They seem a little "As seen on tv"-ish to me. And correct me if I'm wrong but aren't they aluminum?
I thought that, too, but took advantage of the really good Groupon deal earlier this month. Here's what I can say, in my very limited experience.
Built well. Light weight because of the material but not at all un-sturdy.
Highly effective at collecting heat and transferring it up to the top rails.
As far as care and maintenance, think along the lines of cast iron. You want them to get dirty, black, and seasoned. Cleaning (insofar as stuck-on particles and sanitary cooking surface) is easily done if you put them on while your grill is heating up if you use a grill brush with a pad and steam-sterilize with a spray bottle.
I don't think of GGs as a "replacement" grilling surface. Maybe time and experience would change my mind, but I'd probably use them as a way to amplify the ability of a lower-temp fire to also sear. So apart from a kettle or even a propane cooker, I'd imagine that any smoker (offset, reverse flow, komodo) would really benefit from an instant "hot side".
Haven't done fish of any kind on my GGs yet but that might be a time when I'd grill exclusively over GGs instead of using them just as a searing tool.
You can cut down your sear time quite a bit when using GGs. My old method for Weber kettle rib eyes was this: 2 min sear at 10 o'clock orientation, then 2 min at 2 o'clock (to get diamond grill marks), flip for another 2 min sear, then move to indirect heat for 2 to 5 min of indirect cooking to get to 130-135 medium rare. With GGs, I can expect to cut that sear time from 2 min in each orientation to a minute or maybe 45 sec. They get that hot.
Using GGs gains you the advantage of diffused heat, like a diffuser plate. But the trade off is you loose the vaporized fat drippings that go into the fire. Pick your poison.
Probably wouldn't use on a UDS because it's already so easy to make those things go turbo for searing by just taking off the lid and moving meat from the outside of the grate to the middle. You often don't even need to open the bottom vents. But again, I haven't tried that yet.
My 2 cents (okay, about 44 cents) :becky:
