Grate cracked?

boomchke

I went out to clean the egg yesterday to get it ready for smoking some ribs and notice a small gap in the top of the grate around one of the vent holes.  When I took the grate out and flipped it over I found that the grate was cracked almost all the way from the middle out to the edge.

I love my egg, and I think I've been doing an outstanding job with taking good care of it but I just cant believe how many issues I've had with it.  It lives under a cover on the base that came with the egg, I clean after every use, and I always make sure never to get the temp too high.  Im religious about this.  I've owned this XL for 2 year and have already had the base replaced once and am talking to dealer about having it replaced again (I think I got a bad base during the initial replacement).

Am I doing something wrong here?  Can I assume the grates arent covered under warranty?

Bshults1

That's pretty normal, at least it was for me.  I believe the grate has a five year warranty.  After cooking on mine for a little over two years, my grate was split in two and warped as all hell.  Still used it until upgrading to a kick ash basket.  

bhedges1987

You're having some bad luck my friend.

keepervodeflame

IME, the sad truth is that if you use your Egg a lot (like most of us do). Things will crack, break, or just  wear out. This is not specific to BGE but is easily applied to all the major kamado producers. No one, I am aware of,  except maybe KK (I am not really confident about that) build something that never breaks. Everything I own is in degeneration mode from the time I buy it, till it breaks or I get rid of it. Just a fact of life. Although I have been cooking with the same fire grate for just about 5 years. I saw a really nice stainless fire grate made by Michael's Custom Grill Works, 3/8" 304 stainless bars with expert welds. Something like that would only warp after an atomic explosion. 

SemolinaPilchard

I believe that is covered by the warranty. You may want to upgrade to a kick ash basket. I don't have one, but those that do love it.
I never cared a whole lot for the original grate.  Not often, but sometimes I would have airflow problems and would need to use a wiggle stick. I was able to get some expanded metal, and I made a fire grate out of that, and have not needed a wiggle stick since. It has been over 5 years. For the large I beefed it up with 2 pieces of flat bar shaped like a square U on the underside. I figured gravity and the heat would make it fold up and slip through. The 2 outside parts of the U keep the grate in place when you stir the used lump to drop the ashes. For the small, the span is so small I didn't bother to beef it up, and when I stir the lump I just stir easy like I did with the original grate. Expanded metal is muy expensive, but you can often get a scrap from a metal working shop for next to nothing, or nothing.

Mattman3969

Just replace with the HighQue grate.   I've got one in each of my 3 eggs and love them.  

boomchke

Thanks for the comments guys.  I do use the egg a lot and I LOVE using it.  If this is just par for the course than Im ok with that.  It just seemed odd that I was having this much trouble so early on in the Eggs life.  As long as my dealer keeps replacing parts I guess I dont care that much.

kl8ton

Kick ash basket vote right here! 

QDude

I have had my XL for 4 years and had the base replaced twice and the fire ring replaced once. At least they were covered under warranty. 

NPHuskerFL

KAB or High Que

SemolinaPilchard

I wonder which size egg has the most cracks in the base.

DoubleEgger

Just get another free grate if less than than five years old. 

Begger

Maybe something to do with how you COOL IT?    I let 'er rip until I plug to top with the cap after having ALREADY shut the bottom vent.  
That being said, I'm still waiting for my NEW fire ring which cracked.   But I think I did it to myself with a VERY hot burn off (note clean ceramic) and a later PIZZA run which runs pretty warm, too, and has several open / close cycles.

boomchke

So that brings up a good point, during hot cooks like Pizza where you get the egg up toward the top end is there anything you should be doing differently to help prevent it from cracking?  I also wonder if there is a way to 'break in' a new egg to help prevent this type of cracking.  We love doing Pizzas on our but Im wondering if that's part of the problem since it's such high temp cooking.  

Legume

If you have an XL, you don't need anything but the stock grate, the airflow is more than adequate.  Mine has cracked, warranty replacement, no problems.  Spend the $ on meat.

DieselkW

It's pretty hot down there at the fire grate, that's the spot that gets the most aggressive wear.
You can take the picture that you posted here, and send it to your dealer, and you'll get a new fire grate.
Put the new fire grate in the shed and use this one until it no longer holds lump and breaks in half.

I predict you will be buying a new Egg before your old fire grill breaks in half. It's fine the way it is and will give you years of continued use.

I got a KickAsh Basket for my birthday this summer, and didn't even realize my old fire grate was cracked until I removed it.

By the way, the KAB is more than just better air flow, when it's cold and I'm going to light a fire, I remove the entire load of used lump, carry it over to my ash pile, give it a shake and put it back in the egg.

Last time I vacuumed out the egg was when I put the KAB in. About 100 cooks ago. (I use my Egg every day in the summer, most days the rest of the year)