Char-Broil carts use heat plates (tents, flame tamers) instead of Weber Flavorizer bars. They are stamped inverted-V or rectangular shields on tabs over each burner. A season of sugar sauce and rain turns them into lace. The lace is a drip path onto the ports.
Done versus dirty
- Dirty: fat on intact steel. Degrease.
- Done: daylight, crumbled tabs, a plate that has flattened and no longer sits on the supports, rust that flakes into the tube.
- Infrared / TRU-Infrared emitters are a different part. Do not buy open tents for an infrared cookbox.
Measure three times
Lid names (Performance, Commercial, Advantage) have covered multiple box widths. The plate cares about:
- Length front-to-back
- Width of one tent
- Count (usually one per main burner)
- Tab style (slots versus sitting on a rail)
- Cold. Grates off. Photograph the plates in place.
- Measure a plate, not the box. Write inches to the quarter-inch.
- Search Amazon or BBQGuys for Char-Broil heat plates plus the plate number from the rating sticker, or plus the measured length. Compare the photo tab style. We do not invent a SKU.
A 15.5-inch tent in a 17-inch box will walk and dump fat. A 17-inch tent in a 15.5-inch box will not sit.
Swap
- Gloves. Plates are sharper than they look once rusted.
- Lift out. Scrape the support tabs so the new plate sits level.
- Set new plates so each peak or cover sits over a tube. Sight from the front. No exposed port row.
- Grates on. Confirm plates did not shift. Preheat and look once.
Aftermarket steel versus porcelain
- Porcelain-coated tents chip and then rust at the chip.
- Bare stainless lasts if the gauge is real.
- This site does not pick a brand or a star rating. Read gauge and return policy.
- If a set arrives an inch short, send it back — do not “make it work” with a washer stack.
Math
- Heat plates are cheap compared to a new cart.
- If you also need four burner tubes, a grease tray, and an igniter, add it up on paper. See repair versus replace.
- If the box floor under the plates is also lace, plates are paint on a wreck — rusted firebox.
Not affiliated with Char-Broil.