Charbroil Gas Grill Drip Pan Repair

Written By: Matt Belliston

Comments: 3

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

2 - 4 hours

Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to help grill owners patch rusty and corroded drip pans on Charbroil grills with permanently riveted drip pans. Rather than discarding the grill and spending hundreds of dollars for a new one, this procedure will allow the grill owner to extend the usable life of his or her grill.

Tools

Parts

Step 1

Make an initial assessment of the extent of the corrosion to the drip pan.
In this case, the middle of the drip pan was the most corroded, and the edges closest to the in-tact metal were less rusty.
Use a wire brush to remove the most corroded metal.
In this case, the middle of the drip pan was rusted through and was the most corroded.
Use the tin snips to remove the least corroded metal.
Assessing the corrosion on your drip pan is an essential step to determine which tool(s) to use to remove the decay.

Step 2

Use your gloves for this step!
Remove the large chunks of rusty metal by hand.
Use a dustpan and a hand broom to sweep up the smaller bits of rust.
Remove any remaining dust or debris with a small shop vacuum.

Why no bevels to drain grease towards exit hole. Looks to me like you're creating more of a fire hazard than a fix.

Robert Desimone -

Step 3

Use your gloves for this step!
Measure and record the width of the drip pan opening.
Measure and record the height of the drip pan opening.
Measure and cut a piece of low gauge sheet metal to cover the dimensions of the drip pan opening.
Measure your new sheet metal to be a bit larger on all sides from the height and width of the hole.
You may purchase sheet metal by the piece at Lowe's or Home Depot and have it cut to the proper dimensions. The metal in this image was cut to dimension by an associate at Lowe's.

Step 4

Use your gloves for this step!
Position the cut sheet metal over the drip pan opening.
Use the duct tape to secure the metal in place for attachment with the self-drilling sheet metal screws.

Step 5

Use your safety goggles for this step!
Use a power drill and the #10 x 1/2 self-drilling sheet metal screws to secure each corner of the replacement sheet metal.
Remove the duct tape when the sheet metal is secure.
Secure the remaining edges of the sheet metal with additional screws as needed to ensure a tight fit.

Step 6

Ensure that the sheet metal screws have secured the replacement sheet metal patch.
Cut the 3M High Temperature Flue tape to the proper length (this will depend upon the size of the patch).
Place the tape over the sheet metal screws and cover the edges to seal the edges of the patch.

Step 7

Use your safety goggles for this step!
Drill four pilot holes through the grease outlet from the top side of the grill using either a cordless or power drill. These holes will be used later to provide space to use the tin snips.
Cut the remaining metal between the pilot holes with the tin snips to form a single grease outlet.

There appears to be an air inlet slot below each burner that gets covered by a hat section plate (not shown). If you tape up the repair plate, does this prevent proper air flow ?

Bradley Scott -

Step 8

Use a metal file to file away the rough edges of the newly created grease outlet.
Cut the 3M high-temperature flue tape to cover the remaining edges of the sheet metal.
Tape the flue tape over the metal edges of the grease outlet for safety.
The final repair should look like the last image in this step.

Conclusion

Upon completion, this repair will extend the usable life of your grill and reduce waste deposited into landfills.

Author

Matt Belliston

Member since: 13/06/21

211 Reputation

One comment

Thank you so much for posting this. Question: what type of sheet metal? Aluminum or Steel?

Scott Schmidt -