OK, first I would like to thank those of you who STAYED ON TOPIC and contributed very helpful information. Our experience with the Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center as been 99.9% positive, with the long indirect cooking experience using the charcoal “bins” that came with it being the only perplexing issue. Some small comfort knowing that this problem is not unique to us.
Thanks to helpful suggestions, we looked into options besides re-inventing the wheel by creating our own indirect cooking charcoal holders. We learned about “old style” Performa wire charcoal baskets. Found some not only on the secondary market, but also got the following response from Weber, in case anyone is interested:
“They go by part #960080, and are $25.63 each. We still have plenty in stock.
Please call us at 1-800-446-1071 and we can help you place an order. We're open 7 am to 10 pm, CST, everyday.”
Perhaps we shouldn’t complain about the price, $51.26 USD for a pair plus whatever shipping would come to, given what we shelled out for the Summit Grilling Station.
But we chose the next step down. For eight bucks we bought a pair of Weber charcoal rails. They firmly snap in just fine inserted backwards (180 degrees from how they are designed to be used). The drawbacks I see using them are that 1) they are not as tall as the wire or flat metal bins (so you can’t set them in the middle of the grill and have a level, close-to-the upper grill heat source and 2) there is no way to lift all the cooled off charcoal out all at once. But since my husband is the “pitmeister” I will let him decide if this is or is not an issue. He never complained using the rails in our old Weber Kettles.
Unfortunately there’s no room in our freezer right now to store a load of slow smoked chicken thighs, or anything else for that matter. We will have to make room by eating our way into making space. So I cannot report in on how the rails work. But truthfully, I think ya’ll can pretty much figure that out.
Topic: Problem with charcoal bins for indirect cooking (Read 4400 times)