Buy Music City Metals 92911 Stainless Steel Heat Plate Replacement

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List Price: $114.95
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I have a 27" DCS grill, and I was looking for a replacement plate to hold the ceramic rods. This was proving difficult (and potentially very costly). I was interested in this product because the images appeared right, and it correctly shows it can hold 18 rods just like my current DCS plate.

However, I was concerned by some of the poor reviews this product received. Specifically, I was worried about the reviews that said the metal had bowed over time, causing the rods to break. I also noted the reviews discussing how hard it was to secure the screws for the bar that keeps the rods in place.

Frankly, I was out of options, and I decided to gamble and see how it worked out. Here are my notes regarding installation and use so far:

1. Since my existing grill (and radiant rods) were all 8 years old, my rods were extremely fragile. Also, I noted many of my old rods were bowed. I had already broken many of the rods when trying to remove them from my old rusted heat plate. I say that because I ordered 18 new rods at the same time as ordering this replacement plate. So, I had 18 new rods (plus a pack of three new ones that had just been sitting around unused for a while); and I had 18+ old rods.

2. With the first new plate, I attempted to use 18 of my old ceramic rods. As I mentioned, many of those were bowed, and they were all very fragile. Based on the previous reviews, I was unsure how hard it would be to screw on the bar to secure the rods, but I was determined to do it. I found it want not very difficult to screw both ends of the bar, HOWEVER, since I was using all old rods, I noticed how tight a fit it was particularly for those rods on each end where the screw is located. Some of my other radiant rods were a tight fit as well.

3. I decided to test just this one plate (with my old rods) by placing the plate on the grill and turning the gas on high. I stood and watched. Literally, within the first minute or so, two of the radiant rods broke. One of the broken rods was at one of the ends; the other was roughly in the middle of the plate. I kept the flames on high for another hour or so and closed the grill lid. When I returned, I inspected the rods and was glad to see no more had broken.

4. I replaced the two rods that broke with two new ones. I had not not fully realized just how bowed some of my old rods were until this point when I was replacing and inspecting the two that had broken. The rod that broke near the middle of the plate was particularly bowed, and I realized it had been sitting very tightly in the plate with little room to move/expand. At this point, I inspected how I had placed all of the other rods. I rotated them around in whatever way I could where there would be the least amount of tension on the rods when the bar was screwed back on to secure them. Essentially, I wanted all of them to have some wiggle room in the plate, because heat causes things to expand, and I wanted them to have expansion room. So, if they were bowed, I just placed them in the plate as best I could where they would not be tight in it but loose.

5. I then installed ALL NEW rods in the second plate. I was really doing this out of necessity as I had already broken so many of my old rods that I ended up needing 20 new ones between the two plates. I noticed that these new rods seemed less fragile (though I was still very careful!), and more important, they also were not bowed! They had some wiggle room in the plate. I also realized now it was a better idea to have a new rod at each end on both the plates (where the bar screws in to secure them which results in a tighter fit). So I made those adjustments. I also realized that if I wasn't careful and deliberate, when I screwed in the the bar to secure the rods, the end rods would get very tight because of the positioning of the screw. I didn't want that, so I just held the rods out of the way some while I was screwing the bar on so the screw didn't hit the bar and keep it from moving around.

6. Finally, I put both plates on the grill, turned the heat on high, and closed the grill and left it for a couple of hours. Upon my return, I was pleased to see that no more rods had broken.

So far I am pleased with the quality and price. I'll update this review if anything changes! I am hoping that for those users who reported that the plate later bent and their rods broke, the reason was because they did not screw the bar on both ends of the plate. I think that bar is part of what stabilizes the metal,and if that is true, perhaps mine will be fine. So far, so good!

Also, my old cooking grids had rusted, and I purchased new ones at the same time. I spent a lot of time reading reviews and comparing dimensions. Music City Metals has several cooking grids listed for DCS grills, but the dimensions (of those that would work for my grill) seemed a little shorter than what I ideally wanted. Also, the reviews were just okay. In the end, I choose a cooking grid that was not listed for DCS grills because the dimensions seemed a better fit for mine and the reviews were better. The fit is good, and the metal seems heavy. I bought the one below:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BG3O6S/ref=oh_details_o03_s01_i01

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If you have a DCS grill that needs the racks that hold the ceramic rods repaced, these are about the only option I have found. They are a nice heavy gauge steel and fit my grill as OEM. However, to get these grills to accept the 9.5 inch ceramic rods they were made for requires a bit of tweaking. I used a pliers and my knee and hand strength to bend the heat plates flat to accept and support the rods they are designed to hold. At almost $70, it would have been nice if this had already been accomplished but not too big a deal, at least for me. Also, it is not possible to get both screws that hold the side bar in after the ceramic rods have been put in place don't bother trying. No big deal though, I just put in one and used it like a hinge and that is fine.

Updatethe second screw is in fact necessary, as the grates warp badly when heated and need the other screw to hold everything flat and ridged. I ended up just sticking the screw in the hole without the nut, as it is not possible to fasten with the last ceramic rod in place. Sorry, removing another star because of this added annoyance.

Product needs to be produced more carefully to fit the ceramic rods without user tweaking and needs a different second fastener that can be properly utilized without removing/omitting the last ceramic rod. I would not mind tweaking if the product cost $20 or less but at $70 each it needs to be right.

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DO NOT BUY THIS Product!!! I bought three of these as a cheaper replacement for my DCS grill. Two of them are fine, but one warped and the ceramic rods all broke inside of it (that was $60 in rods I also had to replace). I went to return it on Amazon and the window closed for the return (shame on you Amazon, you could learn something from Costco and Home Depot). I contacted the company and they said I had to deal with Amazon. Between Amazon and MusicCityMetals, the consumer is left without a usable product or refund.

If either of these companies want to make this right, please contact me.

Honest reviews on Music City Metals 92911 Stainless Steel Heat Plate Replacement

I'm not sure where to even start with this product. Like many of you, I was a little surprised by the price of the original DCS heat plates. I came upon this product, and while the reviews were mixed, it seemed like it could be a decent product. I needed to replace 4 heat plates, so I decided I would try 2 and see how they were.

Heat plate 1. I opened up the box and immediately checked it for flatness, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was flat. Off to a good start. Start to assemble the ceramic rods on the plate, when problem 1 rears it's ugly head. For some reason the holes punched through the center ridge to support the rod wasn't as large a diameter as the holes on the other two ridges. This meant that the support points on the center ridge sat higher than the other two ridges. At this point it would be impossible to install the side plate as the ceramic rods sat about 1/4" above the edge, and would rock. Solution was to bend that center ridge down so that the rods could sit flat. Easy enough to do, and worked okay. Now I install all the ceramic rods and go to install the side plate. Apparently the person who designed this product never bothered to actually assemble the product. The bolt holes for the side plate are lined up with the last ceramic rod. There is no easy way to install and tighten the bolts with the rods in place. Take the unit back apart, and redrill the holes for the side plate, closer to the end so that the bolts can actually be installed properly. After all this the unit goes together and seems like a decent piece of kit. I figure I have about 1/2 hour of work into fixing their mistakes, and I'm willing to still consider the kit a decent value. I have lots of metalworking experience though.

Then I opened up kit 2. First impression on this one is that the bottom is definitely not flat. I flatten it up a bit, and then discover that the side flange is bent beyond 90 degrees. Ceramic tubes won't sit flat due to how far down the flange is bent. Step one; bend that square. Solve that, then I notice that the holes punched in two of the ridges are not centered. Result, the tube doesn't sit down far enough. I'm pretty sure that it could be solved with several hours of work. I'm not wasting my time. Unit is going back.

If I could, I would give these units a -5 stars. These are a rough kit, not a finished product. They are also NOT made in the USA as one previous review stated. Clearly stamped MADE IN CHINA, and these are an example of Chinese product that doesn't have any quality control.

Final thoughts. If you have a vise and a drill press, and some basic metalworkng skills, these can possibly be made into a finished product. It appears to be a bit of the luck of the draw. If you don't want to have to deal with the headaches, save your money and buy the originals.

Followup. I received the replacement unit today, and it is exactly the same, if not a bit worse than my second unit. Going back.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Music City Metals 92911 Stainless Steel Heat Plate Replacement

product is heavy guage stainless steel. Problem is that the plate is not manufactured to be flat. The concave shape makes it difficult to insert lock down the ceramic radiants without breaking them. I had to bend the retaining edge to allow the radiants to lie flat. Replacing the radiants will be a pain as the plate assembles with a set of nuts and screws (unlike the slot and tab of the original).