No registration or passwords; no pop-up ads -- just aloha, fun, & answers.
(as an eBay Partner & Amazon Affiliate earns from qualifying purchases).
Home /
T.O.C.
Fun
FAQs
Good
Books
Ref.
Libr.
Advertise
 
Help
Wanted
Current
Q&A's
Site 🔍
Search
pub  Where the
world gathers for metal finishing
Q&As since 1989



-----

Bar-B-Que Heat Plate Materials




Q. Hi, I'm writing to ask you a question that I imagine many people would like to know the answer to. I see from reading some of the letters on your website that people do have concerns about types of materials used in a bar-b-que, with respect to any health concerns when the material is heated by the flames. I purchased a bar-b-que from Lowe's Home Center less than two years ago. The alleged stainless steel burners were totally rusted away in just over a year as was the support plate needed to mount the burners on. The burners (five of them) had a lifetime warranty, so they were sent to me from the manufacturer for a mere $30.00 shipping and handling charge. I had to pay almost another $30.00 for the support piece which took over three months to get to me. The heat plates that go over the burners are made of porcelain covered steel. They too look like they were on the Titanic. I am willing to "manufacture" my own heat plates, as you need not be a rocket scientist to cut out 10" x 16" pieces of metal and cut some elongated holes to match the original heat plates. Problem is I thought that stainless steel would be the way to go for health concerns. The sheets of stainless will cost quite a bit so I wanted to know can aluminum be used, or just regular steel? Once the plates are considerably rusted is it a health concern to cook food over rusted plates?

Rudy Veiga
- Delray Beach, Florida, USA
February 25, 2009


A. Hi, Rudy. There are hundreds if not thousands of different stainless steels, and some are far more expensive and corrosion resistant than others, but none are dangerous. Rust is not generally dangerous either, and certainly not in the context of being on a B-B-Q flame shield. Aluminum may not be able to take the heat though, and it is impossible to clean.

sidebar

opinion! I guess we have to focus on things that we think we can control. But it still amazes me that in an age where our government has abandoned any pretense of control over the food supply, where rodent hair is in most spices, where we feed the chickens newspaper & excrement, where we grind sheep brains into the cattle feed, where we import non-inspected vegetables grown next to latrines in every filthy 3rd-world hovel, where rodent droppings are everywhere and poisonous adulterants deliberately added in China ... we then mix it all into 100,000 gallon tanks, shuffling it all inextricably together so it takes weeks or months of ongoing food poisoning to track down the source of salmonella, listeria, and e coli outbreaks -- but people are concerned about the safety of the metal that might wear off their forks and bar-b-q grills rather than what we're actually eating :-)

Good luck, and Regards,

Ted Mooney, finishing.com
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
February 26, 2009


A. Aluminum will not work!
If you make your own out of SS, I think that you will have more than $60.00 invested by the time that you are thru.

I think that if you filed for both types of replacement parts at the same time, then you have a right to complain about the second $30. If they were filed at different times or on different requests, then you have no complaint.

Be sure to not buy the same brand when you trash can the current one.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
February 27, 2009


A. Why not ask why the rust is occurring? I live in central NY, and leave my grill out all year long. I cover it after every use. In the summer I roll it over into a shaded area so temp changes don't create condensation under the cover. I paid $125.00 for it 6 years ago and it still looks great. The cover cost me about $25.00.

Mark Baker
Fellow Plater - Syracuse, New York, USA
March 4, 2009




Q. This is by far the most accessible forum for my question I have found thus far. hope you could answer me specific query:

Can I use ST-37 steel (7 millimeter thick) for cooking grill grates (coal or gas)?
How great is the risk of it warping in the heat?
Please note, my local shop offered ST-37 (I don't know if it's different than ST-37-2) but wouldn't commit to its heat resistance.

erez frankel rubner
- Tel Aviv, Israel
January 23, 2018


A. Hi Erez. I'm no metallurgist, but I always thought that unrelieved stresses from machining, welding, etc. were the cause of warping. If these are welded grates, they probably require stress relief; warpage might occur anyway as fires can get the steel red hot, and consequently soft.

My understanding is that there really is no such thing as ST-37 anymore -- that this was was just a precursor numbering system from decades ago to what we now call ST-37-2. I don't think it has much bearing on the warpage issue. Good luck.

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
January 2018




Q. My hubby wants to make bbq heat shields out of an old fridge door. Is the enamel over steel going to be toxic?

Rebecca Toews
homemaker - Chilliwack, British Columbia Canada
April 22, 2019



Porcelain heat shields
on
Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hi Rebecca. I think you probably realize that the problem here is that the engineer who was trying to work out how best to design that refrigerator door wasn't thinking much about the possibility that someone might cut it up and use it as heat shields on a gas barbecue, and no epidemiologists are traveling around gathering data on the safety of old refrigerator doors being used as heat shields either. So you're pretty much on your own, and the general safety principle is don't use stuff for purposes for which it wasn't intended.

All that being said, I personally think most of the paint will burn off pretty quickly and you can just break them in with no food on the grill. However, unless that refrigerator is older than dirt, it would surprise me if the sheet metal was thick enough for use as a heat shield without badly warping and burning/corroding through very quickly, whereas you can usually get a set of stainless steel or porcelained heat shields for under $20. Good luck!

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April 2019




(No "dead threads" here! If this page isn't currently on the Hotline your Q, A, or Comment will restore it)

Q, A, or Comment on THIS thread -or- Start a NEW Thread

Disclaimer: It's not possible to fully diagnose a finishing problem or the hazards of an operation via these pages. All information presented is for general reference and does not represent a professional opinion nor the policy of an author's employer. The internet is largely anonymous & unvetted; some names may be fictitious and some recommendations might be harmful.

If you are seeking a product or service related to metal finishing, please check these Directories:

 
Jobshops
Capital
Equipment
Chemicals &
Consumables
Consult'g, Train'g
& Software


About/Contact  -  Privacy Policy  -  ©1995-2024 finishing.com, Pine Beach, New Jersey, USA  -  about "affil links"