Classic Joe II, charcoal basket and heat deflectors

[gilbertpilz]

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?

[scottranda]

I always use the accessory rack, even for low and slow. The people who say you should only have it in the lower position for low and slow just simply haven’t tried it on the accessory rack. It works. And there’s a benefit too... better airflow!

set your heat deflectors on the accessory rack and forget about it 😃

[scottranda]

I put my drip pan on the heat deflectors which is sitting on the accessory rack. I use an aluminum foil pan and I use scissors to cut the four corners and fold down the sides to make it fit. I don’t use the drippings for anything other than keeping my kamado cleaner for easy cleanup.

[scottranda]

You can’t cut the corners all the way down the pan bc then it won’t collect drippings. But maybe half way down to make it fit underneath the grates.

[gilbertpilz]

scottranda - thanks for the tip on the drip pans.

[gilbertpilz]

I've done some more experimenting and I have (so far) settled on this setup: Heat deflectors go on accessory rack on lowest position. Big Green Egg 15" disposable drip pan (available at Ace) sits on heat deflectors. To keep the drip pan from picking up too much heat from the deflectors and burning the drippings I use three large steel nuts (also purchased at Ace) as spacers between the deflectors and drip pan. Grill grate goes in highest position which has about 1/8" of clearance over top edge of the drip pan. Good air flow, no burnt oil taste to the meat, and easy clean up.