no smoke in my big joe

Ron is right. You shouldn't see a lot of smoke even on your stick burner except when you add a stick.

You're going to have a great time with your new Kamado Joe. They burn very efficiently, very little airflow needed to maintain temps. Have fun this weekend & don't hesitate to ping us if you have questions or concerns.

Coming from a stick burner you may find the smoke ring on the kamado to be underwhelming or non-existent sometimes if using lump charcoal. Thats just the product of not burning much fuel. Now that is just cosmetic but it is definitely something i noticed with my KJ. Beyond that the plus side is you'll use so little fuel it is astonishing. I've cooked a brisket for 16 hours and shut it down. Came back the next stay knocked off the ashes and had plenty of charcoal left for a high-ish heat grilling session. I now have both a Lang 48 and a KJ and i really like that combo of offset and kamado.

Also just a tip but the best method to light my KJ ive found is a cheap harbor freight heat gun. That thing gets the lump fired up within minutes.