Weber Jumbo Joe Premium assembled. First burn this weekend...

[dbhost]

Okay here's the poop. I have had a massively messed up week. Extended family health issues galore, my wife and I are trying to get our feet back under us financially after several major hospitalizations for my wife already this year. My old smoker died, and the doc wants me on a low carb diet NOW...

Anyway the Smokey Joe Silver wasn't cutting it capacity wise for doing a weekly cook, so I went ahead and looked around for a kettle style 22 - 22.5" grill. I really wanted to go with Weber as I have experience with them, and replacement parts are everywhere for them, where as the knockoffs are basically disposable if something goes wrong...

So as I mentioned already, I snagged a Jumbo Joe Premium from Walmart at the stupid cheap price of $68.00 + tax, and brought it home... Tuesday night. Unfortunately I also had TONS of work for my day job that took priority until late last night...

To top it off, yesterday morning, we found water by the freezer. And sure enough, things were thawing. In a rush we moved food from the fridge / freezer to the deep freeze in the garage, and coolwer with ice packs I keep handy in case of hurricanes.

Yep my fridge died. So with everything being moved to the deep freeze, having thawed meat to cook this weekend is going to be interesting... SO I get to go either fix my current one, or pick out and buy a fridge, which is something I need like an extra hole in the head right now...

Oh well...

So the plan is, tonight, I will do some basic troubleshooting on my current fridge. If I find it is something as simple as a failed fan or clogged condenser coil, then we fix and / or clean. If it is in the sealed system compressor etc...
then we tomorrow morning, we go out to Home Depot, and buy / arrange delivery of the fridge we have been eyeballing now for, oh the last 3 years. (That money was supposed to replace the engine in my truck!).

In the afternoon, I am going to grab some fresh ice bags as I know it will be a few days before delivery can happen... And do the first burn and smoke on this rig... The plan is for the following which I need to take out of the freezer and put in a cooler tonight so that it can thaw enough to be smoked tomorrow.

#1. 10lb pork loin. It's too long and will need to be cut. Rubbed with Adams Brisket Rub and my special mods... This will end up as pulled pork. Yeah I know Pork Butt is the right cut, but this loin was cheap, cheap cheap... as in $.99 / lb cheap.... Part of it will end up actually bacon wrapped and served sliced, part of it will be turned to pulled pork... After the sauce, nobody will care that it is pork butt...
#2. 2 racks of spare ribs. Rubbed with Adams Brisket Rub and my special mods...
#3. 3 lbs chicken fajita breasts.
#4. 3 lbs of blackened seasoned chicken breasts.
#5. 4 packs of Johnsonville non pre cooked bratwursts. My wife hates brats, but they are something that helps ME with the low carb thing...
#6. 1 large Sams Club pack of Hebrew National beef hot dogs. I am not a huge fan, but my wife is... See the trade off there?

If it's not obvious enough, this will be a mix of smoking, and grilling between the Jumbo Joe Premium, and the Smokey Joe Silver.

I have an unboxing / assembly video of the Jumbo Joe Premium that I forgot to upload to Youtube last night. Unfortunately I have very little signal at work and can't use their network for Youtube.
I will upload and link it later in a separate post. I think you guys might enjoy seeing my impressions of this grill.

Something I did notice in the unboxing that concerns me, and I don't recall the item description being this way, was that the lower bowl does not have the one touch cleaning system.
The vents are almost identical to those of the Smokey Joe Silver. And VERY similar to the ones on the lid. So ash cleaning is more of a manual affair... Keeping air flow with ash in the pan going will take a touch more effort, but it is not unworkable. On the smokey joe I just use a dowel and kind of sweep and poke the ash through the holes and let it go. Once it is cooled off I simply dump the ash into a waste bag and throw it out... No harm, no foul. Just not as easy as I would have liked...

Anyway, I will be doing some video of the process, and results of the smoke / burn on this thing this weekend. Hope everyone enjoys!

 

[mcyork28]

Sounds like a good plan.

Hold on to that smokey joe. You can make turn it into a smoker like the WSM: https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248351

 

[Jrogers84]

Sounds like you have a plan. Pulled pork with a loin is going to be tough though. Itll more than likely dry out before it ever gets to a pulling temp. Take pics!

 

[dadsr4]

I cook on two daisy wheel kettles, no one touch system.
For cool ash clean out, I use an empty vodka bottle some kind person left by my mailbox.

and a bent screwdriver for keeping any clogged vent open while cooking.
A few bolts, washers, and nuts convert an extra grate into a hover grill

A couple of pairs of pliers are useful for grabbing the cooking grate if you need to pull it to deal with ashes.

 

[dbhost]

The Smokey Joe isn't going anywhere... I use it too much. And it is perfect for beach / camping trips...

Yeah, cleanout is a bit tougher with the daisy wheel design, but it isn't a deal breaker...

Good point about the loin.... Hmmm. Guess it will just be straight BBQ for that... No biggie...

 

[dbhost]

okay I just left Home Depot with a hinged grate and a new grill brush since my old one has taken a vacation on me somewhere.

I happened to find something interesting when I was there it's a tool hanger for the kettle that will allow me to hang my tongs my fork in my spatula along the kettle keeping them handy.

I am anxious to get back home and get the meat in the cooler so that I can get to smoking tomorrow. my wife is leery of doing any cooking right now because of our problems with refrigeration. Honestly I'd rather this stuff was cooked and then refrozen then just left Frozen

 

[mchar69]

Honestly I'd rather this stuff was cooked and then refrozen then just left Frozen

That's common sense. Why not?

 

[dbhost]

That's common sense. Why not?

Well for starters my wife has other ideas for what I should be doing with my time instead of BBQing right now... She is under a messed up impression that it will consume ALL of my time and energy for the foreseeable future...

 

[dbhost]

Okay, troubleshooting is done. No power to the fans, no power to the compressor. Open up the box with the control circuits and everything is more or less a crispy critter. Looks like the work of an electrical surge. The fridge stopped working the night of / immediately following a rather intense electrical storm, so if it is only the fridge I am doing okay...

We have the replacement on order, but of course the only refrigerators that are actually avaialbe for immediate pickkup or delivery are either the lowest of the low, or hte highest of the high. The price points the majority of buyers need, there's a delivery wait.... Looks like we will be living out of a deep freeze, a couple of large hunting coolers, and the mini fridge that usually stays under my desk at work until at least July 7th....

On The Q side of things, everything I put over last night is still frozen solid in the cooler. Not sure if it will be ready to Q tomorrow night. I might end up doing a week night BBQ just to get this done... I might have bratwurst, burgers, and hot dogs thawed enough to grill but that's about it...

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I did get some accessories for the new grill yesterday and installed them. The first is the hinged grate from the higher ned models. THere is a tremendous difference in quality between the stock grate and this hinged grate.... The stocker is, well... pitiful. The other item I added was one of those 4 hook tool hangers that hangs off the lower bowl. The hooks that actually hang it off the bowl itself were open WAY too wide and wouldn't really hold securely, so I used some quick clamps to encourage them into proper alighnment.... Really nice fit now. All my Q tools at the ready will be nice!

I was planning on installing a Char Broil thermometer that I have had for years NOS in the workshop and putting it in the lid just outside of where the hanger hook is, but alas, I couldn't figure out where in my shop I put the thing... I am going to need to grab another one to get the job done...

Lastly I grabbed a weber grate scrubber. Not a grill brush, but one of those black scrubby pad things. Grill brushes always bug me for some reason. Hoping this works out well... The grate on my Smokey Joe needs some cleanup...

 

[dbhost]

I just checked the ribs and the pork loin are still partially frozen I don't think it would be all that safe to try to start smoking them today. I have a couple of options not the least of which include me telecommuting so that I can start the smoking at lunch time and have dinner ready. Or I can start it after work and have something I can have ready for the following day's lunch dinner blah blah blah. I ordered a 2in thermostat from Amazon to install in the lid. I know they offer a 3 1/8 in thermostat as well simply felt that one was too large for the space I want to install this in because I want it as close as possible to the grate without touching the grate or the meat.

Something has indeed gone very wrong though the only one of my BBQ tools I can find right now is my stainless steel tongs. The fork spatula in my old grill brush appear to have grown feet and walked off. They were getting in rough shape and I think my wife may have tossed them. I can't say as I blame her it was time to get new ones so I guess back to Home Depot I go because they had a nice Weber set on the cheap.

 

[dadsr4]

Okay, troubleshooting is done. No power to the fans, no power to the compressor. Open up the box with the control circuits and everything is more or less a crispy critter. Looks like the work of an electrical surge. The fridge stopped working the night of / immediately following a rather intense electrical storm, so if it is only the fridge I am doing okay...

We have the replacement on order, but of course the only refrigerators that are actually avaialbe for immediate pickkup or delivery are either the lowest of the low, or hte highest of the high. The price points the majority of buyers need, there's a delivery wait.... Looks like we will be living out of a deep freeze, a couple of large hunting coolers, and the mini fridge that usually stays under my desk at work until at least July 7th....

On The Q side of things, everything I put over last night is still frozen solid in the cooler. Not sure if it will be ready to Q tomorrow night. I might end up doing a week night BBQ just to get this done... I might have bratwurst, burgers, and hot dogs thawed enough to grill but that's about it...

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I did get some accessories for the new grill yesterday and installed them. The first is the hinged grate from the higher ned models. THere is a tremendous difference in quality between the stock grate and this hinged grate.... The stocker is, well... pitiful. The other item I added was one of those 4 hook tool hangers that hangs off the lower bowl. The hooks that actually hang it off the bowl itself were open WAY too wide and wouldn't really hold securely, so I used some quick clamps to encourage them into proper alighnment.... Really nice fit now. All my Q tools at the ready will be nice!

I was planning on installing a Char Broil thermometer that I have had for years NOS in the workshop and putting it in the lid just outside of where the hanger hook is, but alas, I couldn't figure out where in my shop I put the thing... I am going to need to grab another one to get the job done...

Lastly I grabbed a weber grate scrubber. Not a grill brush, but one of those black scrubby pad things. Grill brushes always bug me for some reason. Hoping this works out well... The grate on my Smokey Joe needs some cleanup...

If you take the original grate, flip it upside down, and place it so the handles on the two grates are 90 degrees apart, you will have a hover grill for things like ribs and chicken pieces. Doubles your cooking area. Kind of like this.

 

[dbhost]

Will the lid still fit? that looks like a fairly good idea!

If you take the original grate, flip it upside down, and place it so the handles on the two grates are 90 degrees apart, you will have a hover grill for things like ribs and chicken pieces. Doubles your cooking area. Kind of like this.

 

[dbhost]

I can report a pretty good success with the burn last night. I cooked 2 full racks of baby backs, dry rubbed full smoke (no sauce, no wrap). Cooked 2 packs of brats, and attempted to grill up some burgers to boot but I had lost all my light by then and couldn't see them until it was far too late for the poor things...

I also managed 3lbs of Chicken Breasts for Fajitas and 1 pack of hot dogs on the Smokey Joe no problems... Life is good.

 

[dadsr4]

Will the lid still fit? that looks like a fairly good idea!

It's under the lid of the one in the stand.

Regular kettle, don't know if yours will fit. Take the extra one you have, flip it upside down and rotate it so the handles are at 90 degrees to one another. It will be stable with support at four points. See if the lid fits.