Comparing Kamados

If you get hot days in your summer consider the tech insulated Keg range, they shed little heat.
I have a BSKeg and have no problem smoking sub200f, and love the high heat grilling and roasting aspect.
I'm perfectly satisfied with it, if that helps.
Any of them would be great tho

I have the XL and M big green egg and I've owned a keg. My biggest complaints on the eggs are the gaskets are total garbage. Like, laughably awful. I HIGHLY recommend finding a replacement and planning on installing it BEFORE you use the egg. I followed all the recommendations and almost never cook over 550 and mine still fried in the first few months of use. When I asked my dealer why they were so bad he told me if big green egg upgraded the gaskets, they couldn't sell us the replacements. That REALLY pissed me off.

I upgraded the fire grates in both eggs to wire grates and am very happy with that upgrade. The XL didn't really need it (but it still works better with the wire grates) but the Medium definitely did need it. In fact, I'm not exactly sure how anyone does long low and slow sessions with the medium stock grate. Mine easily clogged up on long cooks over about 6 hours. WITH the high-Que, it works very well though.

I also found the Medium nest to be too short and a bit unstable so I had to build a table. I'm not very handy, but I'm happy with my set up now.

The keg, on the other hand, had a different set of issues. It was not air tight out of the box and required some silicone and lots of use (gunk) to get that way. Also, the paint was pretty bad and would come off relatively easy. It was porcelain coated underneath though so no rust issues. I personally really liked the simplicity of the swing grate on the kegs.

The eggs are easier to control the temps...particularly when you need to bring temps down. My keg averaged about 1 degree drop per minute so a 50-75 degree overshoot would take about an hour to come back down. My eggs will come down about that much in about 20 minutes. (This is is under normal conditions and in typical cooking ranges of 250-400.) I'm sure extreme temps would drop much quicker.

2 myths. No matter what you hear, ceramics get CRAZY STUPID HOT ON THE OUTSIDE. Kegs don't. At 400 degrees, my eggs will burn in certain spots and my keg was barely even warm. Also, even my smaller medium egg uses WAY more charcoal than my keg did. Considering an XL egg is roughly the same cooking space as a Weber, I do not find it to be efficient with charcoal at all. I don't think this would matter much to someone who uses their grills once or twice a week, but for those of us who grill every day it adds up. It really irritates me when I hear this repeated over and over again. Yes, it's more efficient than an offset (I assume...never had one) but if you want to save charcoal, get a keg instead of an egg.

Having said that, the XL is a great size. Huge briskets fit really well and there is lots of head room. I'm pretty sure I could get 7 large pork butts on it without having to get "creative."

Don't let anybody talk you out of a Primo because they say pizzas won't cook evenly. Eggs don't either.

The side tables on the kegs serve their purpose but feel cheap. The cast iron grate, however, was awesome if you like that kinda thing and I love the simplicity of the swing rack.

At $200, my Bubba keg was the best grill purchase I've ever made. HUGE BANG for the buck! but now that I've made all the mods (new gaskets, grill table, new fire grate, and the toys from ceramic grill store), my eggs are the best all around cookers I've ever had. They just work well...with the mods.

I liked all the kamados I've owned but I'm not sure I would buy them again at current prices. From a pure cooking standpoint they are great, but I feel like they cost about twice what they are actually worth. Contrary to what a lot of people think, I don't feel like I paid for a "luxury." I think I just overpaid. If I had bought in 10 years ago when the prices were a lot lower, I honestly think I'd have a different opinion.

In closing, they really need to fix those dang gaskets! lol. Hope this helps.

JS-TX said:

JM, what are you looking for in a BGE that you are not getting with the Akorn? As far as online support, I think this forum is one of the best if not the best one around, all kinds of pitmasters with all kinds of cookers to draw experience from... just my IMO though.

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The first thing I'm looking for is an air-tight cooker. The Akorn is not air tight but with some modifications it is close. Controlling the temperature in an air tight cooker is very easy. When the Akorn temp shoots up, its nearly impossible to bring it back down without actually snuffing out the fire. There are several other reasons I want a ceramic but they aren't related to shortcomings of the Akorn. I plan to keep the akorn as well.

Sounds like you are salesman and answered your own questions.

I'll stick with my 3 Large Big Green Eggs, the safe bet and PROVEN cooker.

Foxfire said:

Awesome feedback, thanks all! Given a kamado would be my fifth cooker by the time I'm likely to buy, I have the luxury of not needing to buy something that will "do it all". I want an insulated cooker that excels at pizza and baking over live fire, and let's face it, it's always fun to master (aka: "play") with a cool new way to cook. :thumb:

This weekend will be fun as I have a day all to myself and decided to spend it driving all over the bay area to see some floor models first hand. I suspect that after tax time I'll see how many nickels are left in the piggy bank and then either decide to spend for a "quality" model or go the other direction and grab a Char-Griller I can mod, learn and experiment on without breaking the bank. I really love the looks, style, and reputation of KJ, and would probably go that way if price were no object. Guess we'll see!

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In your area you shouldn't have to drive too far to find those floor models. If you head over to the KJ dealer in Santa Clara you're only a few blocks away from Eggs By The Bay (a Brethren Egg dealer). I believe you have a Primo dealer in S.J. and I'm sure a Lowes to see the Akorn & maybe Cypress.

I have cooked on the Kamado Joe BigJoe, and that divided firebox is MONEY for fuel consumption and direct/indirect options. We had no problems ramping it and bringing it back down. What a monster. I will be saving up for one of those as well. You know, because they need friends out there in the Meat Manger. Three Traegers, a UDS and the KJ need more buddies to play with.

The felt gasket on the Primo is junk too. One or two high temp pizza cooks and that thing is toast. Once you burn it real good it isn't that hard to scrape off though. I put a cotronics gasket on it and have not looked back.

If you plan on buying a Primo or a BGE, just know that you will be replacing the gasket. The cotronics is not expensive and it is easy to do.

Had our Primo for several years and would repurchase the same. The initial choice was easy as my wife does a lot of baking and this offered more overhead clearance and better shape for fitting in pans. For her it was a no-brainer. I regularly smoke at low temps (150*) and have done several pizzas (up to 700*). Never had any problems and the gasket is still intact. The standard racks and diffusion plates make it very easy to do indirect and direct at the same time! I do this a lot.

We have one BGE dealer in my local area. But there are a number of them within a few hours of drive. I called around and found the best price and then called my local dealer and he matched it. I'm don't know if that will work everywhere but I think it saved me about $100.00

If you're interested in the Egg but the price is an issue, see about getting an demo from an Eggfest... It will have been used once... at the Eggfest... and will be about $200 cheaper than it would be otherwise. You could even sign up to cook and then your egg would be brand new! Did one Eggfest and it was a blast. Probably have to wait until next season, though.

You're in a win-win situation. Enjoy your new cooker.

Whatever you get, I'd suggest this...[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvbkCKgWtE"]Pot Lifter Lifting Straps Product News Report - YouTube[/ame]
You might use it only once or twice but it will be worth it.

In my search, I looked at everything out there a couple years ago, and went with the BGE-XL. I wanted something with the footprint of the XL, and while I thought the KJ was an excellent cooker, they didn't have the Big Joe back then.

I really liked the Primo XL, but I got a better price on the BGE XL. From a cooker standpoint, I would have been happy with the Primo as well. Also at the time, local dealer support was much greater for BGE. Whether or not that's changed locally, I really don't know.

I did have to replace my gasket on the XL pretty soon after I got it. I have the Rutland mod now, and have had no problems with it in the last year and half since I installed it.

As pricey as the BGE is, I've never regretted it. That said, with the arrival of the Big Joe, I'm not so sure I wouldn't go that route today if I had a do over. I really like the extra height in the Big Joe lid over the XL lid.

Any of those 3(primo, BGE, KJ) would do very well as cookers. Kinda narrows it down to price/local dealer support imo.

With all of the gasket talk, I have had my KJ over 600 SEVERAL times, I'm guessing at least 20-25 for pizzas, steaks, cleaning, etc. and my gasket is still in great shape.

The guys that started KJ were two "egg-heads" that wanted to make a produced that they felt improved on BGE's short comings and cost less. I think they did a great job achieving that goal. They definitely nailed the gasket.

My wife gets tired of me saying how much I like that cooker. I would have really liked a BigJoe, but the classic does great for us.

I get this question a lot. Best answer I can offer is divide the cookers into two groups: ceramic kamados and steel kamados. I don't think it's fair to compare ceramic and steel kamados together as each has a different set of maintenance demands.

Then for each group, compare initial cost, warranty and dealer support, as most of these cookers are going to need some type of repair over their life time. If it's cheap going in, chances are it going to require more warranty or repairs during ownership. If the dealer, distributor or home office is not local, then you need to consider the hassle and added cost to ship or freight repair parts. It's expensive to ship or freight ceramics.

Chances are parts exposed to weather are going to have the shortest warranty, thus the added burden to maintain. So, a cheap kamado that includes a cart may not be so cheap five years from now when the welds on the cart have rusted through.

Also, with ceramic kamados, if you not comfortable with the quality of the ceramics, don't let it slide. Good chance, you'll be replacing ceramic parts. The ceramics may be covered under warranty but the cost to ship replacement parts may surprise you.

All the kamado style cookers need some type of honey-do repairs during ownership. Before a purchase, one should weigh initial cost to buy, additional cost during ownership to maintain, how handy you are to do repairs and how available replacement parts are. Once you get these answers, it not hard to find a viable kamado by surfing the forums, especially this forum.

Thanks to all for your support of ceramic grill store, it's greatly appreciated.

tom

Don't know about the KJ but my Egg dealer told me that if the firebox or fire ring cracked, he would replace it from stock... No shipping charge. Don't hear much about fireboxes cracking now that they cut an expansion groove in the firebox at the factory.

I have a Vision Classic grill from Costco and am quite happy with it. I took a few cooks to learn how to best control the temps, but since then I've been able to go overnight with no adjustments. Last weekend, I smoked some home made sausage at 205f for 3 hours wtih no problem. What sold me on it was what I got for the money. It included the side tables, two levels of grill space, and a heavy duty cover. The only change I've made to it was to add a KJ heat deflector.