I've cooked on mine a couple times now, and I see where some people have a problem with the air flow. Mine had a chip in the finish, and Weber sent me a new bowl. I think I'll do the vent mod to the bowl with the chip in it and have two options to use.

I have a SJP that I have used on several camping trips, with less than desirable results. Each time I would put the lid on after pouring 1/2 - 3/4 chimney of lit coals into the bowl, they would extinguish in a very few minutes - that was with both side and top vents wide open. It usually didn't make too much difference when grilling burgers, but I knew if I wanted to do chicken, it would never get done before the coals died out. I could breathe some life into the coals by taking the lid off, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a Weber - ay?

This weekend I completed the bottom vent / ash catcher mode (extremely easy with the unibit - now on sale at Harbor Freight). Went smoothly after reading others description here. Last night I lit about 1/3 chimney of Kingsford and put into the bowl. I ran bottom and top vents wide open to see what would happen. Huge difference. At the end of an hour, still more than enough coals / heat to be cooking. I left it to go out on it's own and 2 hours later dumped out the completely burned ash (save 2-3 still lit coals).

The parts cost me $14, but well worth the money.

Now to complete this project. I'm 3/4 of the way done - needs some "tweaking".

Just finished the lower vent mod with the help of all the good advice on this thread.

The drilling took more time than I expected. I went through both freshly charged batteries on my cordless drill (18v Makita) and my electric drill was smoking by the time I got all 4 vent holes drilled. However, the Unibits worked perfectly with no 'walking' as some members have experienced (from different threads), although, I did use some of my son's hockey tape to keep the bits in place and drilled a pilot hole with a regular drill bit before using the Unibits.

The vent holes lined up perfectly, but this was a matter of sheer luck rather than skill.

Thanks Bryan for bringing the subject up and finding a way to make the SJP better.

Just ordered an ash catcher and damper blades to mod my SJP. I told the sales person they were for a 18 1/2 Silver Kettle. $25.64 out the door including shipping. Will post pics of the mod when completed.

J.D...it's a good thing you told her that. When I ordered my replacement parts, I made the mistake of telling the rep that I was going to make some modifications and she initially refused to sell me the parts. Eventually, I just told her that I was replacing parts on an SJ silver. It's too bad you can't be honest with them, but I can also understand why they have to be so careful.

Good luck with the mod!

So I got these fireplace starter bricks at walmart and I cut them up into little pieces and spread a couple throughout the SJP, then lit em all on fire and poured a ton of coals on top of them. When they were all lit, I stuck a thermometer through the top with the tip right by grate level and it read just over 500 degrees. The rib steaks I then proceeded to put on got nice grill marks. The only issue I had is that the fire cooled really quickly - after 40 minutes it cooled to 350 and after another 20 minutes it was at 275. That may have had to do with the 20 degree weather and snow all around. Anyhow, it uses a lot of charcoal, but that being said, it makes for a wonderful portable grill.

Yep...that's exactly the problem I had!

You had to add a ton of charcoal and didn't have much time to cook with it. Additionally, the temp control was basically non-existent (I was hesitant to limit what little air flow there was). Once the mods are made, it actually performs like a kettle is supposed to.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KevinK,

For this mod, you can either go Smokey Joe Silver ($14 and a phone call to weber and say "say you want a replacement bottom vent and any associated hardware for a SJ Silver") or 18 1/2 Silver kettle($24.98 via website). I'm going for the 2nd option. J D McGee is my inspiration.

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J.D.'s mod is the way to go, the handle is the key (plus OT system looks cool on the platinum). The SJ vents work perfectly for air flow, however, adjusting them is a little cumbersome.

JD,

I never considered your mod but I like it very much. You have more holes for oxygen to get in. It must yield some hotter temps than other mod. It would be great to get a side by side performance comparison of the two mods.Mike

This is what I did tomy sjg. I used a lower vent from a smc. That helped temp control a lot. Then I added a 9 inch teflon coated metal pie pan for the ash catcher and I use disposable aluminum pie pans in the ash cather. Simplifies cleanup a lot. And they are cheap. Now it looks like a Smokey Joe Silver on steroids.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Batsarisakis:
JD,

I never considered your mod but I like it very much. You have more holes for oxygen to get in. It must yield some hotter temps than other mod. It would be great to get a side by side performance comparison of the two mods.Mike

Well, you brought it up so I'll try to splain it. Bigger is not always better. If you look back in time on how they first started mining, that's how I'll try and splain it. Hydraulicking mining used many different sizes of pipe to carry the water to the nozzle. It started out with very large pipe, water flowing down the large diameter pipe, and would keep flowing through smaller diameter pipe as it went further down the line, so by the time it got to the end, where the person that was holding the end of the hose, the opening was very small so it had a great deal of pressure behind it, to blast away the earth. Same princeable goes with this mod. If your holes are big, it won't feed as much air as the 4 small holes like I drilled in the first mod of this thread. I gurantee that my 4 small holes will force more air into the SJP than the larger holes in the second mod that is in this thread. It's all about forcing air into a small opening to create more force/air flow vaccuum effect. For example, If you were to put a 3" opening in the bottom of the SJP it would not force as much air into the SJP as the 4 smaller holes does. The 4 small holes drilled in the bottom of the SJP match the top vent for a reason. It's matched air flow. Equal amount of air coming in from the bottom holes that is going out the top vent. HTH.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bryan S,

Bryan,

Since you "splained" it that way, I stand corrected, I'm glad I didn't know about the second mod. when I did the first mod suggested by you.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mike Batsarisakis,

Bryan...
I used your idea for my mod and I will say that it works great. I was kicking myself after seeing J.D.'s but now I don't feel so bad...your explanation makes a lot of sense.

Bryan,

Upon further, and more serious reflection, your expalantion makes sense, but I think your analogy may not apply to the laws of thermodynamics or convection. However, I am not an expert in either area. Thank God! In your water through the pipe theory, you are forcing water through the pipe, actually pushing it through. But here you are not pushing air, you are pulling it by way of convection. The bbq guru theory would be more similar to your water through the pipe theory. But here, more oxygen coming in from the bottom causes more combustion, causing more air to heat up, causing the hot air to seek cold air from above the vents, causing more hot air to repalce the air that went up through the vents. Hot air always seeks cold air. Heat moves cold doesn't, cold is the absence of heat. When hot air moves out of the top vent it sucks more from below. I haven't researched this issue. But I respectfully have my doubts about your theory, even though it makes sense in your example. Regards, Mike B.

Mike, I didn't know how to explain it any other way. That was a bad way to try to expalin it on my part. Lets try this, see if it makes more sense. If you were to cut a 8" hole in the bottom of the SJP, that in its self would not make it a super furnace once the lid was on. With the lid off yes, but with it on and those 4 small holes in the lid vent, you can only flow as much air as the top vents will allow. On the other hand if you were to put some ducting and a blower motor drawing the air out through the lid vent then yes it would prob melt the cooking grate and charcoal grate. No matter how big the bottom holes are they can only flow as much as the lid vent will allow under non forced air conditions, with the lid on. Lid off, how hot do you want it.

Bryan,

The first mod has less holes in the bowl than the second mod. All other things remaining equal, like the same number of holes in the lid vent, would mean more air entering the bottom of the bowl in the second mod., therefore higher temps. That's my guestimate. I was just questioning what that temp difference between the two mods would be in a side by side comparison, to see if second mod would be worth doing. I can't imagine that the difference in temp would be that great anyway. Regards, Mike

I called Weber CS to order a replacement vent, but they wanted a serial #. I "was not at home" at the time so I couldn't give the rep a serial #. Can someone thow in a number that they used to order theirs? I'm anxious to get mine and do the mod.
Thanks,
Steve

If they have any kind of decent computer system, when that rep punches in the same serial, won't he see that those parts were ordered for that same serial number recently already? I guess they shouldn't really care though, more $$ for them.

I'm looking to order parts too for the same mod, but I've not called yet.

Todd

Steve Z,

This is what I just ordered:

1 One-Touch™ Cleaning System
Part Number: 303618 $9.99 $9.99
1 Ash Catcher
Part Number: 303637 $7.99 $7.99

This is to go with JD's One-Touch mod. You can order these via weber's internet site and no serial number needed.

Todd