I haven't been there in over a year. But i had lots of notes and concerns with the vent tabs hitting, about the lower grate not sitting correctly and consistently. it seems like some of those problems were addressed.
as for the strange door opening, i will just say there has always been a belief that the door was only for tending charcoal and adding water. its a shame you can't access the trays..
as for vents, they were always stamped out by the thousands and assembeled to the bowls and lids as needed. So technically you can say the date on the vent is the date the vent was made, not necessarily the bowl -or even when the whole thing was boxed up and delivered!
the customer support has always been good, but i would think that they would be unaware of any slight modification such as a vent position.
I don't have a 22. Am i to understand that the vents are now above the charcoal grate? Interesting. I would think that it's best to have a vent (air in) below the fire and then the vent (exhaust) above the fire -just like a fireplace. the vent on fireplace doors is low right along the hearth and the flue is directly above. Cold air blows across the top of a chimmey, it draws across the top (venturi effect) and cold air comes up from the bottom.
Well.. the proof is in the pudding.
A lot of what we discuss here is all very interesting and we all like experiments and recording results. But i had a conversation with Billy Zoom of the punk band X one time. We were referring to a forum discussion and he said "I've tried a lot of thos things [guitar adjustments] but the best thing you can do is practice".
Be well.
Mike
