Stacking two charcoal rings together

[RémiB]

Has anyone else thought of stacking a second charcoal ring onto the original rings as a cheaper alternative to the fancy charcoal baskets you can get?

I purchased a second ring for a lot less than what if would have cost me to get one of the fancy fabricated baskets available (shipping and currency difference makes it too expensive for me to get). I drilled extra holes for increased airflow in my original ring and will do the same to my second ring in a few days. Had to give the drill a bit of a rest and I'm doing a couple of cooks over the next 2 days, so I only got around to drilling holes in the one ring. One I finish the second ring, I'll wire the two together and see how it goes. It should work well enough I'd imagine.

 

[Lee Ingraham]

While you're tinkering you may as well wire them to your charcoal grate and add some handles in the form of u bolts. Or fashion some small stainless rod into a bail handle that can be picked up with a hook

 

[RémiB]

While you're tinkering you may as well wire them to your charcoal grate and add some handles in the form of u bolts. Or fashion some small stainless rod into a bail handle that can be picked up with a hook

You're right Lee. I just haven't bothered mentioning it, because I don't even have a second charcoal grate yet. I ordered both the charcoal grate and charcoal ring in May and the charcoal grate only shipped Saturday. The pandemic has slowed a lot of traffic between the Canada/US border for all kinds of things. Until it shows up, I don't know how I'll go about putting the whole kit and kaboodle together. Plus I have to make sure whatever I can find to link them up is safe to use.

 

[Lee Ingraham]

If you go the ubolt route you would be lifting everything from the grates which adds some safety to it. Any wiring of the charcoal ring to the grates would just be for lateral stability.

 

[RémiB]

Just ordered some stainless steel u bolts from Grainger. Won't be here till July 22, but I can make do till then. I don't have a delivery date for the grate, so maybe they'll show up around the same time.

 

[Chris Allingham]

I've not seen stacked stock charcoal chambers, but I've seen guys fashion a taller charcoal chamber out of expanded metal that slips inside the stock one.

 

[Lee Ingraham]

Depending on how comfortable you are with a grinder and cutting up your new charcoal ring you may want to make a few cuts into the upper charcoal ring and bend in the "flaps" a bit so the upper charcoal ring fits inside the lower one then wire them together. Or another option would be to get some stainless steel strap material and rivets and rivet them together, this option would just require the materials, a hand drill and a hand rivet gun.

 

[Jim C in Denver]

I don't know if you are working with a 22 or an 18. But two standard rings is going to be very tall.

Two 18.5 rings is 10 inches high. On a cooker that is already tight down low given the overly deep water pan. At least in the 18, the optimal basket would get more volume by modestly increasing both the diameter and the height.

FWIW, the Arbor Fab 18 basket is six inches high. The Cajun Bandit ring is only 5 inches high, but holds more fuel. At $42, I'd pick the CB over a second Weber ring at $37 and then DIY-ing.

 

[RémiB]

I don't know if you are working with a 22 or an 18. But two standard rings is going to be very tall.

Two 18.5 rings is 10 inches high. On a cooker that is already tight down low given the overly deep water pan. FWIW, the Arbor Fab 18 basket is six inches high.

At least in the 18, the optimal basket would get more volume by modestly increasing both the diameter and the height.

I have a 22. Was looking at the height of some of the baskets people are selling and at least one is taller than 2 stacked rings. It's probably not an option for the 18 though.