$299 Char-Griller Kamado First Looks

Congrats, but things look a little off. Body should be rotated 1/3 to the left, top vent turned 180.

Sorry, my OCD showing through. Nice cooker! :thumb:

While obviously a good value, my concern is that the inner "firebox" does not look sturdy enough to survive a few years of 700 degree temp cooking. I think corrosion and possibly rust may creep in from use. Just my two cents.

ajmcedar said:

Congrats, but things look a little off. Body should be rotated 1/3 to the left, top vent turned 180.

Sorry, my OCD showing through. Nice cooker! :thumb:

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True !! The Body needs to be repositioned, you'll have a difficult time moving it!

Yep, it came assembled from Kroger.
I think I would have liked the lowes model a little better, but this was the only one my wife could find.
It will be pretty easy to fix, but I'll wait to the weekend.

A few years at 700 degrees. Who the heck cooks at 700 degrees on a regular basis. Man if you don't like the grill just say so, don't go making up scenarios that don't exist...... And btw I love my Akorn and my UDS and I am not worried about prolonged cooking at 700 degrees.

Mine arived from lowes, assembled (not requested but free) yesterday. I cleaned and seasoned the grate and fired it up. I left the vents fully open and got distracted by the family for about 30 minutes. Returned to the grill and the thermometer was maxed out at past 700. I closed the vents on the inferno and the coals died out quickly! Temps just kept falling throughout the evening and that was it. Cooked a beer can chicken today at 350-400 for 1.25 hours and it came out great. Closed the vents after the cook and the coals went out quickly. I am new to this but am very impressed.

Pulled my dome thermometer & checked against instant read thermometer in boiling water, it's right on up to 210F should be accurate enough for smoking.

Reading these reviews have me tempted, I know I saw one of these in a Lowes just a few weeks ago. I currently own a Bubba Keg that I got cheap during the Home Depot fire sale a few years ago. After using it for a few years I would not even bat an eye at paying a whole lot more for it now, it is my favorite thing in the world to cook on.

I know I really don't need it, I am still tempted to get one anyways, I just don't know where I am going to put it. To those on the fence, these kamado style cookers will amaze you. I was unsure at first as well now I basically give a cooking course anywhere I go with it preaching the greatness of it.

By the way on the pizza, not sure if you can do this on this or not, but on the Keg, I kick the heat up to 650-750 area with no diffuser. I put the cast iron grate down to the lower level (not sure if this one has 2 levels) and I put a pizza stone on that metal rack you use as a second layer. The metal racks holds it up just fine ad it makes it easy to slide the pizza out on the stone, a typical pizza is done in 2-4 minutes for me I watch it through the vents on the top. I make my own dough and stretch it thin. I got a new Pizza peel for Xmas that has made the whole process even better. The pizzas on these things our second to none, the crust is just hard to describe.

I've been debating buying a BGE, but I couldn't find a way to justify the expense to my wife. I think I just found my compromise...

Lowe's here I come!

Now I just had to go and read this thread.........(what was I thinking).

I have a used up Arkla gas grill (16 yrs old) and a cheap Stok charcoal grill tower, and a UDS that I just built. Need to pitch the gas grill. Maybe I should sell the STok charcoal tower and get one of these......hmmm. I was about to spend $800+ on a CS electric smoker......and I saved all that money by building an UDS.......so that's worth something right? <smile> Biggest reason I would like one of these is to sear steaks. I've never been able to get the Stok hot enough to sear a steak so the outside is done and the inside still medium-rare.

Since I'm a Razorback fan (though an embarrased one at the moment with the Petrino/Harley incident), I really like the red version from Menards. Too bad they don't have a Menards around NW AR........

A quick question, what is the diameter of the main cooking grill, 22"?

Too bad they don't have a Menards around NW AR

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I think there's a Menards in Wichita, Kansas, but I guess that's still a pretty good jaunt.

I stopped by Lowes at lunch......and surprisingly, they have the Char Grill Komodo Acorn in stock. Looked nice. The only thing I didn't like (at least on the display) is all the play the sliding portion of the air inlet has. It slides back and forth on one axis.......but it had more play than desired in the other two axis (in and out, up and down). Of course, this likely varies by individual units so this may not be an issue on other units. I'm sure this could be remedied with some thin gasket material.

Also, on the lid seal ther was a section about 2" wide in the back of the unit that didn't have the covering (the inside of the gasket was exposed which looked a little like rubber/silicon but I didn't feel of it). Is this normal? Impressive for the price point.

Asked to repost here.
Seasoned my chargriller kamodo , same as lowes Akorn.
Thermometer right on in boiling water.
Seasoned last nite , almost no leaks.
Only parts likely to " burn out" are charcoal grate & charcoal insert which should both be replacement parts.
Untill I find out cost of insert made a charcoal basket out of expanded metal I had laying around.
I used a grate & pizza pan I had around the house as a heat shield. ( thanks JM)
First cook 1 rack of St. Louis ribs . Mainly a cheap test cook.
I'll report later.

Anyone try a perforated pizza pan for a heat diffuser?

I am in the game. Bought one last week. Love it so far. No smoking done on it yet. Hope to do it this weekend. Will report with pictures hopefully. I own a WSM now and a Performer. Looking for something that can conserve coal better since I cook on grill about 5-6 times a week. Charcoal was getting expensive. Trying out Royal Oak Lump now. We will see how it does. So far I have cooked Fillets, Pork Chops, and Boneless Chicken Breast and have only used about 1/4 of the bag.

cliftonrouse said:

I am in the game. Bought one last week. Love it so far. No smoking done on it yet. Hope to do it this weekend. Will report with pictures hopefully. I own a WSM now and a Performer. Looking for something that can conserve coal better since I cook on grill about 5-6 times a week. Charcoal was getting expensive. Trying out Royal Oak Lump now. We will see how it does. So far I have cooked Fillets, Pork Chops, and Boneless Chicken Breast and have only used about 1/4 of the bag.

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You'll like what a Fuel Mizer this thing is ! :thumb:

Most kamodo's use lump because of ash problems, small ash area, ash difficult to remove, ash clogs charcoal grate.
This cooker has a large ash pan, ash is easy to empty, the grate allows ash to fall out easily.
Since I have over 300 lbs royal oah briquittes in garage I used briquittes for 3 hour seasoning burn.
The smoke smelled "good" & the ash pan was minimally filled , First cook with briquittes worked great , after 8 hours cooking ash pan only 1/4 full.
Temps easy to manage.
Lumps probably the way to go for high heat ,but for smoking briquittes work fine.

LostArrow said:

Most kamodo's use lump because of ash problems, small ash area, ash difficult to remove, ash clogs charcoal grate.
This cooker has a large ash pan, ash is easy to empty, the grate allows ash to fall out easily.
Since I have over 300 lbs royal oah briquittes in garage I used briquittes for 3 hour seasoning burn.
The smoke smelled "good" & the ash pan was minimally filled , First cook with briquittes worked great , after 8 hours cooking ash pan only 1/4 full.
Temps easy to manage.
Lumps probably the way to go for high heat ,but for smoking briquittes work fine.

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That is good information, thanks.