I have a 36" whirlpool cooktop with a bent CI grate. The wonky grate is over the back, medium-size (9100 btu) burner, which I tend to use for boiling pasta or vegetables in 24cm pots. I can’t use a sauce pan with a smaller diameter base on the burner because the pan easily tips over when I try. It looks like one finger of the is 1/8" out of level with the other parts of the grate. The cooktop has another 9.1k BTU burner on the front and a 5k BTU simmer burner (on the back).
I can get a OEM grate for $220, but I don’t want the same problem to occur. Should I just wait for something else to break and get a better cooktop then? It lacks a knob lockout feature and largest burner is 15k BTU. It mostly seems to work ok other than the wonky burner.
one of my CI grates is a little tippy as well, not quite as bad as your though . . .
two options I’ve heard: very gentle tap the warped finger with a largish hammer/maul.
the grate must be supported along the edges with wood.
the key is to be gentle - just havin’ a good wail at it… it will snap
the second is to have a machine shop grind it flat & level.
which to use influenced by whether it is ‘just’ the finger that warped, or whether the main frame of the grate has warped.
a machine / iron work / forge shop could heat the CI to help in the ‘unbending’
I’ll have to look into grinding it down. We have ground down cast iron skillets before with a sander. I assume a cooktop cast-iron grate is coated with some kind of high-heat paint rather than enamel.
