Some new accessories for a 22" Kettle (probably fits an SnS as well)

[GolfGeezer]

New slow-n-slow adapter - looks like more room than the SnS provides? Low & Slow Kit (weber.com)

and

It looks like Weber has a Vortex competitor setup now: Charcoal Heat Controller – 22” charcoal grills (weber.com) If you look at the last picture of this on their page, that wide plate part allows setting the charcoal in a ring outside the center hollow and putting food directly over those coals. Not sure what the advantage of that would be.

Related question: does anyone make a foil liner for the ash catcher? My SnS ash catcher got a bunch of water that dripped down from the water inert in the SnS when the water boiled over the edge (even though I never filled it past the recommend 1/2" from the top)? Made a muddy ash mess in the ash catcher.

[Panhead John]

I don’t believe anyone makes a liner for the ash catcher. I never even think about the ash catcher really, it’s just a used charcoal trash can basically. Every now and then I just rinse it out with the hose. If it gets enough buildup inside, I have used a 2” putty knife and scraped it out. Weber’s 1/2” recommendation for the water level is too low. The water in there is boiling like crazy once the coals get hot, I’d stop about 1 inch from the top.

[GolfGeezer]

Yeh, that or use a small foil pan on top of the drip pan just for moisture in the cook. The only “issue” with that is whether the insert provides a significant heat sink to the cool section that makes my idea not as good. Thanks PJ.

[RonB]

They both look interesting, but not worth replacing my SnS or Vortex.

[Panhead John]

The benefit of the low and slow kit would be that you can use the entire cooking grate, with the SNS you lose about 1/3 to 1/4 of the cooking grate space. The tradeoff would be probably less smoking time before having to refill the kit. The charcoal ring doesn’t look like it holds as much charcoal as the SNS does. Weber says you can get 6-8 hours of smoking time using their low and slow kit…..never used one so I would have to take their word for it.

[Purc]

https://youtu.be/KaqBE1WdOG0

Here is a YouTube about this Weber accessory from Cooking with Ry.

[GolfGeezer]

Informative, to me at least. An interesting aspect is that he does nothing to prevent grease for traveling all the way to the ash swipes or ash catcher. I suppose, cooking the way he did, you could put something underneath the center to catch what does drip onto the diffuser part. Still begs the question of where does that grease go!

[Panhead John]

The grease will just drip down on the bowl of the kettle and if there’s enough of it, it might go into the ash catcher. I rarely use a drip pan. If there’s gunk built up by the grease mixing with the charcoal dust, using the sweepers will scrape it into the ash catcher. Every few months or so, I’ll use a putty knife to clean off the bowl of areas the ash sweeper doesn’t hit. You worry too much….😂

[GolfGeezer]

That's why they call it OCD!

[Mosca]

I have the first one, not as a Weber accessory but some other company. I actually wrote up a review a couple years ago. It works well, and lets you cook several (3-4) racks of ribs laid flat on the grate. Do a minion, use a water pan.