I eye balled mine and marked. 
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Do I see green grass back there? I remember green...Comment
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Great timing. I just bought a 22" Weber Original Kettle Premium on Sunday night. There's a Slow 'n Sear on the way. I'm thinking of doing some calibration runs this weekend. It's probably overreach to think I can grill a turkey for Thanksgiving, but maybe for Christmas I'll be up to speed.
The markings for vent opening are interesting. I was thinking of putting a strip of metal under the vent handle with graduations and mounting a shorter strip on the handle itself, so that I could have vernier scale. That's probably too geeky....
I read about drilling holes in the kettle close to food grate level and coal grate level for the thermometer probes, and it looks like a good idea after my fooling around with thermometer wires going through the top vent. That's way too cumbersome. I have a few concerns about drilling the holes, though:
1- The kettle is coated with enamel. That sounds like glass to me. Do you grind the glass off the spot where you'll be drilling with something like a Dremel tool, or just drill? Will putting a dimple on the steel with a center punch cause the enamel to crack?
2- I am thinking that you don't want for the thermometer wires to go directly over the coals, so the holes should be on the side of the kettle opposite the side where the slow 'n sear will be. Does it matter which side that is? I was thinking about putting a hole under one of the handles, between the places where the handle is spot welded to the kettle, and the other hole below that one, so that I can hang the thermometer transmitter from the handle. This means that the slow 'n sear will be against the other handle side. If I had to put coals on two sides, they would have to be at 90 degrees from the hole. Or does it not matter if the wires cross over the coals?
3- Do the holes let enough air in to matter? I was thinking I could plug the hole not in use with crumpled aluminum foil if they did.
I know that the advice is to do a dry run without food, but it seems a shame to burn charcoal and not cook anything. I am tempted to experiment with hitting the temperatures and playing with the vents and such, but by the time I get a handle on all that the manufacturing oils and so on should be burned off and I will probably just put some brats on the grill or may be a splatchcocked chicken.Comment
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Smokin' Ham Congrats on the GREAT new gear!
You'll soon learn that with your SnS, the only movement your bottom vents will make (on the newer models) is from the second hole to the third. Most of the control will actually be @ the 2.25 hole to 2.5 hole marks to be honest. 3 holes when you're heating it up initially.
I don't drill holes in mine for probes so I can't comment on the best way to do it....but if I did I'd just use a regular metal bit. I run my wires under the lid. Others will go through the lid vent, but like you say to me it seems cumbersome when I want to remove the lid (but in others' defense I've never tried it, under the lid works just fine for me). I like to have a non-permanent way to run my probe wires.
As far as dry run, I would let your grill heat up good & hot for 30 to maybe 60 minutes just to burn off oils and manufacturing residue before putting food in it....but w/ an SnS & following the lighting directions carefully you certainly don't need lengthy dry runs. It's quite controllable with minimal effort if the directions are followed.Comment
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Saw the comment about the green grass.
I guess I shouldn't get you a photo of the winter (rye) lawn we just got growing last week. First cut is Thursday.
I'll save the pictures for January
We're having our first winter "storm" for the year. It's only 72 degrees here (5:00 PM). Overnight low projected for 57, with a high tomorrow of only 70. Brrrr.
Best regards,
Jim
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Got one of these with my xmas $$. Set it up on New Year's eve at my campsite and seasoned it with olive oil. On new year's day I did 2 racks of St Louis Spare Ribs using my SnS and the "Last Meal Ribs" recipe (patent pending all right reserved
). They turned out excellent. My wife even called them "restaurant quality" High praise from the misses.
Some thing I noticed when stacking it up to my Original Weber Kettle from TOoM*;
Huskee's vent positions are spot on. I set mine at between 2 and 2 1/2 and never touched the bottom vent for the duration of the cook.
All the holes! I was dismayed about all the holes. As Huskee notes, the temp gauge is in the wrong spot. So while it could be useful it isn't. My iGrill works excellent. This hole could go. Also, the two holes where you screw in the handle do not impress. While the heat shield is kinda nice, my old kettles handle is welded on. More holes = more leaks IMO.
It leaks! My lord I could not believe how much it leaked around the "sealed" lid. Plus it would not seat properly at all, and slides around quite a bit. However, it is a new grill and was freshly seasoned causing the inside to be a bit slippery. I am hoping that as I use it more it will get better. But my old grill's lid sits solidly on the kettle. and does not "spin" easily. If it doesn't improve I am thinking I may need to put some of the high heat gasket I have left over from sealing my CoS. But short of putting pressure on the lid manually or with a brick it leaked too much for my tastes. Seems kind of stupid.
All in all it is a very solid grill. And the design choices come off more as curious than cheap. Seems to me Weber should look into contact people that actually use these things about design choices. (There is also a whole other topic here you could write about their ridiculous grill "upgrade" that has a hole in the middle of it.
) That said, it still performed well but did not outperform my TOoM* Kettle. It does get the edge on my old kettle because of the bottom vent controls and Ash Catcher (something my wife finds hilarious when I say it out loud 
). I am hoping the leaky lid problem goes away with use (it was a bitch holding temp in a windy campsite). There are fixes for that which are easy, but I would hate to mod a Weber.
But hey, I just won two fantasy leagues so I think I'll just buy another SnS and a PBC and be done with it!
*Time Out of MindComment
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Four binder clips should solve your lid leakage. Solved mine.Comment
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Strolan it sounds like your lid is warped. Place it on a flat surface and figure out where the warps are, then just bend it back to shape with your hands. Also, after you've cooked with it a few times it will seal better. And always have binder clips handy.
Great to have you in the SnS club!Comment
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Strolan While the lid gauge is in the wrong spot, what's good to know as the pics toward the top of this post shows it has a good chance of being accurate (at least for the temps it reads where it's positioned). We've discovered repeatedly that at a cooking temp of 225F on the grate, the gauge overtop the coals wants to read an average of 75 degrees higher (300). This is good to know in case you have issues with a grate temp probe, keep the dome thermo at ~300 to cook at ~225 on the indirect grate. This is after things have heated up and are cruising along, and this is with the SnS of course. No telling how other setups might affect it.Comment
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I am torn between telling everyone I know and keeping my dirty little secret. Haha!Great to have you in the SnS club!
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Huskee I agree the temp gauge is somewhat useful, but I was more comparing it to my older model which has no gauge and the extra hole it added to the dome. If they had just put it on the other side it would make more sense.Comment
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UPDATE
Now that I have used my new Kettle a couple of times the leaky lid has gotten better. But after putting a couple of probe cables under the lid even alligator clips did not stop the leaks. Below you can see a pic with the gasket. I started a Pork Butt at 5:30am PST and the lid does not leak at all. It actually sets on the Kettle very solid. Also, this has been the easiest temp to keep with my SNS ever. After getting it going I have barely had to adjust the vents.
10/10 would recommend.Comment
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Originally posted by Strolan View Post
NICE. I have the gasket but have not installed it. Does it handle high heat next to the sear zone well? Can you run cables under the lid and still have no leakage?Comment
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Originally posted by Pit Boss View Post
Yes and Yes. It is made for holding the high temp. It did a good job on my EOS firebox door too. Until it burnt out and I got a SNS.
If you install it you actually want it just under the kettle rim so when you put the lid on the gasket is just underneath, not over lapping. I am going to have to reafix mine in a couple of places after this cook because of it is a bit in the way.Comment
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