I recently got a Classic Joe II. After playing with it for a bit and watching a lot of YouTube I thought it would be a good idea to get KJ's charcoal basket. Long story short - the dimensions of this charcoal basket are such that there is no room for the deflector plates to rest on the bottom ring of the "Divide and Conquer" rack. Instead they end up perching on the hooks that connect the basket to the rack.
There has been some discussion of this on various forums and I understand that a representative of KJ said that this wasn't/shouldn't be a problem. When resting on the hooks there is a little more room for airflow around the deflector plates, etc.
The thing is, I find getting the deflector plates to properly perch on the hook tops to be extremely tricky. Without the basket it is relatively easy to put in the heat deflectors, Just put the first one in, slide it as far to the side as it will go, put the second one in and drop it into place, and arrange them to fit together. With the basket in it works out that your plates have to share space on the tops of the two hooks where they meet. If either corner of either plate slides too much one way, it will drop off the hook and there will be a gap between the two plates which will allow hot air to pass through and thus not deflect.
It may be that I'm making a big deal over nothing, but I recently spent at least 5 minutes (though it seemed longer) over a fire that was growing hotter by the second futzing with the plates while my hands, even in good gloves, grew painfully hot. I eventually just gave up and pulled the plates (now dangerously hot) out, put in the accessory rack, and put the plates on that. It wasn't really the setup I was going for, but I wasn't up for any more futzing.
Do other people have this problem? What do/did you do about it?
There has been some discussion of this on various forums and I understand that a representative of KJ said that this wasn't/shouldn't be a problem. When resting on the hooks there is a little more room for airflow around the deflector plates, etc.
The thing is, I find getting the deflector plates to properly perch on the hook tops to be extremely tricky. Without the basket it is relatively easy to put in the heat deflectors, Just put the first one in, slide it as far to the side as it will go, put the second one in and drop it into place, and arrange them to fit together. With the basket in it works out that your plates have to share space on the tops of the two hooks where they meet. If either corner of either plate slides too much one way, it will drop off the hook and there will be a gap between the two plates which will allow hot air to pass through and thus not deflect.
It may be that I'm making a big deal over nothing, but I recently spent at least 5 minutes (though it seemed longer) over a fire that was growing hotter by the second futzing with the plates while my hands, even in good gloves, grew painfully hot. I eventually just gave up and pulled the plates (now dangerously hot) out, put in the accessory rack, and put the plates on that. It wasn't really the setup I was going for, but I wasn't up for any more futzing.
Do other people have this problem? What do/did you do about it?
Comment