The air enters the kettle at charcoal grate level on the right side. It's in about the same spot as where the gas burner tube was, only above the charcoal grate instead of below. This helps keep ash out of it, and also provides optimum air flow to the coals.
The Smart Ring is meant for use on 22" Kettles. There is no ring on the Smart Performers. The fan is mounted to the right hand side of the bowl itself.
Perfect thanks John that's what I thought
That's correct. The Smart Ring is considered an accessory or attachment for any 22" regular kettle. I'm US based at Weber HQ in Palatine, Illinois, but I work on the Global Product Management team, so the products I'm involved with developing (or my fellow team members in the case of the Smart Ring) are for the worldwide market, with region specific SKUs setup for particular regions and countries. I don't know specifically if the Smart Ring is coming to South Africa, but I can ask and find out. As for colors, they can be polarizing and everyone has their own opinion on them, which limits their appeal. Each region generally opts in our out of carrying color versions within their assortment. Black is always the most popular color, and sometimes regions don't want to take a gamble on offering color options. Disappointing to be sure, but understandable.Perfect thanks John that's what I thought
So the ring is more like an attachment for a regular kettle.
I know you are US based but do you have any idea if South Africa (EMEA) region will be getting these awesome new products?
The smart performer fan setup sounds perfect and loving the new Smokey Joe colours, here in my region we get the black one and that's it.
You are a gem thank you John!
But from a business standpoint I get it to not carry too many SKUs that wont necessarily sell here.Hey Cory, yes, that's correct. The new line of Performers will not have a gas assist option or charcoal bin. The gas assist ignition certainly was a cool feature, but it was prone to clogging up and required maintenance that a lot of people simply didn't want to perform. That caused it to be a bit of a pain point on Performer w/gas assist models. A lot of people would also start out using it and then simply switch over to using a chimney starter. The charcoal bin was a great idea, but since it didn't have a lid it left charcoal a little bit open to the elements, and usually ended up as a glorified garbage can for many people. That's not to say it couldn't do it's job well as a charcoal bin, but many people simply didn't use it as one.
I'm very happy to help when I can!You are a gem thank you John!
I do understand the colour thing but still wish we got some nice Smokey Joe options here
There are a few colour options on the 22inch Master Touch over here atleast. Or 57cm as its called here. And on local Facebook marketplace I do see some lime green Joe's popping up every now and again so I guess the colours were trialed here at some point and didn't sell well enough to justify more options.
Must be an awesome job working at the Weber HQ and seeing people's reactions to you and your teams work! I'm excited by these new charcoal products and I might not even be able to buy them locally
I could always try importing through the US Amazon
I and mean no offense have never required any maintenance on the gas assist and certainly not prone to it clogging. By the way my Performer is Gen 3 and I have never seen a lot of people on this forum having issues some I am sure do but forum members responded and that was the end of it.
That's all good thank you for finding out for me
Light one paraffin cube and start your chimney that way. I can see if you didn't use a chimney like Pat G later on in the thread, but this doesn't make sense to me.
What's the slot cut out on the left side for?
I also do what Pat G does sometimes not using the chimney. I don't want to deal with cubes or newspaper with bacon grease or whatever as Pat said push the button wait five minutes let it do its thing. To be honest and its fine to disagree for $900 if that's what its going to sell for than I expected the gas assist.
I think this fair. I know I paid more than this for my WSK E6 and have to use a paraffin cube in the chimney or in the charcoal area. Not a big deal to me, but is to you.
TBH, I stopped using the gas assist due to the cost of canisters in the UK and the hassle of trying to get the thing to screw in! I always used a chimney with it anyway. Swapped to using the little wax bale things as a box of those is a lot cheaper than the gas. Still a great grill though and in my experience, I never had a damp problem with my charcoal in the bin especially since the Weber briquettes changed from the old white paper bags to the waterproof ones.