Smokey Joe vent mod, where to buy curved covers?

Greetings all - just joined the forum.

For anyone who is interested, I've got another story about the SJ SILVER, and we're just interested in knowing who is particularly happy with their mod and where to buy miniature/curved vent covers. Sorry, but our post is a bit long... here goes...

We have a Smokey Joe SILVER with the four small vent holes in bottom. We've read many of the posts here and we understand that some people have no problems and others do, however with our SJ SILVER we have experienced an extreme perpetual "cool down" temperature drop-off problem. (We were wondering if is it possible that many folks who don't experience a problem are quickly searing steaks? We need good, high heat for as much as an hour and more to properly roast bone-in chicken breasts)

Last night fired up less than 1/2 chimney of briquettes blistering/glowing orange, poured into SJ SILVER, whole unit was so hot could almost not stand next to it, put two chicken breasts on to indirect cook, closed lid, twenty minutes later the SJ SILVER was so cold I could rest my finger on it. And yes, bottom vent holes are always attended to and kept absolutely totally clear of obstruction. Lifted lid, allowed more air in, got coals going, closed lid, five minutes later no more heat. Almost two hours later my wife and I are waiting to eat and the SJ SILVER is barely staying warm. We've tried every arrangement/type/amount/placement of coals and can't cook with lid askew because we like indirect cooked chicken. Also, we happily cook in the winter so we really need a grill to be able to maintain it's heat.

Did Weber do any design analysis before producing any of these little grills? We've read about the obvious problems with the "GOLD" and "PLATINUM" designs, but our SILVER can't stay more than warm. On a well designed grill shouldn't bottom vent holes be capable of delivering at least as much air as top vents can exhaust? If so, why are the top holes so much larger than the four little bottom holes on the SJ SILVER? We own other grills where the ratio of bottom to top vent is something like 3:1 - so, successful grill designs seem to feature bigger bottom vents capable of delivering all the air top vents can handle - with overall total flow being controlled from the top. Correct us if we're wrong, but wouldn't that be how a grill would work best?

The mod: We're thinking about doing what several others have done and drilling sets of new vent holes, something like a total of six holes around the perimeter of the bottom of the grill about an inch below the coal grate and installing vent covers.

Q: Anybody done such a mod that they were particularly happy with?

Beyond just cutting holes in the side which would clearly work well, we're hoping to do a mod that includes vent covers giving gives us ability to shut off air flow when we're finished cooking to get the unit cooled back down and in the garage as soon as possible.

Q: Any suggestions on where to buy vent covers that would match the curvature of the lower side of the SJ SILVER?

Thanks very much one and all,

Hi and welcome to the TVWBB!

What temperature do you desire for roasting your chicken?

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Thanks. - Glad I found the TVWBB!

My wife and I bought a grill for the first time in our lives this past March, and we've cooked beautifully with charcoal three or four nights a week since then. We view grilling as a great way to cook most meals and we're hooked.

Regarding your question, here is what I can tell you.

We've had good luck, and although I'm a kind of "scientific method" guy, I've really just done the cooking by trial and observation. What we've discovered is this: if we use about a dozen and a half pulsing orange briquettes in an 18.5" off-brand grill, with coals on the edges ringing the outside of the fire grate and a small bowl of water in the center, two large bone-in chicken breasts will be done, juicy, mouth watering, flavourful, in about one hour and ten to twenty minutes. So, I'm sorry I can't say what temperature we're achieving, but results are good. From my description could you give us any estimates?

What I've thought about is if we can get the little SJ SILVER really "tuned-in" and get it to be our favorite grill I'll install a thermometer on it.

Hi Andfall,

I'm particularly slow on understanding today--not a reflection on you or your posts.

Is your half a chimney more than the 18 briquettes you successfully used on the other grill? I'm thinking it would be more than 18 based on my chimney. Have you tried using just 18--maybe not so blazingly lit briquettes and a small number of unlit in the SJS?

My thought is that you are using too much, too fully engulfed fuel. The tiny SJS and two chicken breasts shouldn't need a huge amount of fuel to get well over 400 degrees F. A pound of Kingsford briquettes yields about 9700 BTU.

This is simply based upon experience with lower heat, indirect cooks. But, it seems that would work to me.

Oh! I was surprised to see that the bottom vents are only about 85% of the top vents. Learned something new.

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Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

We generally always err toward the side of using fewer briquettes - as few briquettes as we can. We appreciate those who grill for BIG events, however we like the idea of using fewer coals and slow, deliberate cooking. (I'm amazed to imagine someone pouring a third of a bag of briquettes into a grill - which is what my brother-in-law does. We typically use somewhere around a dozen - give-or-take.) A 21.6 lb bag of briquettes lasts us about two months, and we grill three/four nights a week.

Well, I can tell you whether we use eight or eighteen briquettes we experience just about identical "flame-out" in the SJ SILVER.

something is not being said or left out. are you putting the coals to one side? the chicken on the other side ? the lid vents over the chicken ? and the fire goes out ? i can't see how that could happen. wonder if its yer charcoal. for that kind of cooks i would foil the lower grate up to the charcoal line to help air flow go to the coals. check this out for great ideas. http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/fo...40039023/m/813102381

I understand that my post might be difficult to believe, but it is just as described. I'm thinking we need guys in lab coats and clip boards to come here and observe the process. It's weird, but totally reproducible. The SJ SILVER just can't keep a fire lit. We've had perfect results with several other types of department store grills but with the SJ SILVER it just can't keep a coal burning.

Regarding food placement, we've tried everything. Lots of coals, few coals (and we're burning new shrink-wrapped briquettes that burn hot as blazes in other grills). Fire goes out. Coals on one side and chicken on other. Fire goes out. Coals in ring on outside and chicken in center. Fire goes out. Coals uniformly covering grate and chicken anywhere. Same results. Fire goes out.

We've also ruled out droppings from the chicken putting out the coals. We've been so frustrated we've completely replaced the cold coals when chicken had totally stopped dripping and with new blazing hot coals fire still goes right out.

Weird - very weird. While the fam was on vacation a while back, I did a cook / experiment on my SJS. I cooked my steak then left the SJS burning when I came in to eat (instead of closing the vents). With lump charcoal (probably RO lump), SJS held temps in excess of 500 degrees for over an hour. After about an hour and a half, it was still over 400. I got tired, closed the vents and went to bed.

Weird, very, very weird.

Could be a defective SJS - you had best send it to me for some in depth testing!

Pat

I don't have one now, but I used to and I never encountered this problem... It seems silly, but would it be possible to get some pictures of your setup and post them here with everything just as it is when you're cooking? I just think we're overlooking some question or over-thinking something and the answer might present itself with pictures.

Thanks for replies. Yep, I like that SJ mod george posted - I'll review more carefully.

Trying better to understand the SJS problem got me wondering more about basics of grilling. Basic grilling factors seem to me to be efficiency of oxygen delivery to fuel, rate of combustion, peak temp of burn, total heat generation, and effectiveness of heat transfer to food. Being a complete beginner I was wondering if anybody could point me to any articles that bring it all together?

My wife and I have observed grilling around the world. We've seen grilling on every type of contraption from the Mediterranean to Egypt to India to China and beyond. We've seen grilling on coffee cans, 2 gal olive oil cans, old washing machines, and every other imaginable stray piece of home/farm/industrial material.

Seems to me what we've observed is bottom vent holes either being way oversized or bottom being non-existant - totally open. Alternately, we've seen in a woman's trendy accessories catalog a "beach combers grilling bucket". The "grilling bucket" is a totally sealed bottom galvanized bucket with a cooking grate on the top. The idea is to pour in coals from a fire giving the user about 20 min to cook, but no longer than 20 min because one is only cooking from residual heat and the coals, without a bottom vent, are naturally going out. It was interesting when I read that because 20 min is about how long our SJS seems to stay reasonably hot. And if you think about it, regarding the SJ, with bottom vents clogged with coals/ash, wouldn't the SJ become more of a "grilling bucket" and not a dynamic system with continual combustion and air movement and heat transfer?

Everyone has mentioned number of briquettes is critical. Trying to understand it better I was trying to imagine what would happen if one opened all vents and fired up one single coal in a SJS and put the lid on. That one single coal might burn bright hot reaching a high peak temp but not produce useful heat. What if one conducted same experiment with two, then three, then more coals until finally the whole coal grate was covered inches with coals. Wouldn't one arrive at an optimum number of briquettes where each briquette could burn as hot as possible with the available oxygen but few enough briquettes that they wouldn't compete and starve each other for oxygen with a steep temp drop off? Of course lots of other factors like lid kept on or off, do juices tend to flare up coals or put them out, is ambient air 87 deg or 57 deg, so forth.

Sorry for all the beginners ramblings - I'm just plodding along - would appreciate if anybody could point me to any good articles on grilling tech - would love to understand more.

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Yes, I'll post pics of our SJ set up - maybe we got a new unit with newly undersized bottom vents???...

i smoke fatties indirect on my sjs and have tenps near 300 for over an hour. when i take them off the coals are still going strong.

Sounds like its out of round. Put your lid on a flat surface, it should be flat. Turn your bowl upside down put on a flat surface it should be flat and not rock back and forth. Measure diamater of lid and bowl all the way around. They should measure the same all the way around. If measurement changes in different places its out of round. Mine was out of round 1/4 inch. I stood them on edge on top of cardboard and pushed down in different places untill the lid and bowl measured the same diameter no matter where I measured
then they were flat when placed on a flat surface. Of course the lid is wider than the bowl. Bet thats your problem.