Most of the knockoffs I've are propane
which is even scarier!!!
Most of the burners couldn't survive
more than 2 years of exposure to
the salt in meat drippings.
I mostly see the Char Broil knock off, and I think Walmart has one in their "Expert Grill" line, both go for about $30.00, and appear to be made with steel about half the gauge as the Weber, with terrible ceramic finishes. Generally speaking even with light / medium light use, you really only get a year or two use of them before they have rusted out to the point of being useless.
I have a Smokey Joe, and love it, but honestly, a CGA would be a better fit for me for camping, and trips to the beach when we aren't in a beach house... And if I knew about the CGA before I bought my Smokey Joe, my collection would be quite different! Like I mentioned previously, the CGA isn't commonly seen on store shelves. I know I can order them at Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes etc... but they are not available for local pickup, nobody has one out to demo etc... unlike the kettle grills which are everywhere and everyone has several set up... Heck my local grocery store has Weber Original 22" Kettles pre assembled for $99.00!
I saw a guy on Youtube yesterday that kitted up a CGA for camping perfectly. Managed to get the coal grate to sit on the bottom, stashed his chimney, 2 chinmeys full of coal, paper, lighter, utensils, scotch brite pad, etc... and could close the lid. Although I KNOW I would go through more charcoal that what he shows, in one weekend, I also know I could cook every meal on a CGA, and have it come out fantastic!
Don't get me wrong. The Smokey Joe is great. I have a silver, which is a good grill, but no good way to hold the lid on. I typically dump and wash the bowl when cold, flip the lid, put the grates in the lid, and stow it all in a doubled up heavy trash bag to keep from getting soot on the inside of my trunk. Not the best arrangement, but again, like I said, when I bought mine, the options it seemed for a small, portable charcoal grill as I wasn't about to do propane. No disrespect to propane users, but just not my thing, anyway the choices were a Smokey Joe Silver, Smokey Joe Gold whcih I had one previously but for some reason the Gold was back ordered when I crushed my first one, and the knock off CGA grills which had the build quality of a Yugo. I went Smokey Joe...