Lordkifar
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2015
- Location
- Montreal...
Last year, I bought a Napoleon Pro-22K kettle BBQ. It is Canadian made, built to high specs and had some pretty neat features (adjustable cooking grate height, cast iron grate with hinges for easy addition of charcoal, heat diffuser), which I thought would be great to have.
For me it was a toss-up between this and the Weber Premium but I got the Napoleon 100$ off the retail price near the end of the season so it was a no brainer to me. I told my wife I am putting away the Smoke Hollow 4 in 1 for the winter and would need a winter BBQ...of course winter came and went and I to be honest did not feel like BBQ'ing in one of the coldest winters since many years (temps were -20 to -40F from end of Dec to mid march)
Eventually the rotisserie bug bit and I started looking for a rotisserie to fit the Napoleon. The company doesn't make one so I needed an alternative!!! Here is a stock pic of what the Napoleon kettle looks like.
I searched for a weber rotisserie ring (since it would be compatible) on craigslist but were hard to come by, called weber but were not willing to sell me the ring only (I already had a rotisserie so didn't need theirs. I looked into buying the Weber kit new but was ~250 Canadian dollars. I considered going to a metal working shop but they wanted too much money for what it was worth.
So finally the epiphany came to me, well I can just drill into that stainless steel ring that is integrated in the grill....however I would always need to keep the brackets on or seal the holes from the mouting nuts and bolts when using the grill for smoking.
Just as I was about to do it, someone locally posted a for sale ad for the exact same BBQ with the cast iron grid, body and all minus the legs for 40$. Well Needless to say I welcomed the oppurtunity to have spare parts, have a brand new cast iron grate as a backup to the current one and finally decied to take that ring and make the rotisserie out of it.
Here is how the ring looks after installation of the brackets.
Had to bend the bracket as it was too long and did not allow the ring to sit properly.
I did a dry run and all seemed to have worked well. Now compared to the weber, the napoleon has this extra 4 inch stainless steel ring. Putting a second ring on it does raise it another 4 inches but I didn't find the extra distance from the heat detrimental.....in fact it allowed for a slower cook and heat control. I can always let my hinged lid partially close to contain more heat and increase the cook speed.
For me it was a toss-up between this and the Weber Premium but I got the Napoleon 100$ off the retail price near the end of the season so it was a no brainer to me. I told my wife I am putting away the Smoke Hollow 4 in 1 for the winter and would need a winter BBQ...of course winter came and went and I to be honest did not feel like BBQ'ing in one of the coldest winters since many years (temps were -20 to -40F from end of Dec to mid march)
Eventually the rotisserie bug bit and I started looking for a rotisserie to fit the Napoleon. The company doesn't make one so I needed an alternative!!! Here is a stock pic of what the Napoleon kettle looks like.
I searched for a weber rotisserie ring (since it would be compatible) on craigslist but were hard to come by, called weber but were not willing to sell me the ring only (I already had a rotisserie so didn't need theirs. I looked into buying the Weber kit new but was ~250 Canadian dollars. I considered going to a metal working shop but they wanted too much money for what it was worth.
So finally the epiphany came to me, well I can just drill into that stainless steel ring that is integrated in the grill....however I would always need to keep the brackets on or seal the holes from the mouting nuts and bolts when using the grill for smoking.
Just as I was about to do it, someone locally posted a for sale ad for the exact same BBQ with the cast iron grid, body and all minus the legs for 40$. Well Needless to say I welcomed the oppurtunity to have spare parts, have a brand new cast iron grate as a backup to the current one and finally decied to take that ring and make the rotisserie out of it.
Here is how the ring looks after installation of the brackets.
Had to bend the bracket as it was too long and did not allow the ring to sit properly.
I did a dry run and all seemed to have worked well. Now compared to the weber, the napoleon has this extra 4 inch stainless steel ring. Putting a second ring on it does raise it another 4 inches but I didn't find the extra distance from the heat detrimental.....in fact it allowed for a slower cook and heat control. I can always let my hinged lid partially close to contain more heat and increase the cook speed.
