We verify manufacturing against primary sources, read what actual owners report, and never accept payment for rankings.
GrillGrate is the rare American-made product that exists because somebody got annoyed. Brad Barrett was tired of flare-ups scorching his steaks and fish welding itself to the bars of his grill. So in 2007, in Cartersville, Georgia, he built a grate that fixed it — and then did the unusual thing: he kept making it in Cartersville, Georgia.
The panels are hard-anodized aluminum: raised rails to sear on, a solid floor beneath with vents to let smoke through but not fat. Drippings hit the hot floor, vaporize, and go back into the food instead of catching fire underneath it.
Made in USA Verification
- Manufacturing: Cartersville, Georgia. Made and hard-anodized in the USA.
- Materials: hard-anodized aluminum. The anodizing is the expensive step, done domestically, and it is why the panels never rust.
- Company: founded 2007 by Brad Barrett; still headquartered and manufacturing in Cartersville.
- Our tier: Made in USA. No qualification needed on this one.
How it actually works
Aluminum moves heat roughly four times faster than steel, and the raised rails concentrate it. The cooking surface runs 100–200°F hotter than the air inside the grill, which is why a steak comes off a GrillGrate with marks that look like a steakhouse rather than a backyard.
The panels are reversible: rails up for grilling, flip them for a flat griddle. That means smash burgers, fajita onions and eggs on the same grill you smoke on — on a pellet grill, it is the difference between a smoker that cannot sear and one that can.
What owners actually say
The recurring theme in owner reviews is that GrillGrates rescue a grill people were about to throw away. Owners with rusted-out or hot-and-cold-spotted grates report putting GrillGrates on top and getting a better grill than they had when it was new. Flare-ups stop; burgers and marinated chicken stop drying out; the griddle side gets discovered later and becomes half the reason they keep them.
The honest caveats:
- You have to size them. Panels are 5.25″ wide and interlock, so you buy by depth and panel count. Measure before you order.
- They need seasoning to go properly non-stick, and they are cleaned with a brush along the rails — not a wire brush across them.
- They mask your grill’s hot and cold spots. Mostly a feature, but you lose some of the information about your own fire.
- It is a real spend for an accessory, and on a cheap grill the grate can cost a meaningful fraction of the grill.
Pros & Cons
Pros: Made in Georgia. Kills flare-ups. Sears far harder than a stock grate. Reversible griddle side. Hard-anodized aluminum will not rust, and will outlive the grill it sits in.
Cons: Expensive. Must be sized to your grill. Needs seasoning. Will not develop a cast-iron patina.
Most grill accessories are junk-drawer material. This one changes how the grill cooks, it was invented by the man who was annoyed enough to solve the problem, and it is still made in the town where he solved it. If the stock grate is the weak link in your grill — and on most kettles and pellet smokers it is — this is the upgrade worth paying for.
Should You Buy It?
Yes — if your stock grate is the weak link.
On most kettles and pellet smokers, the factory grate is the cheapest part of the grill, and it is the part doing the actual cooking. GrillGrate fixes that for good: it kills flare-ups, sears far harder, doubles as a griddle, and being hard-anodized aluminum it will outlive the grill it sits in. It is expensive for an accessory, and we would still buy it.
🛒 Shop American-Made Grills in the Buy American Store →
GrillGrate is not in our store yet — we are working on it. Here is the grill most readers fit it to.
Who Actually Makes GrillGrate?
The man who invented it because he was sick of ruining dinner, the Georgia town where it is still hard-anodized, and why he refused to send the work overseas.