Yoder 640 grill grates

[rwilli]

I just bought a set of the Yoder grill grates for my 640 and had a couple of questions:

1. Do you remove the grates when doing a regular smoke, or do you just leave them in place after you replace the heat shield?

2. When using the grates, does the entire grate area get hot enough to grill/sear or just the spot over the fire?

Any info/guidance is appreciated.

 

[Scott Eisenbraun]

I have the grill mates on my Yoder 640. I just leave them on all the time. I also bought the new heat shield with the removable door for grilling. My old heat shield had warped down from use. It's a lot less hassle to leave it in place, and just remove the trap door on the shield.

You will get a smaller area of intense heat with the trap door method. Enough for 2 or 3 large steaks. With the whole heat plate out, maybe 4 steaks, but not the complete grill mate area. Another issue is sagging of the grill mates from heat. As you can see, it gets blazing hot. The temp meter is targeted on the grates, not the fire.

 

[rwilli]

Thanks for the info, It's appreciated.

 

[retfr8flyr]

Aluminum melts around 1200° but it loses half it's strength at 600°. If it was me, I wouldn't leave the grill grates in all the time. The constant temps will just make them deteriorate that much sooner. I know guys that have actually melted their GG with hot Kamado cooker fires.

 

[rwilli]

Aluminum melts around 1200° but it loses half it's strength at 600°. If it was me, I wouldn't leave the grill grates in all the time. The constant temps will just make them deteriorate that much sooner. I know guys that have actually melted their GG with hot Kamado cooker fires.

Thanks--Good info

 

[texomakid]

I've used my grill grates about 8 times so far. I only install them when I plan to reverse sear steaks. I typically set up the 640 with the dampener pushed all the way in with grill grates on the left and the normal grates on the right. I set my steaks on the right and monitor temps until they reach my desired pre sear temp (typically I set the Yoder on about 180 to 200 during this time) once the steaks have reached the internal temp I'm wanting I pull them and cover them and crank the 640 up to about 500 deg. once it gets close I sear my steaks. 2 minutes per side and I rotate the sides 90 degrees after 1 minute. This give them those nice crossed grill marks. my grates are holding up well so far but I only install them when I plan to actually sear on them.