RT-1250 Foil / No Foil on 1250 Drip Tray Debate Thread

[Texas_TL]

Like this?

Yes, exactly like that with the added effect of foil melting.

If that drip pan is glowing red, I wonder what the heat deflector looks like

My heat deflector was also glowing red when I took the drip pan out.

 

[oldschool]

If that drip pan is glowing red, I wonder what the heat deflector looks like

I wasn't about to lift the drip pan to look...

 

[C. Keeper]

I wasn't about to lift the drip pan to look...

I completely understand and don't blame you. Thanks for the picture.

 

[Thor8594]

Note to self, DO NOT turn grill to full, EVER! I think I will just keep using it to smoke meat and not grill meat, problem solved in my outdoor kitchen.

 

[Toolman2]

Mine looked exactly like that tonight. Cooked pizza, would turn the temp down between But noticed the same red hot drip pan. I saw 695* on the app. Everything seems fine but I am going to monitor it closely and will not foil when using “full”. I do wish the the grill could control heat after 500* preferably to 600 would be nice.

 

[Stratratbj96]

If you had the grill turned up to FULL and the grill plates in place, you could have gotten up to 700 degrees. Aluminum foil will melt at 650-660F. I’m not surprised that the drip tray was glowing red.

How much coverage on the grill did you have with the grill plates? I think it would be wise to just use enough grill plate for the meat you are searing.

Personally, I don’t use grill plates; my adjacent gas grill is used for searing. Works great.

I change my foil after every cook if it’s dirty. I do this when I clean my grates. Make sure your grill is not tilted the wrong way and keeping the grease from draining out to the drip bucket.

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

Would someone please explain how grill grates raise the temp vs without them.

 

[C. Keeper]

Would someone please explain how grill grates raise the temp vs without them.

Not sure if it raises the temp. I think it just concentrates it to the aluminum.

 

[Gonefishin]

Not specifically, but if I cover my gas grill grates with foil and crank it up it burns out everything, much more then without the foil. I guess it keeps the heat from dissipating.

 

[BNeal]

I've been using these with nice results:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XT4K4YM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share&&tag=rectecgrill-20

Wow, that's like $3.50/ea. after taxes. Does look convenient, though.

 

[Greg Jones]

Would someone please explain how grill grates raise the temp vs without them.

Ambient air temp is different than the ability for certain metals to react to heat sources and retain temps. There is a reason why high-end cookware (I.e. All-Clad) has multi-cores, aluminum clad by layers of stainless steel. The aluminum core, as well a copper, is superior at reaching and conducting temps far above ambient temps.

 

[PRC]

If you had the grill turned up to FULL and the grill plates in place, you could have gotten up to 700 degrees. Aluminum foil will melt at 650-660F.

Aluminum foil melts at 660 degrees Celsius which is 1220 degrees Fahrenheit. If your drip pan is getting anywhere near that temperature there are lots of other things I would worry about.

 

[Jim6820]

Aluminum foil melts at 660 degrees Celsius which is 1220 degrees Fahrenheit. If your drip pan is getting anywhere near that temperature there are lots of other things I would worry about.

Check Post #7. Sometimes, it helps to read the entire post perform commenting.

 

[bassrvr1]

I apologize in advance, I know this topic has been discussed in other grill threads, but I didn't see a 1250 specific one and my issue may be 1250 related.

I've been foiling my drip tray since getting my 1250 in early November and have not had any issues until this weekend. I've always used the heavy duty wide foil, so fit has never been a problem and so far, nothing has been able to get under the foil.

On Saturday evening, I decided to do a reverse sear on some flank steak and smoked for about 45 min, then removed the steak and switched the 1250 to FULL to get the temps up on the grill grates sear station. This resulted in a small grease fire (I had done another quick cook earlier in the week and didn't think there was enough grease to be problem), so I quickly unplugged the grill and swapped out the foil for some fresh and then started the process over to get back to temp. No problems at this point and I threw the steaks onto the grill grates, came back and flipped them, then came back to take them off.

Here's where things got weird, and why I am starting a thread in the 1250 group. At this point, my drip pan was glowing red right over the fire pot and the foil was melted / brittle! I had never seen the drip tray glow red before and I have done many high temp cooks, usually with pizza or reverse sears like this one. I'm a bit concerned about the foil disintegrating around food and am not sure continuing to foil is a good idea.

Since I don't have a scraper yet, last night I went ahead and foiled again for some wings, but wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Also, if you don't foil and only scrape, how do you avoid grease fires at high temps? It seems like at least some grease would always be on the tray and then flare up at high temps.

Tried foil several times on my 1250. Found a better alternative at Home Depot. They sell a Traegor decent heavy duty foil tray of different dimensions. One size fits perfectly on the 1250. They sell them 5 to a pack in the grill section.

 

[Texas_TL]

I ended up buying a set of scrapers and will try the scrape method for a while. If that doesn't work out for me, I'll be stuck spending an afternoon getting it all shiny again and will go back to foil. I will say the first scrape went well except for the wretched sound it makes.

 

[Alex998]

I've been using these with nice results:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XT4K4YM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share&&tag=rectecgrill-20

You use this on RT-1250?

 

[Dubs]

This was the last steak I did, reverse sear. The temp was still going up when the steak was done. Really don’t like getting the temps that high.

 

[Motodad1776]

I'll NEVER go over 500F on mine, bought it for lower and slower, but can for sure see why some want 500F and up for a good sear sometimes.

 

[Markdgrant]

Note to self, DO NOT turn grill to full, EVER! I think I will just keep using it to smoke meat and not grill meat, problem solved in my outdoor kitchen.

Curious why you won't use it on Full. Just assembled my 1250 yesterday and my wife did a pizza in 8 minutes at about 740f. It was amazing.

 

[Mozekian]

Curious why you won't use it on Full. Just assembled my 1250 yesterday and my wife did a pizza in 8 minutes at about 740f. It was amazing.

I dont use it on full after I had the high temp sealant in the grill, start to break down from the heat.