Saving grates.

[Craig]

When can grates be saved and when should they be trashed? I purposely kept the original cooking grate to my 22.5 Brown Warrior and I dug it out to mess with it today. Its got some rust covering the bars but is till clean/silver around the edge/ring, I got some of the rust off, would cooking it for a while at direct high heat help "sanitize" it or cook off the remaining surface rust?  I used to not care about original grates vs new, but this is the old well made one from the 70s. Its slightly heavier then the newer ones I think.

[jperry1907]

Duke cleaned one up the other day with baking soda and vinegar
http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/weber-kettles-accessories/rusty-grate-cleaning/?PHPSESSID=5f82a6b27490e482ff789583456748c6

[Heyjude]

I wouldn't necessarily cook on a rusty grate. But, if you can remove all the rust and get it t bare metal, its my opinion is that you can treat it like cast iron and season it up. Basically, you are coating the bare meetal with some grease to keepi the rust from coming back.
In order for this technique to work, you need to use it frequently.
Duke cokks almost everyday on his grill, so its easy for him.
I have seen some grates that are rusty to the core, no way to save it. 

[mikeinctown]

I've never had an issue with using an old grate on my grill. I scrubbed it with a wire brush then wiped it with oil. Over time it gets a thin layer of grease on it, making the grates look black, yet still clean.

[MacEggs]

Coat it with some Pam ... then hit it with the weed burner. Scrape. Repeat.
It may not get all the rust off, but might get it somewhat presentable.

[jkolantern]

I tend to think that they're trashed when you can visibly see the bars thin out, generally in the middle.  The older grates are definitely heavier and thick than the newer once.  The plated steel only seems to last a few years.

I never had a problem with some surface rust on a grate, heated up and then oiled.  Frequent use keeps them in good shape I find.

[1buckie]

Would like to know what the mix for the vinegar / soda thing is.....got a lot of old ones that don't get used much & would like to do that prior to  firing up with bacon grease.....

[Duke]

Sorry I wasn't more clear Buckie, here's what I did.

I got a bucket of hot water and poured it on until the grate was submerged, then I liberally poured some white vinegar in, probably most of a regular sized bottle. Next I replaced the old box of baking soda in the fridge with a new one and poured the whole box over the grate so it would rest on the bars for a while. After about an hour like that and the water had cooled down I took a metal scrubber and scrubbed it really good and then mixed up the water, vinegar and baking soda together and let it rest again. I repeated this a few times and then hosed it down and dried it immediately. After that I sprayed it heavily with Pam, but any oil will work and inserted it for use. I wiped it one more time before I put food on it and that was it. Now after each cook I oil it again for the next cook. The main goal is to keep it oiled when it's not in used. I think you could do several of your grates with this one batch of solution.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Yeah, lots of ways to do this. And I need to get my ass outside and do some of it!

Most "recipes" for using baking soda+vinegar call for putting baking soda on the thing/at the place where you want grease gone. Add "just enough" vinegar to turn the baking soda into a thick soupy paste. OR do this in a seperate container you can mix first, then spread/pour/brush or otherwise dispense the soup onto the greasy surface. Maybe this is a 50/50 mix, maybe not. Then add boiling water to help clean/activate/rinse.

Now, how you do that for a grate I can't say. But in order to minimize the amount of fluid needed to reach both sides of the grate I'd suggest lying the grate down on a large black trash bag so that the natural "pockets" formed by the bag help retain and surround the grate rows.

If, after brushing and rinsing, that didn't work put the grate into the bag with a relatively small amount of ammonia and close the bag tightly. Leave it for a few hours. The baked on grease should wipe off more easily and then just rinse away the ammonia. Try to not kill too many brain cells sniffing the ammonia; it can knock you on your ass out cold if you're not careful.

For baked-on grease streaks on the outside of the kettle try soaking a paper towel or rag in ammonia and place it over the grease spot. "Kevin" of Weber shows using Windex (not the Weber product LOL) in one of their videos to clean the outside. Same idea but less concentrated of course.

[Duke]

Good advice ATS, I tried the paste method first but it just fell off. That's when I decided to just soak it in a solution.

[addicted-to-smoke]

I "fixed*" my dishwasher that way, by making a soupy (not too thick) paste. Had some standing water. YouTube to the rescue. Grease buildup was the main diagnosis.

I took apart the plastic cover that leads to the grinder/drain stuff inside the tub and poured the paste into the area. After adding hot water I assembled and ran it on the rinse cycle -- no more standing water.

*There are other issues such as clogged drain hoses and bad pumps that can also cause this.

For baked-on grease with stoves and grills, ammonia is likely better and faster if you deal with the stench and possibility of uh, blacking out. Placing the grates from a kitchen's gas range into ziplock bags with ammonia does things not much else can.

The Weber video I mentioned above also showed Kevin using their wooden-handled grill brush to clean the lid underside and kettle innards. One of you on this site also posted a picture here of a narrow plastic paint scraper because it can contour to the curves and won't harm the enameled paint like some metal tools might.

[HankB]

I try to make it a habit to clean off grates following use and them wipe with an oil soaked paper towel. It seems that the plating on the Weber grates is not even paper thin and they start to rust almost immediately. The grate on my '85 26 which had never been used had flecks of rust on it when I got it last year.  That got oiled up quick. Within a year of the purchase of my 18 WSM the grates on it were getting pretty rusty as well.

I just scrub them off with a Scotch Brite pad and some Dawn. Rinse, dry and oil. That should keep them from deteriorating too much in my lifetime.

For grates that have a thick hardened grease buildup, I put them in a camp fire which burns the crud off in short order. For heavy rust buildup, I knock the loose stuff off with a Scotch Brite pad and oil them like AJ suggested. CI grates have no plating (except maybe for the Weber ones which start out with a porcelain coating?) and require that treatment as well.

[One Touch Platinum]

It sounds like it's time to upgrade your grates. I love my cast iron grate but there are other choices as well. Let's be real about our grills for a minute.....the grates are probably the most important thing as far as the actual cooking is concerned. I am not talking about heat control, fuel usage etc. When you are cooking  , it is the one thing that comes in direct contact with whatever you are grilling. I understand from Weber's point of view that in order to keep their grills in a certain price range they need to ship with a cheaper grate but to me if there is one thing to spend money on to upgrade it IS the cooking grate. I love my rotisserie....which costs more than a new Weber kettle.....and Smokenators and the like are great for making the kettle more versatile, but the very first thing I did when I got my grill was upgrade my grate. If you need to spend time and energy to upkeep your grate.....and you do.....why waste it on one that won't last? There are many aftermarket grates out there that will fit in the Weber. I upgraded and will never go back.

[1buckie]

I like that folks use the cast iron grates to great advantage.......stainless steel is also a longer lasting upgrade, more expensive than the standards, but I've heard all good reports from them.........
For me, I'll just stick with the ordinary stuff, as cast iron probably wouldn't fare well under my usual conditions.......




Did I mention that my tombstone will read: "Died of Thick, Heavy Sauces....."

PS: the grate in the pic is going on it's fifth year.....I keep 'em  coated up pretty well

[mwmac]

I used the plated grates until they were too far gone to use anymore and replaced them with hinged ss from Weber.  Even got the 18.5 hinged ss for my WSM before they jacked the price to $54...  Easiest cleanup with copper scrubber...