$299 Char-Griller Kamado First Looks

Just stopped at Lowes on the way home from work, they had the Char-Griller and a Performer side by side. Honestly the way someone had put the demo model together really had me debating on just getting the Performer. I ended up with the Akorn.

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Got the grill, cover and Weber grate for 358.41. For those not wanting to pay frieght for shipping and don't have access to a truck, I got mine in the front seat of my two door Pontiac without too much issue, lucky I didn't make any left turns. :becky:

Won't have time to put it together till the weekend, gotta pick up some RTV and lump anyways. The guy I talked to at Lowes said they couldn't keep them in stock, outselling all of the other charcoal grills they offer.
 
Flat_Rate said:
Just stopped at Lowes on the way home from work, they had the Char-Griller and a Performer side by side. Honestly the way someone had put the demo model together really had me debating on just getting the Performer. I ended up with the Akorn.

2012-03-12_19-44-13_988.jpg


Got the grill, cover and Weber grate for 358.41. For those not wanting to pay frieght for shipping and don't have access to a truck, I got mine in the front seat of my two door Pontiac without too much issue, lucky I didn't make any left turns. :becky:

Won't have time to put it together till the weekend, gotta pick up some RTV and lump anyways. The guy I talked to at Lowes said they couldn't keep them in stock, outselling all of the other charcoal grills they offer.
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I think you will enjoy it.....I'm loving mine so far
 
Flat Rate: I know what you mean about how they are put together for display at Lowes. When I looked at the one closest to us it was assembled horribly! Then when I went to checkout the cashier told me if I wanted to pick it up tomorrow they had free assembly and asked me if I wanted them to assemble it :crazy: :doh: I politely told her NO I would rather put mine together myself lol

The only QC problem I had with mine when putting it together was the lid didn't line up perfectly with the bottom of the cooker however it only took about 1 minute to remedy that with a slight tweak to the hinge and now it is all good! Hope you like yours as much as I have enjoyed mine so far.
 
Funky D said:
Correct. The AMOUNT of time is what's a better indicator. If the coals were sucked into space, the fire would be out immediately. That not withstanding, if you close off the air and 60 minutes later the coals are out, that's pretty impressive, as they used up the air in the Acorn and then snuffed.

Small leaks will give those coals a very slow burn until they finally die out. I'm seeing 4 hours or so like JM. I'm not complaining, and I'll try to tweak it a bit with silicone, but heat management seems ok thus far. I just have to be careful not to let those coals get overfed, or it's 300 degrees, unless I just try to shut everything down. :(

Coals: :mad2: Me: :hand:
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So it is taking 4+ hours for your cooker to die out after you are done cooking? When you say it takes that long you are referring to how long it takes to kill the coals and not how long it takes to bring the grill temp down to ambient temperatures right.

After I performed the low and slow trial mine died out within 20 minutes. Even the one time I ran the temps up to 550-600 and shut it down it was out within 45 minutes however it did hold heat for awhile. I don't understand what the difference is. Next time I do a real nice medium heat for a decent amount of time I will record how long it takes the temps to come down.
 
JMSetzler said:
I'm using the dreaded Cowboy lump at the moment until the two bags I bought run out. I'll be switching to Royal Oak at that time.
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I really disliked the Cowboy lump that the guy gave me when I bought my egg from him, but now that I've learned to use it, it's been working great for me. I suppose it's what you're used to using, and then developing a level of confidence in it.
 
Got my Akorn all put together yesterday..can't wait to cook on it this week!


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Mine was assembled for free by Lowe's and no problems with assembly. They didn't have an official Char-griller Acorn cover so I got a generic one for &7.50 and it fits perfect.
 
rawtalent said:
Mine was assembled for free by Lowe's and no problems with assembly. They didn't have an official Char-griller Acorn cover so I got a generic one for &7.50 and it fits perfect.
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The display model they had at my Lowe's was put together like crap. I decided after reading other peoples comments in this post to just bring it home and put it together myself just to be safe. :becky:

$7.50 is a really good price for a cover. Let us know what cover it is, in case someone doesn't want to spend almost $30 on the Char-Griller one :)

Jay
 
Hmm... I work at Lowe's and a customer just returned a Kamado only because they couldn't put it together. I have a chance to buy it on "clearance" if the wife lets me get another grill. I'm gonna talk to a manager and see what kind of deal I can get. Should I go for it?
 
SheppsBBQ said:
Hmm... I work at Lowe's and a customer just returned a Kamado only because they couldn't put it together. I have a chance to buy it on "clearance" if the wife lets me get another grill. I'm gonna talk to a manager and see what kind of deal I can get. Should I go for it?
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yes, you should
 
SheppsBBQ said:
Hmm... I work at Lowe's and a customer just returned a Kamado only because they couldn't put it together. I have a chance to buy it on "clearance" if the wife lets me get another grill. I'm gonna talk to a manager and see what kind of deal I can get. Should I go for it?
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Buy it!:thumb:
 
SheppsBBQ said:
Hmm... I work at Lowe's and a customer just returned a Kamado only because they couldn't put it together. I have a chance to buy it on "clearance" if the wife lets me get another grill. I'm gonna talk to a manager and see what kind of deal I can get. Should I go for it?
Click to expand...

One word. DO IT! That is all.
 
PrinceofQ said:
$7.50 is a really good price for a cover. Let us know what cover it is, in case someone doesn't want to spend almost $30 on the Char-Griller one :)

Jay
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I got the Master Forge 30" round smoker cover for my Kamado Joe at Lowes. Fit's perfectly to the bottom of the grill and cost $6.50. It is pretty thin vinyl, so I don't think it would stand up well to a lot of On N Off in the winter.
 
PrinceofQ said:
$7.50 is a really good price for a cover. Let us know what cover it is, in case someone doesn't want to spend almost $30 on the Char-Griller one :)

Jay
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I don't have the bag the cover came in anymore. The recipt just says smoker/kettle cover. It was $7.97. The side shelves need to be folded down to use it.
 
I made 10 lbs of Hot links this morning and had a 4lb chunk of bone in butt left so I just had to try low and slow on the Acorn. Filled the firebox 1/3 full with lump and started 1/3 chimney and dumped it on top. The clay flower pot base from the WSM was bigger than I wanted so I took the bottom grate out of the wsm and put it in the Acorn with a foil wrapped pizza stone on top. Dome therm reads 215, probe therm at grate reads 226. Been riding there for an hour. Both vents are just barely open.
 
rawtalent said:
I made 10 lbs of Hot links this morning and had a 4lb chunk of bone in butt left so I just had to try low and slow on the Acorn. Filled the firebox 1/3 full with lump and started 1/3 chimney and dumped it on top. The clay flower pot base from the WSM was bigger than I wanted so I took the bottom grate out of the wsm and put it in the Acorn with a foil wrapped pizza stone on top. Dome therm reads 215, probe therm at grate reads 226. Been riding there for an hour. Both vents are just barely open.
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Sounds like it is going to be a great low and slow! Let us know how it performed when you are done as inquiring minds want to know things like this :-D
 
Out of the box, mine had several leaks on the adhesive-side of both gaskets plus the lower vent. I fired it up anyway just to see what the temps would do and about the lowest it could hold was 290ish with the bottom completely closed and the top vent just cracked at 1/2.
Next day I ran a continuous bead of Permatex Ultra Black around both gaskets and behind the lower vent. The numbered slots don't leak into the firebox like I initially thought but I excluded them anyway by running a bead of RTV around the vent opening before I screwed the vent back on.
Results..? It now holds 240ish with the lower vent at 1 and top vent just less than 1 and snuffs out quickly when I close it down after cooking. The loose fit of the sliding lower vent could likely be improved but I'm OK with the Akorn's performance for now. Building a fire in a qt-sized clay pot showed promise for even lower temps. Here's a few shots of the RTV and yes, it will likely be a messy PITA if I have to replace a gasket.
Ribeyes, chicken and breakfast fatty were tasty last week. Pizza this week if I can nip the corners off my square stone.
 

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