High Que stainless steel charcoal grate

Bdcoaibge

Does anybody have the new high Q stainless steel charcoal grate and can you tell if the egg still smokes as low and slow with the new great as it did with the original cast iron. Is the egg still as efficient with the new one as the other and also can you keep the temperatures as low as with the other one. Thanks for any help.

Mickey

Have bought 4. The answer is yes

tazcrash

I have a Weber grate in mine. Still can do low and slows.

DOCED

I think it is more "efficient" in terms of more air flow with smaller vent openings and will probably require you to relearn the vent settings for a given temp. but I love mine and have had no probs with low and slow and it is grate (pun intended) for turbos.Have fun.

Austin Egghead

All three eggs have the High Que. Cook and hold any temp I set from low to high.  

Shiff

I have one in my large BGE and love it. Quick to start and no problem regulating temperature.  Works fine for high temp grilling and low and slows.

twlangan

I will let you know Saturday night. Mine just arrived yesterday and is going in my Egg Saturday morning for a pork butt. Looking forward to seeing what it does. Been getting along fine with my stock grate, but thought I'd give the Hi Que a try for pizza cooks mostly. If it works as well as everyone says for low and slows, I will leave it in there.

wallyjar

Picked up one for my large and one for my medium at the GA Mountain Eggfest.  Installed in large today and will put in Medium this weekend.  

Will be cooking ribs, brisket and pork this weekend and will see how they work.

eggo

I like mine. The original grate (drain cover) was all right, just got plugged up easy and restricted air flow. I could have survived with the OG but this is much better.

BOWHUNR

You guys better be careful.  The warranty police are going to get you!! 

Mike

Jonathan1970

One of the best things I have purchased for my egg. I got tired of ash build up on long cooks and taking so long to get hot, so purchased one last year. The high que solved both problems.

James MB

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

info@hi-que.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
DNS Error: DNS server returned answer with no data

Smokin Professor

Try info@high-que.com instead.

Hi54putty

Bought mine off amazon

Grill Sargent

I purchased one the large grates a few weeks ago it works great seems to work better on smaller charcoal! Have done both low and high temp cooks.  The sales guy was great, and gave me all kinds of good tips on aligning and getting a good dollar bill slip fit with my new gasket.  

timekpr1

I have one too.  The only thing I found is my Egg seems more susceptible to downdrafts on windy days.  We had 18mph winds with frequent 25mph gusts the other day.  It just takes a little more work fine tuning the settings on those days.

setdahook

I am curious could you just drill out some addition holes in the original grate? 

nolaegghead

I am curious could you just drill out some addition holes in the original grate? 

You could.  Be willing to break it though....cast iron is like glass, it can have all kinds of internal stresses and can crack.  I bought the high-que, so I have nothing to lose, maybe I'll try it (and kiss a few drill bits goodbye)....hmmmm...plasma cutter?  I think that's the way to go.

bigphil

carbide or cobolt drills would work most likely cobalt would be better carbide has a tendacny to chip out running at low speeds  and some type of coolant as you drill 

nolaegghead

I've drilled cast a bunch of times.  It's actually pretty soft relative to ordinary structural steel.  But it's a thick plate, and I wouldn't attempt without a drill press.  Yeah, cobalt would be better.

SteveWPBFL

I'm re-posting what I think about the High Q grate.

My Large Big Green Egg air flow areas (square inches) are: 

       8.3: Inlet vent (wide open)

     13.7: Grate (34 x ..625 dia. holes + 6 firebowl holes and slot.)

     11.6: Dome exhaust area (no daisy wheel) 

The LBGE is designed to meter airflow at smallest area, which is the inlet vent. The grate flow area is much larger (50% larger) than the inlet flow area. 

In order for the grate to become the limiting flow area several grate holes need to be plugged/blocked with ash/lump.

Larger grate holes (.750 in. dia.) increase the already larger-than-inlet grate area to 18.3 sq in. 

Conclusion: The larger grate holes are slightly less prone to being plugged/blocked by ash/lump and will allow slightly more unburned lump to fall through. The primary benefit of a ‘higher flowing grate’ is not that it allows more grate flow area but that it allows more grate area (i.e. more holes) to be plugged/blocked with ash/lump before it becomes smaller than the inlet flow area. 

How’s that for rocket science? 

nolaegghead

Good rocket science...I like science!

Earlier I said I'd try drilling extra vent holes in the factory grate.  My conclusion - if you have a drill press and a decent bit, it'll take you about an hour.  Drills like butter.  Used some oil and it took about 20 seconds per hole. I only drilled a few because I have the high-que grate already.

The high flow grates really only help you if the ash builds up, or if you want to get more air for a hot hot fire.

stike

some have put the stock grate up on legs (like a home made raised grid) so that it floats a quarter inch or so above the fire bowl.  giving you much more open area all the way around the rim.

this is an old sketch


another guy bolted three (maybe four) large washers to the fire grate, through the existing holes along its outer rim, in order to make the grate also sit higher in the bowl. basically, the large washers stick out a quarter inch each, making the thing a half inch larger in diameter.  that makes it sit higher and also gives a gap around it.

last, this was my idea (though never executed) for increasing the supply of air to the bed of coals. thinking was to use a drilled out steel bowl, or even a colander



keep in mind that technically, anything other than the stock grate gives 'them' license to deny a warranty claim

nolaegghead

I was going to give the plasma cutter a shot and and try to cut cross-shaped vents thinking they'd be more resistant to clogging than round.  Didn't feel like getting sprayed by hot slag when gouging, and like I said, already have the high-que grate.

Nice pictures Stike. 

Another option is to modify or build completely new firebox.  I've never had a problem reaching temp (except for the one time I ran out of charcoal and had to use briquettes) or flame-outs, so I'd never do that.  Oh, and the warranty thing.

Mickey

Just in case someone is new. This is what it looks like:

 

BuckeyeBob

I kept having problems with my grate getting blocked and ordered the High-Que. has a made a huge difference for me and I highly recommend.

ribnrun

I noticed that after my firebox grate broke into 3 pieces my fires started quicker. I just arrange the pieces of grate with some overlap so it doesn't fall in the ash pit. Almost impossible to stir your charcoal, and the wiggle rod collects dust. High-Que sounds like a great idea. Anyone dislodge it while stirring their charcoal? The bars look like the ash tool could catch pretty easy if you at inattentive/inebriated.

JerkChicken

I have one in my lbge and I've had great results hot-n-fast and low-n-slow.

SteveWPBFL

I'm new, hadn't seen the Hi Q, thanks for that. 

I see the dome concept providing more surface area to provide more holes for ash to plug and feed the fire. But at the same time the dome would tend to disrupt how the inverted cone pattern that the lump wants to burn. 

The Hi Q grate looks like it would be more difficult to clog. It also looks like it would pass more unburned lump. 

There've been plenty of '+1's' FOR the Hi Q grate. But nobody's mentioned whether unburned lump, or how much more unburned lump drops through, if it does. 

And, no one's mentioned anything about the unburned lump that drops through, if it drops through, and whether it burns in the bottom of the Egg. 

So, WHY BGE, does your warranty not apply if the Hi Q grate is used? What's the concern? Why don't you use a Hi-Q design grate?  

nolaegghead

Yeah, small charcoal falls down through the grate of the hi-Q, where it burns just fine.  Regardless of whether or not you use the factory or aftermarket, you'll have better airflow if you put the larger pieces of lump on the bottom, and smaller on top (like you would a french drain, or sand/gravel filter). 

BuckeyeBob

I have not noticed a lot of unburned lump in the bottom a,though there's some. No issue with burning pieces falling through that I can tell.