I used my new SJP today for the first time. Noticed that it took awhile to come up to temp. I put a full chimney of lump on and another chimney of unlit ontop of that. Due to the lack of an air hole in the bottom of the bowl it took forever to come up to temp. I'm going to take the unibit and drill a big hole in the bottom of the bowl. Going to order an ash catcher from weber that is used on the Smokey Joe Silver. Those side draft vents just don't cut it. JMO Guess i'm just used to the 22.5" kettle.Bryan

Hey Bryan, not truly qualifed in this department but what if next time you put the lit on top of the unlit (like the Minion Method)?

Shawn, i wanted the super high heat like i get on the kettle to sear the burgers. Just didn't happen. On the SJP the air vents are above the charcoal . You need the air coming up from the bottom to fuel the fire. Bryan

just thinking dumping lots of unlit on the lit might kinda snuff the fire in the coals

oh yeah, in the WSM with lower air vents, one time I dumped a boatload of unlit on top of remaining coals and watched my grill temp plummet down to around 175 then take around 90 minutes to recover .... just a thought bud

Shawn, yea that's what happened because of no air flow from underneath.I can see that happening on the WSM cause the lid is on and it's sealed up good. When i dump a chimney of lit lump on the 22.5" kettle i'll dump another 2 unlit chimneys ontop of that. After about 10 min i'm grilling because of the air coming up through the charcoal. On the SMJP there is no air coming up from the bottom. It has side vents about 2-3 " above the charcoal grate so you get a top air draft. After a 20 min it still wasn't that well lit. Nothing the unibit won't fix. Bryan

Bryan

I've noticed the same issue on the SJ. The vents are not below the charcoal and you really don't get that upward draft of air through the coals. I'm not real crazy about this design. If the unit is used strictly to grill at higher heat so that you're only putting in fully lit, then I don't think you'd have the problem. One solution would be to have 2 Weber chimneys and dump both in, fully lit.

Paul

I ordered the ash catcher and lid vent from the SJ. Going to modify the lid vent for the bottom and drill 4 holes in the bottom to get the underneath air flow going. Not happy with this design either. Bryan

Just did the mods to the SJP. I flattened the tab on the vent and placed the damper vent in the bottom of the bowl. Used a rubber dead blow hammer and formed it to the curve of the bottom bowl. Drilled a 1/4" hole dead center in the bottom and used the UNIBIT to drill the 4 big holes to match the ones in the vent. Took about a 1/2 hr to do $8.90 spent for parts. Now it burns like a Weber Bryan

Way to go Bryan !!!

Think I'll do the same.

Jim C

I've got just the regular smokey joe, air vent on the bottom. That thing works great. I wonder what would have made them mess with that design on the more expensive models?

Sounds like you've got a fix though.

Thank goodness the 2 smokey joes I got with my casino points as well as the simpson's version are all the cheap style with the vents on the bottom.

I hadn't realized there was a diff until I was pretend tailgating for the last Skin's game and noticed that the smokey joe I got my folks has the goofy vents you guys are talking about (but it does have the great thing that holds the lid in place).

Susan, The lid thingy is great.Love the lid thingy. The air vents above the charcoal is not. Bryan

Hopefully at least one person that works for Weber reads postings one this site. It would be a mistake for them to not.

It might be a mistake on the assembly line.
You Know how the grills move along a conveyor belt and when it comes to the guy who is supposed to drill the holes and install the bottom vent...He is sleeping.
So it just keeps moving on to the next station.

Jim C

I know a guy who falls asleep at his press sometimes But he ain't screwing up Smokey Joes!!

Chris,
R&D at Weber know about it.

Well i just added a WSM charcoal grate to the little blast furnace (double grate mod). Was loosing too much lump down through the charcoal grate. Feel kind of bad know. I don't use the 22.5" kettle anymore. Man i love this thing now. Bryan

Bryan,
Can you post some pictures of your mods. Especially the vent mods.
Thanks,

Chris, You got mail Bryan