aspect, though...we were watching a cooking show featuring popcorn chicken and the wife saw one of these spiders so we bought one. I've been telling her this tool has a dual purpose...


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