I recently purchased a WSM and it is great. So much so that I was looking to get a 22.5" kettle ......maybe the Platinum model with the table. I guess Weber quit making it. Anyone know why? Or do I need to go with the Weber Gold. Just liked the idea of a table (not sure I really want the gas assist Performer.... probably not at 300.00 anyway. Any ideas / recomendations?

They still have this on Grilldoctor's website. Not sure how accurate their site is though. It's listed at $200.00.

If you want a cart/kettle model from Weber, the Performer is your only choice. They actually lowered the cost from the old Performer and it is about mid-way between that one and the former Platinum. The Gold is a good buy, but I like the cart setup and have the old Performer. 10 years later its still doing fine.

Paul

I have a new Performer and absolutely LOVE it.

I want to know why they discontinued the Smokey Joe Platinum (18.5" diameter)

quote:

Originally posted by Tom Stratton:
Or do I need to go with the Weber Gold.

I own a Gold, and while I love Weber, I'm not a big fan. My problem is the ash catcher. I grill 4-5 times a week on my Weber and it is a PITA to constantly empty and get off and on.

If you get the Silver ($85 compared to $140 for the Gold), all you need to do is add a coffee can to the ash catcher and it's basically the same as the Gold system. Also, in a year or two when your charcoal grate wears out, you can uprage to the hinged version for $15.

It is a shame that the plat kettle was D/C'd. The reason was cost. When we D/C'd the plat and changed the performer we were able to combine the tooling and make one lower priced grill with the fetures of both. I am not a big fan of the newer performer but it is a good buy at about $300.00. We needed to upgrade the performer anyway and the plat was not selling the greatest. So it was d/c'd and the performer was degraded to having a cheaper valve and tank setup and the tables and charcoal bin were also changed to make them less expensive to produce.

grilldoctor.com still carry them for $199.
But with the shipping cost running at ~$40 for UPS ground, you're better off to get the new Performer from buy.com as I just posted.

I had a hard time choosing between Platinum and Performer when I was buying three yrs ago. Paid extra to get the gas starter, I can cook easily in without pouring burning charcoals in windy days.

With the mentioned deal, you don't even need to pay extra to get the convenience and a much better setup.