I was looking for a smaller charcoal grill and this is perfect. I have had many Webers over the years and was very glad to see the samehigh quality workmanship as i remembered. I also got the Onlyfire 18.5 inch rotisserie and both work great. I had read reviewswhere they had problems fitting the grill bottom, i experienced no such problems. I will say it doesnot give you the same seal as a smoker, but then it is not a smoker. I have smoked chickens on the rotisserie as well as a chuck roast, pork butt, shoulder, briskets...the smoke flavor awesome. If the loss of smoke where the grill bottom fits worries stuff some tin foil in. I saw as much smoke escaping where the one piece spit went through as from the grill bottom fit. The grill motor is so quiet i had to watch the spit turning to be sure it was on. I highly recommend this if you are looking for a smaller chRcoal grill.

I wanted a bigger cooking surface but still regain portability and the SJJ is perfect, there was a chip in the coating inside the kettle by one of the leg fastening holes but nothing i would go thru the trouble of sending it back for, overall its a perfect Grill for home or camping and the locking lid is a big plus

First of all let me say I am a weber fan. I have the old Q200 gas grill which i just upgraded with a new regulator. I was having a party and wanted some more grilling space. I use coal on my PBC so I wanted a charcoal grill. The first time I used it, I noticed all of the coals were not burning. And the 2nd time also. Maybe I got some bad coals.

That said...with a full load of coals you can cook anything for about an hour. It was pretty easy to put together. That said...clean up is a hassle..ashes everywhere. I find myself using my gasser most of the time.

But this is a quality little grill.

Well made and the perfect size! You can fit a whole rack of babyback ribs on this. It's well constructed and easy to assemble. Can't go wrong (unless you're completely useless and can't assemble things without hurting yourself or losing self locking washers). I originally thought about the smaller version but am glad I went with this one.

I've used the regular Smokey Joe as my standard camping/travel grill for years and I love it. However, now that I've used this one, I can never go back. We almost always do a Tri-tip or roast of some kind when we go camping and I could just baaaaarely fit it in there. Trying to cook over indirect heat (so having enough room where your roast isn't directly over the coals) was nearly impossible and required a lot of fiddling around with the coals to get it to work. It also was tricky to get it to cook evenly as the inside of the lid would invariably touch the top of the roast in a couple places.

I realize most people use the Smokey Joes for a couple of hamburgers or some dogs (and for that, they work perfectly) but I'm rather ambitious when it comes to my camping cuisine. This grill gives you substantially more space, closer to what you get on the full 22.5" grill , yet feels nearly as compact as its smaller predecessor.

As a very nice bonus, the metal bar you see in the picture that goes over the whole grill serves 2 purposes to great effect: it holds the lid off to the side for you so you don't have to find somewhere safe to put a large 500 degree piece of metal when you need to rotate or retrieve your food (so for most people who are using this while traveling, that can be an issue) and it also swivels up to snap in place over the lid's handle, which holds it on securely for transport.

The build quality is up to the usual high standard Weber is known for.

So to sum up, if you want a nice, convenient portable charcoal grill that's 90% as good as the full sized Weber one has in their backyard, you need look no further. If all you want is to be able to cook 3 or 4 burger patties though, you'll do just fine with the standard Smokey Joe.

Highly recommended!