SnS Grills Patented Slow ‘N Sear® Deluxe Insert - Stainless Steel Charcoal Basket with Removeable Water Reservoir for Low ‘N Slow Smoking & Charcoal Grilling on Weber & Other Kettle Grills - 22 in

After only 5 uses or so, I can confidently say that the Slow 'N Sear is one of my favorite accessories for the Weber Kettle. It makes it super easy to use the Weber kettle as a smoker, and it can put out really tasty brisket, smoked chicken thighs, smoked wings, and really anything else you can think of smoking.Before having a SnS, I would use the snake method with charcoal briquettes to smoke meat at a relatively steady temperature (anywhere between 225 F to 300 F) for extended periods of time. Look up the snake method if you are not familiar with it, because there are plenty folks online who have explained it really well and with pictures and videos. The primary downside with the snake method is the setup time. It requires extra time and effort to set up the 2x2 or 3x2 snake of briquettes prior to cook. A secondary downside is that it is somewhat difficult and finicky to add to the snake in the case of longer cooks that require extra fuel.With the Slow 'N Sear, both of those downsides are eliminated, and the temperature control is maintained. To start the cook, I can simply dump charcoal briquettes (or even lump charcoal, which doesn't work with the snake method) willy nilly into the SnS. I don't have to carefully place and stack charcoal briquettes like I do with the snake method, thus drastically reducing the setup time and effort. I then light the charcoal at one end using a tumbleweed starter or Weber wax lighter cube. A full tray of charcoal lasts 8 hours easily, and probably lasts closer to 10 to 12 hours. If I am smoking a larger cut of meat that requires more time, I simply flip up the side of the grill grate (I have a the Weber hinged grate) and dump more charcoal into the SnS. This takes only 1-2 minutes.Regarding temperature control, I have found that temps can be held very steady (in a 15F or 20F range) with the SnS and with very slight adjustments to the bottom and top vents of the Weber kettle. If I am doing a cook where I want to smoke at a higher temp such as 275-285F to speed up the process, then I open up the vents a little more. If I am doing a cook where I want to smoke at a lower temp such as 225F and for a longer time, I close the vents a little more.The last thing worth mentioning is that the SnS includes a removable water pan that slots right into the overall SnS charcoal tray. This saves me the hassle of having a separate water tray set up in the Weber kettle. I recommend always having some hot water in that tray while using the SnS; this means that you will very likely have to refill it during longer cooks, as the water boils off and evaporates. (It is really easy to refill. Just pour in more hot water.) The water helps to maintain higher humidity in the kettle chamber during the cook, thereby reducing the chances of drying out the meat. Also, water has high heat capacity, meaning it can absorb a lot of heat before its temperature rises. This helps prevent the stainless steel sidewalls of the SnS from absorbing too much heat from the lit charcoal and then deforming. Also due to water's high heat capacity, I suggest pouring hot or boiling water into the water tray when starting a cook or when refilling during a cook. If you use cold water, a lot of the thermal energy from the charcoal will ":be wasted" since it would go towards heating up the water (because of water's high heat capacity). Instead, if you heat up the water first, say using an electric kettle or on a gas stove, then when that hot water is added to the water tray, the kettle's internal temp won't drop or fluctuate as much because the heat from the charcoal can continue being used to maintain the kettle's internal temp rather than to heat up the water.I lied--one more thing is worth mentioning. Since the SnS sits off to one side of the kettle, it allows for two zone cooking. You can sear meats at high temps in the area of the grill grates that are directly above the SnS, since all of the charcoal in the tray concentrates its heat directly upwards. At the same time, you can smoke meats at lower temps in the area of the grill grates that is away from the SnS, allowing for indirect cooking. The Slow N' Sear is definitely one of the more versatile accessories that you can add to your Weber kettle, and it is well worth the investment.From the length and detail of this review, you can probably tell that I am really happy with my SnS. I would highly recommend it as an upgrade to anybody using a Weber kettle to smoke meats.

Awesome productTurned my Weber kettle into a big time smokerEasy to control the temperature kept at 225 no problem charcoal lasted 8 plus hours before I needed to add more to finish my brisket that smoked fir 14 hours

Great item. Heavy

I rarely give 5 star reviews, but the support staff at SnS was awesome, answering my questions about burn time.Was told about 5 hours with kingsford blue. first cook was dino ribs. 7 hour cook only had to add 5 briquettes.Was a little worried about the size in my 22" weber.good build and stout.

Amazon tells me I bought this back in 2016 - over eight years ago. Wow! I remember buying this as a stop-gap to tide us over while trying to decide between several models of "real" smokers (and figure out where to store a smoker when not in use). Grilling/smoking season came and went and I had used the Slow 'n Sear in my Weber grill with pretty good results a few times. No sense in buying a smoker in the winter; I put off the decision on a real smoker until the following year.After another season or two, I still hadn't figured out a good smoker storage solution, and eventually realized that - for our family of two (with occasional guests over for dinner) - the Slow 'N Sear was really all we needed! It gave good-to-great results, fit nicely in my Weber grill, was easy to store. It checked all the boxes. I've used it to smoke countless chickens (whole and pieces), ribs, pork butts/hams, beef briskets, and I've used it almost every Thanksgiving to smoke our (usually whole) turkey.One drawback of the Slow 'N Sear is it can sometimes be very finicky maintaining a steady temperature over more than 4 hours. While I actually like being "hands-on" with a smoker, a long-smoke can eat up a lot of a day. I confess I'm starting to become a little envious of my neighbor with a newer automatic smoker that maintains a steady temperature automatically for 8-12 hours stretches. That said, I have a LOT of various flavors of wood chunks I've collected over the years, and I can't see leaving those behind to buy bags of pellets. Maybe once all the wood chunks are gone (which may take 10+ years) I'll revisit the idea of getting an automatic smoker.Right now, I'm getting ready to do a 13+ lb. beef brisket on my Weber with the Slow 'N Sear!