Aura outdoor products AOP-CI22 review

What the maker puts in writing

• “Achieve excellent grill marks and enhanced flavor on your Weber Kettle, Barrel Grill, or Rec Tec Bullseye with this cast iron grill grate”
• “Cast iron construction doesn’t break down like other barbeque grill grates”
• “Non-stick cast iron with porcelain enamel coating means that cleaning your grill is easier than ever before”
• “Food does not stick to the pre-seasoned surface, making flipping and removing items simple and hassle-free”
• “Actual size measures 21.5 x 0.5 inches, fits Weber, RecTeq Bullseye, Barrel, and many more 22-inch kettle grills”
• “Cast iron material retains and distributes heat evenly across the cooking surface”

Two finishes that exclude each other

Bullet 3: a porcelain enamel coating. Bullet 4: a pre-seasoned surface.

Those are alternatives, not a combination, and it matters because they want opposite care.

Seasoning is polymerized oil bonded to bare iron. Porcelain enamel is glass fused to iron. There is nothing on glass for oil to bond to — and no reason to try, since enamel is already slippery.

Lodge, on this shelf, gives the correct definition: Seasoning is simply oil baked into the iron, giving it a natural, easy-release finish and helps prevent your pan from rusting.

So one of Aura’s two claims is wrong, and the page does not let you tell which.

The practical consequence: if it is enamelled, do not season it and do not worry about rust. If it is bare and seasoned, dry it and oil it after every cook — COGRICHBF on this shelf publishes the limit that would then apply, never more than 10 to 15 minutes of standing water.

Aura publishes no care instructions at all.

Twenty-one and a half inches, published

Credit where it is due: this is one of the few listings on this shelf that gives the fitted size rather than only the nominal grill size.

Actual size measures 21.5 x 0.5 inches, fits Weber, RecTeq Bullseye, Barrel, and many more 22-inch kettle grills.

A 22-inch kettle takes a grate of about 21.5 inches, because the grate sits inside the bowl rim on its own ledge. Half an inch of clearance is the difference between a grate that drops in and one that jams.

The 0.5 inch is the bar height — and it is also why this is the lightest grate here.

Ten grams per square inch

The lowest figure on this shelf, by a long way.

• EasiBBQ — 18.1 g (0.6 oz)/sq in ($39.99)
• Broil King — 16.8 ($20.99 per grid)
• Weber Crafted 7853 — 15.6 ($139.99)
• This — 10.0 ($79.97)

3,629 g over about 363 square inches. A third less metal per inch than the most expensive grate here, and little more than half the EasiBBQ’s, at twice the price.

A cast iron grate works by stored heat, so a lighter casting gives up its temperature faster when cold food lands on it.

That said, it will still outperform the thin plated-steel grate a kettle ships with by a wide margin — which is the whole reason to buy one.

One casting or two half-moons

The KAMaster on this shelf is the alternative, at a dollar more.

This is one solid 21.5-inch round: no seam, no gap down the middle, nothing to shift when you push food across it, and it lifts out in one piece.

KAMaster’s kit is two half-moon grates plus four support extensions, so you can run cast iron on one half of the kettle and the original stainless or porcelain grate on the other — mix and match from a range of surfaces.

Want the whole kettle to sear? Buy the solid one. Want to sear on one half and keep a normal grate or add a griddle insert on the other? Buy the half-moons — which also come with six published anti-rust tips.

Twenty-two cents a square inch

Second most expensive on this shelf after the Weber Crafted set at 27.7, and more than three times the Direct Store three-grid set at 6.8.

No warranty, like all ten grates here.

Availability

On sale at around $80 on the American Amazon store at the time of checking.

Prices and availability are what Keepa reported on the date this page was updated; both move.