Smokey Joe Premium 14"

[WMT]

Does anyone have one of these portable grills, if so could you please school me in their operation. I bought the premium instead of the silver because I liked the idea that the carrying handle would keep the lid on during transpot and when it is folded back it doubles for a place to put the lid, very similar to how the master touch stores the lid. Nice little grill but I can't get any heat out of mine and if I put the lid on the coals will eventualy go out or almost at least. I blame it on the air intake vent location. The air intake vents on the premium are above the charcoal grate on the sides but on the silver it is on the bottom (where it should be). Never heard of this problem until I had one. Am I doing something wrong during operation or is this a flaw in webers design. I contacted weber and of course they have never heard of this problem before. I have seen on the net where people instal the sjs air intake on the bottom of the bowl and it works great after that. I have tried to find one the vents but I live north of the border and cannot find one anywhere here to get them. I have found them in the US but with the shipping it cost more than just going out and buying a new sjs. Any help would be appreciated.

[captjoe06]

Owning both styles I understand what your talking about as far as getting more heat out of the silver and I agree about the main factor being the vent locations.
I think the Gold design is flawed in comparison. 

[WMT]

I think I'm going to try something like the ash sweep on the 22" kettles. I already have a plan in my head just need to see if I can make it work. If not oh well it's only a $50 bbq and not much fun using it the way it is.

[MacEggs]

Try putting some HD foil pieces ( 4" x 4" ) around the cooking grate area (under it) that is near the intake vents.
It will help direct airflow towards the charcoal.  No real need to modify the cooker, IMO.

I do this with my 18" Outrider and it works great.
In this particular pic, I also used some foil in the middle to catch drippings.

[greenweb]

Another alternative is to convert SJS to Gold with a lid bale holder assy.  I will be converting my Lime and Copper SJS to gold so I could mainly put Zav wooden handles with metal clips on.

You should be able to pickup used or even new SJS easy on Kijiji for $15-$35.

[johnny 2 shack]

i added a vent on the bottom of mine , added a tin can with as many hole as i can on the top  of the sides so the vent doesn't fill up . works great now . ash sweeps ? fascinating idea.