Cast iron grates for Weber gas grills

Does Weber make cast iron grates for their gas grills? I've heard people say they have them, but on the Weber site they only offer stainless or porcelain coated. I've notcied other top brands offer cast iorn on their higher end grills.

Also, I know cast iron has advantages on other metals in the kitchen, such as pans/pots for heating better, but what advantages does it have on the grill?

Mike

Weber no longer makes the cast iron insert for their 22.5" kettles. They've switched to porcelain coated cast iron grates and are using them exclusively in gas grills sold at Home Depot. When the agreement with Home Depot ends in a couple of years, they might sell the charcoal insert again. BTW - I have the cast iron grate for my kettle, but a friend damaged it. I was looking for a replacement when Weber customer service explained all this. The grates sear really well, but if you're like me and use really hot fires, the seasoning burns off and the grate promptly rusts. Thx.

Home Depot sells Weber gas grills with cast iron grates, if I am no mistaken they are the only ones who do sell theses grates.

For a while, Home Depot's (and Expo's) Weber Genesis gas grills came with cast iron (c.i.)cooking grates. If you look through Epinions, a common complaint is that the c.i. grates require maintenance, or else they rust.

Weber must have "got the message" because they have switched to grates that are porcelin coated cast iron (p.c.c.i.). The porcelin coating makes the grates almost maintenance free, all that is required is the usual brushing with a brass bristle brush.

So if you go shopping at HD and Expo, you will see some Genesis gas grills with c.i. grates, others with p.c.c.i. It just depends if its older or newer inventory.

Based on experience with a different brand grill, I'm hard pressed to offer benefits of c.i. grates. They do hold heat well, and cause nice grill grate marks. But the regular porcelin coated steel grates which came with my Silver-B do some nice grate marks also. So I'm having trouble trouble justifying spending $54.95 for the p.c.c.i. grates.

Also if you look at the pictures in S.R.'s "How To Grill", many of the food-on-the-grill pics are shown on a Weber Genesis gas grill with regular porcelin coated steel grates.

-egkor

Notice above also that the seasoning on Cast iron grates tends to burn off after a while leaving them vunerable to rust. This could be corrected by seasoning them regularily but it adds a bit more P.I.T.A. to the entire process of grilling. I'd tend to vote with the rest and keep the porcelain grill although I too notice they dont stay nearly hot enough with the grill open. They tend to do better with the grill closed but I don't get the rarer steak I like that way either.