On carbon vs. stainless steel in grills

A few days ago I asked about use of stainless steel in grills and barbeques. A common theme, mentioned by several people, was that a grill is a terribly corrosive environment because of heat, salt, acid and condensation, all combining to ruin any ferrous metal. They said that even stainless would rust.

This is a followup to that discussion. I found replacement parts for my grill (cast iron burners and stainless flame tamers, to replace ceramic flame tamers).

While replacing the old parts, I noticed that the stainless parts, in close proximity to carbon steel parts, DID NOT RUST AT ALL. At worst they were "discolored" after 8 years in the grill, if that, but had essentially no rust or pitting. All the while, the old burners completely rotted out and resembed a pile or rust flakes more than a solid piece of metal. Some fell apart when lifted out of the grill. The stainless pieces, however, looked almost like new.

So it is not true to say that stainless steel rusts in grills, it essentially does not.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus17356
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Similar story... I asked about passivating an SS weldament to be used for a chum ladle (chum is ground up fish bait) The consensus was no way could you prevent rusting in this application. Well, for at least one year of use, no rust at all. SS is good stuff Maynard!

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Yes, Sir, indeed stainless is good stuff.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus17356

"Ignoramus17356" wrote: Yes, Sir, indeed stainless is good stuff. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A rose is a rose is a rose--but stainless comes in a variety of alloys. From your experience, some are good in the barbecue, but others may not be.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

It looks like my barbecue is using the particular alloy that is good in barbecues.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus17356

I think cast iron has some qualities that make it better for cooking. From the experience I have had with mine the cast iron is going to last forever as long as I keep it properly seasoned and maintained. I have overheated mine a couple of times and this ruins the seasoning and it must be re-accomplished. I do this by oiling them up and baking them in the oven. I clean them using oven cleaner and a SS brush. Super heating them by turning up the gas ruins them although cleaning them in a self cleaning oven works well without ruining the seasoning provided they are removed from the oven as soon as the cycle is over and oiled.

Jimmie

Reply to
JIMMIE

When I bought my grill, I used the "magnet test for stainless steel" * The magnet did not stick to the grill grates and have not rusted in the five years I've had it.

"If the magnet sticks, don't buy it."

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Reply to
Oren

A single sample cannot be considered representative.

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

I did some reading on the subject of stainless steel in grills: it seems that the cheap manufacturers use low grade and essentially inappropriate steels that they call "stainless", but which do rust in grills after the return period runs out.

Apparently, my grill is mostly made of proper stainless. It is not fully stainless, however, and there are iron screws in it that have rotted, as well as a few other minor pieces. This is a Sam's Club "Members Mark" grill.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus17356

I made my own cooker out of a Budweiser keg. They are stainless steel and I use charcoal and it gets wet when it rains can't say I notice any corrosion on anything but the Weber plated steel round thing you put the food on. The only welding related thing is attaching a rotisserie device and then modifying the rotisserie basket to fit in the keg.

Fran

Reply to
fran...123

Try walking through the IKEA kitchen section with a small magnet. Amazing how much of their "stainless steel" is magnetic. Surprised the hell out of me when I first noticed it.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Many types of SS (I believe "alloy" is a word used in "castings") are good quality even if magnetic. It depends on the amount of chromium used. And IIRC, the non-magnetic is nickel stainless.

bob

Reply to
Bob Villa

Many types of SS (I believe "alloy" is a word used in "castings") are good quality even if magnetic. It depends on the amount of chromium used. And IIRC, the non-magnetic is nickel stainless.

bob

Isn't really the symmetry of the crystalline structure of the metal grains involved in whether the stuff is magnetic or not? The hexagonal symmetry grains being magnetic.

Fran

Reply to
fran...123

Depends on whether it's got ferrite in it or not. High chromium/ nickel steels aren't magnetic, but make lousy knives and gun parts. Finished reading a book on intergranular corrosion in stainless, the stuff tends to get attacked on grain boundaries because the grain themselves have the oxide protection. So eventually the material literally falls apart, how fast depends on how large the grains are. Forged/rolled items tend to have fine grain structure, as-cast is coarse. Weldments are probably coarse unless post-treated somehow.

Had one junk man who depended on his little magnet to tell him if his junk was stainless steel or not, had to tell him that it could be stainless AND magnetic, he didn't believe me.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

Right, "stainless steel" is a broad and non technical term. It comes in many different alloys for different applications. A magnet isn't an accurate gage for determining the quality of a particular alloy for a particular application. I've installed hundreds of tons of stainless alloys that were magnetic (and incredibly expensive) that are now at the bottom of lakes. On intake structures for hydro plants. What's commonly called stainless is a large and somewhat complex field and you really can't boil it down into a small book.

JTMcC

Reply to
JTMcC

It's something like that. The 300-series stainless steels are nonmagnetic, BUT that's by an 'as annealed' test; once you whack it with a hammer, the strained parts can magnetize.

Reply to
whit3rd

Nickel is magnetic by itself.

Austenitic Stainless steels are non-magnetic. Chrome 16-26%, nickel less or = to 35% and so forth.

There are so many alloys and it is a complex task to measure. The fancy machines that blast them and measure the reflections - are not all perfect. Been there had it done to me.

Mart> >>

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

It is? In what form? How would I go about proving that to myself in an easily measurable manner?

Nickel plated steel would still be magnetic of course, but it's the steel under the nickel.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

I believe that cobalt is magnetic, but not nickel.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus16651

The 38 elements in groups 3 through 12 of the periodic table are called "transition metals". As with all metals, the transition elements are both ductile and malleable, and conduct electricity and heat. The interesting thing about transition metals is that their valence electrons, or the electrons they use to combine with other elements, are present in more than one shell. This is the reason why they often exhibit several common oxidation states.

There are three noteworthy elements in the transition metals family.

These elements are iron, cobalt, and nickel, and they are the only elements known to produce a magnetic field.

The Transition Metals are:

Scandium Titanium Vanadium Chromium Manganese Iron Cobalt Nickel Copper Zinc Yttrium Zirconium Niobium Molybdenum Technetium Ruthenium Rhodium Palladium Silver Cadmium Hafnium Tantalum Tungsten Rhenium Osmium Iridium Platinum Gold Mercury Rutherfordium Dubnium Seaborgium Bohrium Hassium Meitnerium Ununnilium Unununium Ununbium

Reply to
sparky

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