I'd return it if it was advertised as being padded & it was not.
The bag came in and I am less than impressed. The description on the site says it is a padded bag, it's not. The material doesn't strike me as being all that strong etc... I will go ahead and use it, but I sure don't recommend it. Weber really should be ashamed to put their name and logo on this thing...
Interesting you should say that. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. I love the things. Thanks to some friends in the Chi town area who can find them on clearance, I have 1 for each of my 6 Smokey Joes in my collection with plans of getting three more for more SJs coming in. They provide great protection, you can strap the lid on tight and carry it around with no worries of everything falling apart. I think Weber should be quite proud to have their name and logo on them.
Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club
How long have you had your bags? The reason I ask is my initial impression of the fabric isn't stellar. There is zero padding and the item description I had seen said it was padded. I was kind of relying on that as well. HOWEVER. Given that newspaper is what I use to start the chimney, and there appears to be ample room to stuff newspaper in the bag around the Smokey Joe, I will give that a pass. I was planning on having effectively a Sunday paper in the thing every time I went out anyway, and I never have to use more than 3 sheets.... So padding isn't really a problem...But like I said, durability is a concern...
So... please help me not have buyers remorse...
In all fairness, the product description I read was from another site, most likely I think it was Lowes.com or whatever where it was a special order, I didn't want to wait so I ordered it on Amazon. Amazon's description is correct. Sort of. It says padded feet, but the padding is more like that thick cardboardy plastic stuff sandwiched in the material... No idea what they call the stuff, but it seems like that same stuff collar tabs are made from. I am thinking that the one site I saw the description of a padded bag must have a description of an earlier / deprecated model carry bag. Vendors sometimes don't change product descriptions when manufacturers have a change. And the site I saw the description on and the site I bought from are not the same... I can't hold this against Amazon...
There are good things about the bag.
#1. It is sized to fit the Smokey Joe. Sort of. It is sized to fit both the silver, and gold models, The gold has extra pieces parts that consume space, so with the silver, it's a little bit loose. But the velcro strap that holds the lid down and everything together keeps it tight in there. The extra space / slop in there allows me to keep newspaper pages that would be more than sufficient padding to protect the interior of my camper from this thing.
#2. The stitching, strap, and strap hardware are every bit as good as a CaseLogic laptop bag. And I have had HEAVY laptops in those beg for far more carrying than this thing.
#3. The zipper seems to be top rate.
#4. The inside of the material seems to be heavily silicone coated. Perhaps this is also what is making the outside of the fabric "feel" like a lower grade. This coating I see in some of my camping gear waterproofs the snot out of the thing, and keeps stuff like soot from sticking to, and in the fabric. So in the occasion that I do throw an ash filled smokey joe in there, I just have to rinse it out and dry it to make it like new again..
#5. I have done a once over 4 times on this thing trying to find fault with the stitching, or anything else like that, and I can't. All the stitches are reinforced where they need to be, and doubled up in the spots where pressure is applied.
Topic: Carry bag for Smokey Joe? (Read 3038 times)