Observations On The SNS Kettle

[jfmorris]

ecowper Eric your findings fit with mine. I came from smoking on an offset, and picked up a Weber Performer Deluxe in 2017 from a friend, and outfitted it with all the SNS gear. The longer I used it, the less I used the offset, until I can barely remember the last time I fired up the offset. The kettle with SNS is just SO much more fuel efficient, and the results were so similar or better, and it was so much more hands off that unless I just can't fit a cook on it, there was no reason to go back to using the offset.

One thing you may or may not have that I find myself using more and more is the elevated cooking grate. I've had a Hover Grill for my kettle for years, but when I got the SNS Deluxe Kamado this past January in the Great Giveaway, it came with the SNS Elevated cooking grate. I find myself using that above the SNS quite often, or even as a higher level above a fire on the charcoal grate in the kamado, to do "Santa Maria" style cooking, where I have a choice in distances from the fire. For long low and slow cooks on the kamado, I've found temperatures to be very close between the main grate and elevated grate as well, at least in kamado mode. In SNS indirect mode, the elevated grate runs 25 degrees or so hotter.

[jfmorris]

ecowper I find the elevated grate useful for extra capacity if what you are smoking or cooking indirect will fit below it. You have about 4 inches of clearance between grates. So doing ribs, pork belly, wings, etc, its fine. On the kettle with the SNS I tend to rotate stuff between upper and lower grate halfway through the cook. It's just not quite high enough to put a butt or brisket up under it.

[jfmorris]

ecowper the other tool useful for increased capacity is a rib rack. I use a plain ole $15 Weber rib rack (stainless) from Home Depot to stand up to 5 slabs of ribs on edge while smoking on the kettle or kamado. Due to the increased temp higher up I flip them end over end, and front to back, half way through the cook, so that things cook evenly. Sometimes the ribs are a bit floppy, but it all works out in the end, and usually its just 3, with a space between each in the rack.

[Caffeine88]

Excellent extra info... Thanks

[Panhead John]

After ecowper threatened, berated and pretty much forced me to purchase one of these, I "reluctantly" agreed. I couldn’t take it anymore! So as you might know, I placed my order Sunday evening. Monday morning I got an email from SnS saying my order shipped. The next morning I checked my tracking number and it showed a Thursday delivery. Great I thought! That was gonna be pretty quick, especially these days. Well lo and behold, look what was just delivered to me today, on Wednesday.

[ecowper]

I'm going to keep right on berating you, too

[DavidNorcross]

Congratulations!

[bbqLuv]

You have my condolences.

[STEbbq]

Great thoughts!

Following up on the pork butt, how much messing around did you have to do with the vents over the cook without the fan in place?

And purely for my own confirmation, would I be right in estimating 184.5 square inches of space for low and slow smoking with the SNS installed? 363 inches of grill grate minus the 178.5 inches size of the SNS?

[Grillin Dad]

Yeah, actually, I think you’re right. It’s still a partial circle, not sinusoidal or anything.

This is actually really bad. This means I wasn’t paying attention to calculus or trig. Or I was paying attention, and my brain is starting to fail. But I’ve got 4 kids ages 6 and under, so that is a distinct possibility …

[STEbbq]

Grillin Dad . My condolences for your soon to be impending dementia in your old age.

Quick: What's 7x8?

[Grillin Dad]

Duuuuuh it’s 78!!

[ecowper]

STEbbq .... here's my FireBoard log of the cook. You can see the spots where I had to fiddle with the vents. Some of that is Eric not knowing the machine yet.

I think you're right about cooking space available. Putting two pork butts on here would work, although a bit tight. A brisket, no issues. Probably not a spatchcocked turkey, unless it wasn't very big.

The two big spikes in the late morning was after lifting the lid and mopping. I think it's due to all the fresh air going into the kettle. Where it's not super stable in the late morning, that was me f'ing about with the vents. The big drop in the afternoon is when I stirred the coals and refilled the SnS with charcoal. I did not change the vent settings at all after that, everything that happens is the cooker itself reheating and then stabiliziing.

[STEbbq]

That all makes sense. I am mentally placing the SNS kettle between a regular kettle which would require more vent adjustments and a kamado which would require less adjustments assuming no fans. So, there would be virtually no scenarios where’d we need a fan for a kamado, some scenarios for a SNS kettle, and a lot of the time for a plain kettle.

[ecowper]

yeah, I agree with that. I would like to have a fan for long low n slow like this pork butt. I have the Fireboard Fan v1. It doesn't fit the fan port on the SnS. Actually, it's not that it doesn't fit. It's attachment system won't keep it tight against the fan port, which will not be useful at all. Thinking I'm going to get a Pit Viper with Kettle Adaptor

[jfmorris]

I do two 8 to 10 pound butts on a kettle with the SNS quite often. No issue spacing them out to where they don't touch. You may have to play with air probe position a little though, to keep it 2 inches from the meat. I've also fit a 18 to 20 pound spatchcocked turkey on there, but the tips of the legs were hanging out over the water trough, and I wrapped them in foil.

[rickgregory]

So I think this is on the list for 'soon'. In looking at how the vents are managed etc it's MUCH easier that my (very) old weber and that alone will make it nicer. Add in things like the lid basket and the fact that I already have an SNS insert for the Weber , so it's only $279 - that's pretty much nothing.

I'll keep the weber for extra capacity etc. If I need to, I could always order another SNS insert....

[ecowper]

when MCS comes knocking, you can order the second SNS insert and keep the $4K LSG purchase at bay

[wrgilb]

@ecowper Consider getting the Weber 22" grid with the removable center piece and a vortex, this works great for wings and thighs.

[jfmorris]

ecowper agreed! I hate those nickel clad grates Weber sells. Been through a ton of them on both kettles and gas grill (the warming rack is usually nickel plated). I understand the 26" comes with a stainless grate though.

[ecowper]

jfmorris my Hasty-Bake has stainless steel grates pretty similar in quality/size/etc to the SnS grates. I've been cooking on them heavily for over 10 years without any issues. That's sort of the basic standard I expect from any grill, I guess.

[Panhead John]

ecowper Yes, I agree with Jim, I use my vortex directly under my regular grate. If a few years later I burn through it, I’ll just buy me another $20. grate. And get a vortex now! They’re great.

[Dr. Pepper]

I posted this under FireMan 's post, but think I might get an answer if I post it by itself:

Serious question: What are there principle differences in the 26" Weber from a 26" SNS. Since, you can add the SNS accessories to your Weber. (Is the SNS available in a 26"?) Same question if comparing 22" Weber to 22" SNS. ecowper ?

[Dadof3Illinois]

If it were me, I would compare the SnS kettle to the Weber 22" performer and not the basic model. The performer is pretty much at the same price point but gives you a 4 wheeled cart with side table and the heavy cooking grate with removable center section.
Now if I were looking at spending in the SnS deluxe range then I would consider the Weber 26" which gives you much more cooking space.

[IdahoJim]

I'm a bit confused by what you mean when you just say "SNS". The Slow N Sear Kettle is a 22" kettle. You can get it with or without the actual Slow N Sear. As far as I know they don't have a 26" kettle. However, they do sell a 26" Slow N Sear as well as a 26" Easy Spin grate. I bought the combo of both of them a few weeks ago for $200.

[FireMan]

Dr. Pepper , I am unaware of a 26” SnS & I think they stopped making accessories for a 26” kettle.

[rickgregory]

ecowper -That's likely something about how weber engineered it (which isn't an excuse). I have a 3 legged old weber and it doesnt wobble. There's no inherent reason a 3 legged setup should wobble under normal usage.

[Dr. Pepper]

rickgregory I agree. A Tripod can stand on any surface. Not so a quadripod (not sure that is a word, but I didn't want to use quadruped. Panhead John, can you look that up?) Four legs require a 'true' flat surface. Maybe the wobbly tripod has loose bolts?
In any event, unless SNS starts selling a 26" kettle, I see no reason to swap out my 22" Weber for a 22" SNS kettle.

[ecowper]

Dr. Pepper as I noted discussing earlier, if I already had a Weber 22" kettle, I would not replace it with the SnS kettle. I'd save that money for other cool stuff.

[STEbbq]

Dr. Pepper The AR review is also very good.

https://amazingribs.com/ratings-reviews/grills/slow-n-sear-kettle-grill

[Panhead John]

Dr. Pepper This is the best comparison 👆of the Weber Performer and SnS Kettle I’ve seen. Check it out. Thanks to STEbbq this should answer any questions you have.

[GolfGeezer]

Maybe you folks can 'splain something: what is the benefit of choosing the lefthand option for the SNS shelf placement? Couldn't you just stand on the other side of the "righthand" version? Inquiring minds and all that...

[jfmorris]

The main reason for a left shelf version is for left handed folks. Think about moving food to and from the grill or flipping burgers left handed with the standard unit. The lid holder puts the lid up on the left, in their way for accessing the grate left handed.

[ecowper]

the design is intended to have the SnS insert on the back of the kettle, with the vent on the front of the lid. To keep this setup correct, if you are left-handed, you want the left-handed setup.

[GolfGeezer]

OK, I get it now. It should have been obvious to me. My Napoleon gasser has the IR burner on the left side shelf. Being right-handed, it is awkward to move food around on it as the main hood sort of blocks reaching across to use tongs on the IR.

[ecowper]

One interesting thing that the SnS Kettle with insert in place does is a temperature spike after opening the lid. The first couple times that it did that, I started chasing the temps with the vents. And had a hard time getting the stable temp back. I’ve learned now, just let it spike and in 5-7 minutes, it will settle back into it’s happy spot. In this case, the low 230’s. I’m posting my FireBoard chart to show it clearly. When the temp does a big V drop, that is the lid opening. When the lid goes back on, you see the temp spike 10-15 degrees higher than it had been and then slowly come back down to stable temps.

Patience, young padawan, patience.

[ecowper]

rickgregory what’s interesting is that my much bigger cookers (Hasty-Bake and WSM 22) don’t experience this phenomenon. If anything, I have to work to get them back to a stable temp. Without doing any deeper analysis, I think this is a function of air volume vs. size of fire.

[rickgregory]

Sounds reasonable. I see the same thing on my 22" Weber

[ecowper]

rickgregory because I was used to much larger cookers, I thought I had a fire problem initially and was chasing the temp. Which was painful.

[ecowper]

Okay, so today I cooked with a fan. I did bacon and set the FB Drive to run the SnS at 240F. A few things are really obvious

1. I still really don’t like the FB fan on a Weber/Kettle style setup. I guess I’m buying a Pit Viper.
2. The Fireboard and the SnS worked together really well for holding temps. It caught the lid opens, as well. Overall, I really liked this and will definitely use the FB2 Drive and Fan for long cooks.
3. Getting the grate temp probe in the right location is really, really important

Yes, at the beginning of this my grate probe placement was really bad. Fixed that, but still struggling compared to the Hasty-Bake and WSM to get the grate probe in place and not in a meat shadow.

[jfmorris]

What's interesting is that overall, your temp is more stable without the fan. I.e. you don't have the sawtooth up/down pattern on the other cooks. I've noticed that as well using my kettle + SNS, and my PartyQ. It's one reason I've not rushed out and bought the fan adapter to use with my SNS Kamado.

[ecowper]

jfmorris what is really interesting is how stable the first half of this is and then it gets that sawtooth thing going in the second half, with much larger temp swings. Like the PID was chasing the temp.

[jfmorris]

Yeah, I think after that opening of the lid halfway through the cook, it dropped enough to where it overcompensated, then chased things the rest of the cook.

[brettcee]

Have had a Weber for 20 years, lots of accessories, would these mostly work with an SnS grill? Like the Gourmet BBQ system.

[ecowper]

I believe that the only accessory that doesn’t work from Weber 22 to SnS is the rotisserie

[ecowper]

So, I decided to see if I could cook all the meat for Christmas Dinner on the SnS Kettle. At thanksgiving I punted on the turkey when I ended up with a 22 lb turkey that wasn’t going to fit on the SnS.

The challenge: cook a 5 lb ham and a 10 lb prime rib roast on a 22” kettle with an SnS insert.

Gotta say, the SnS kettle handled it like a champ. Even with the ambient temp of 32 and snow falling. I did make a couple adjustments for weather conditions and so much meat on the kettle.

Setup: Filled the SnS full of Cowboy briquettes plus some chunks of red oak. Pulled 20 briquettes out, lit them in my Weber half size chimney. Filled the reservoir with hot water and then added the briq’s in one corner of the SnS. Put Fireboard grate probe at the front center of the grill, right under the hood therm. This seems to be the best spot to run the probe.

The two pieces of meat both needed 2.5 hours cook time, so I got them on together. The SnS was up to about 245 and holding steady. The meat went on, with both at internal temps of about 30F coming out of the garage fridge.

The outside temps and snow threw me off a bit. The ham was done in about 2.5 hours, but the roast took a bit over 3 and came off at an internal temp of 130F. The grate temps were pretty darn steady the whole time. Once I set the vents for 250, I never had to make a change.

SnS Kettle is an awesome workhorse and I’m really impressed that it handled all that meat without any challenges.

Love that side table


Big roast and ham on there, no problem


Finishing the roast


All done …. Didn’t get a good pic of the finished ham

[ecowper]

Panhead John that's what it took to do 250F in 30 degree weather with 15 lbs of meat on the kettle. Normally, when I'm doing something like a chuck roast in more normal temps, it's half on smoke hole and 1/3 on top vent for 250F

[wrgilb]

Did you add the water to help keep the temp down? I've used the water reservoir on long cooks, but haven't tried it on short ones.

[ecowper]

wrgilb actually, I didn't want the ham to dry out at the beginning of the cook before I wrapped it.

[BFlynn]

Great write up.

I like the SnS kettle too..