Personally, I think the 18” is the best bang for your buck smoker on the market. I have gotten 6 racks of ribs on it as it is. If you check out the mods portion of this sight, you can find ways to get extra racks in it to fit even more. You could do the same with any of the sizes if you wanted...
Upgrades are all up to you. Try the weber cover and see if it works. It has a little extra room so it might work. New door isn't needed just optional as well as casters and handles. I suggest a digital pit probe. Chimney is handy but I prefer use fire starters. I feel it's easier to hit desired...
Think about putting sand in your water pan. It holds the heat to help with fuel consumption. T-Roy Cooks on YouTube does a test between water and sand and it's a significant difference in fuel consumption.
The stock thermometer isn't as inaccurate as it is inconsistent. I bought a digital Maverick as a "second opinion" on pit temp. Sometimes it reads close to the stock therm and sometimes they are far apart. Could be difference in placement but most likely just inconsistency from the stock therm...
I put a double layer of foil on the side of the cooker to protect it from the coals. I made a deflector to do 2 zone cooking with, but I like the full length vapor barrier that this and the slow n sear offer.
I've got one and used it on a brisket flat and small pork butt cook this weekend. It works very well. There was a cool wind which hindered the kettle a bit but the tip top temp made it much easier to adjust. Great product.
Last cook I did, I piled my coals up and lit them with a fire starter. Controlling temp was much easier I thought. Using the minion method with 5-10 lit coals to start will work as well.
Put the spares on the hotter rack in your smoker. Top rack should be hotter, quite a bit hotter if you use water in the pan. That will help even out the cook times. Spares will take half to full hour longer.
Thanks for all the replies. I ended up leaving town and only has room for my wsm so I didn't get to try out the kettle yet. But my first ever pork butt cook turned out great. Moist, maybe a little over done but just made pulled pork sandwiches so it was ok.
Temp outside is 70, temp in the smoker is 250. Oak smoke rolling in the WSM, pecan in the Smokey Joe mod. 19 pounds of pork butt smoking now and 11 pounds of loin backs going on later.
I'm going to smoke a pork butt this weekend on the kettle I just bought. Since I don't have time to get a smokenator or Slow n Sear shipped before the weekend, I'm wondering what the best ways to cook indirect would be. I was thinking about using fire bricks to seperate the coals from the meat...