“Downsize” to Kamado, or will I regret it?

[Whisky]

I'm also in the camp of no longer liking the flavor off my XL BGE when indirect smoking meats. Dirty!

Additionally, you can also put me in the camp of the cool factor wearing off. Have used mine once in the last year. Gas, pellet and little charcoal WGA cover all my bases currently.

 

[Bob C Cue]

I don’t buy expensive cars. I don’t chase women. I don’t golf. So cookers, beer, home audio/video, and fishing equipment are my vices. :razz:

I like to golf, but like you I don't need an expensive car to have women chase me!

 

[LloydQ]

I would get rid of the gasser before I would let the 26" go.

 

[ther00k]

If you're going to go the Kamado route I would take a hard look at the Weber Summit. People usually view it as a kettle because of terrible marketing from Weber. To me its the best of both worlds. The allure of a kamado is that it holds temps forever with little intervention. The same goes for the Summit Charcoal. The benefits of the weber over the other kamados is 1, its not make of ceramic so its not fragile. 2, I can change temps like a breeze if I choose to do so. If you over shoot the temp on a ceramic kamado good luck getting the temp down to where you want it. With the Weber, I can go from 300 to 225 and back up if I need to. I can seer and grill just like I can on a normal weber kettle as well. I sold my Primo after 10 years of ownership and bought the Summit. The Primo is really good dont get me wrong but in my opinion the Weber is a better buy.

 

[sudsandswine]

I'm also in the camp of no longer liking the flavor off my XL BGE when indirect smoking meats. Dirty!

I used to think the same thing, but I found that using wood chips not wood chunks, and cooking at higher temps like 275*, alleviated much of that issue.

 

[STLBBQer]

add bourbon to that list and we could be twins

Oh I have a bourbon collection too! Add that!

 

[sudsandswine]

If you're going to go the Kamado route I would take a hard look at the Weber Summit. People usually view it as a kettle because of terrible marketing from Weber. To me its the best of both worlds. The allure of a kamado is that it holds temps forever with little intervention. The same goes for the Summit Charcoal. The benefits of the weber over the other kamados is 1, its not make of ceramic so its not fragile. 2, I can change temps like a breeze if I choose to do so. If you over shoot the temp on a ceramic kamado good luck getting the temp down to where you want it. With the Weber, I can go from 300 to 225 and back up if I need to. I can seer and grill just like I can on a normal weber kettle as well. I sold my Primo after 10 years of ownership and bought the Summit. The Primo is really good dont get me wrong but in my opinion the Weber is a better buy.

I want the design of the WSC with the shape of the Primo Oval XL. A boy can dream :razz:

 

[ECB]

Well, I can tell you this about my experience. I was a big time Kamado enthusiast for years. Had 4 KJ’s in my backyard. Once I tasted pellet, then sticks I lost interest in kamados. To me, they produce a stale campfire like flavor profile. Just not enough air movement which IMO leads to a dirty taste. Didn’t realize that until trying other cookers. And I tried all the tips/tricks to clean up the flavor. Given the choice, I’d take your 26” kettle with a SnS any day over a kamado. Easier to grill on and the flavor profile much cleaner. And smoking is simple with the XL SnS.

I honestly think you’ll be very hard pressed to beat your pellet grill, gasser and 26 kettle. They make a dynamic team

I agree with this

 

[Hoss]

#2,6,4 and 1,in that order.If she is still not happy,then wife would be #5.

 

[Big George's BBQ]

I love my Large BGE I do 2 9-10 lb Boston Butts and they come out great It holds Temps really nice I find it very versatile

 

[Cookb4]

I have the same experience as many others in this thread. When I first got my Kamado I loved it, but as time went on I began to focus more on what it couldn’t do and eventually sold it. After trying out a few different smokers over the years I settled ona Weber 26 and a Hunsaker. I am very happy with this combo. I when it comes to smokers/grills it is all about finding what works best for you. I say go for it, if you end up not liking it, sell the kamado and try something different.

 

[Cueford T. Justice]

So I’m in Raleigh close to you and my deck faces north too and my egg will develop mold if I go long between cooks, which is rare but it happens. I’ve had my egg for 20 years and I love it but it has strengths and weaknesses. It performs wonderfully with high heat for searing steaks, grilling burgers, making smash burgers and I think I favor it for this because it is clean burning when you open it up. As someone else said, I now find it imparts a heavy stale taste if I choke it down for very low heat smoking. I noticed it after I bought the WSM and smoked salmon. Being steel you can build a small fire in the WSM and give it more oxygen yet run a low temp. With the egg, you have to really choke it down to keep it low because it’s a big ceramic insulator. I prefer the taste on the WSM for smoking to the egg. Once I realized this I decided to move all the way to a stick burner so I’m waiting for a standard Shirley patio to try to lift my smoking game. For me, I use the egg more for grilling than I do the Weber kettle. Egg gets hot quicker and uses less charcoal. I had the kettle for a beach house but once we sold that and I brought it home I rarely use the kettle unless I need more surface area. Everyone has different preferences— just sharing my experience. Good luck!

 

[bowhnter]

I too downsized several years ago, sold my WSM, UDS, and Weber grills, for a Primo XL. I loved it for a good long time. But as others have mentioned, it is not the 1 size fits all that I thought it would be.
I have added back a Weber 22, pizza oven, and Blackstone. And I really want a WSM (22) again.
I just don’t like grilling on the primo much. I use it for butts and brisket only, but would like other options.

 

[16Adams]

I too downsized several years ago, sold my WSM, UDS, and Weber grills, for a Primo XL. I loved it for a good long time. But as others have mentioned, it is not the 1 size fits all that I thought it would be.
I have added back a Weber 22, pizza oven, and Blackstone. And I really want a WSM (22) again.
I just don’t like grilling on the primo much. I use it for butts and brisket only, but would like other options.

I remove everything and place the elevated grate over the coals. You can control grate height from flames easily. Works great 2-3 large steaks 4/6 hamburgers. Need to reverse sear? Leave a regular grate in place then drop down direct.

 

[STLBBQer]

#2,6,4 and 1,in that order.If she is still not happy,then wife would be #5.

I spit my beer reading this last night. My wife goes, “what are you reading?”

“Uhhh...nothing.” :razz:

In all seriousness, she’d be the last to go...she enables my grill addiction throughly.

 

[ragsman]

I have recently downsized as well. I now have a weber 26" kettle with a SNS and vortex for grilling/smoking, and plan to modify it more (already have a lid hinge, plan to build a table, get elevated racks, and maybe add a bbqguru for longer smokes). My second setup is a camp chef Pro 90X converted to natural gas with pizza oven, griddle, and grill box. The accessory I'm not using is easily stored in a nice storage bag. That also gives me outdoor gas burners for anything else I might need them for. I'm very happy with the setup so far.

 

[CivilTrojan]

I have recently downsized as well. I now have a weber 26" kettle with a SNS and vortex for grilling/smoking, and plan to modify it more (already have a lid hinge, plan to build a table, get elevated racks, and maybe add a bbqguru for longer smokes). My second setup is a camp chef Pro 90X converted to natural gas with pizza oven, griddle, and grill box. The accessory I'm not using is easily stored in a nice storage bag. That also gives me outdoor gas burners for anything else I might need them for. I'm very happy with the setup so far.

I like the camp chef system you mention, it’s very versatile, I haven’t used all of the features but it they good reviews.

Another very versatile cooker I’ve seen is the Bar-be-cube made by American Barbecue Systems. It could replace all of your charcoal cookers.

 

[lastmajordude]

Sold my egg, went back to a weber......never looked back......

 

[Big Andy]

If you like the flavor from the PBC, you will regret selling it. I have two good friends that both have BGE. They bragged about them and how good the food was. I had them over for pulled pork that I cooked on my PBC. One ate so much that I thought he would get sick. I didn't see the other for awhile so I went outside and he was looking at my barrel. He said, "did you cook that on this?" I said yep. He started studying it. He's a farmer and can build about anything. He said I think I could build one of these. I said for $300 you can have one delivered and start cooking. He just looked at me and shook his head.

 

[onemanlan]

Sold my egg, went back to a weber......never looked back......

I went from WSM 14 to Kamado Big Joe. Loved every minute with the Kamado up until I didn't. Decided I was missing that smoke flavor. Bought an OK Joe Bronco for smoking stuff. Nearly abandoned the KJ with exception of grilling projects. A tree took those grills from me. I bought a Weber 22 Premium soon after just to have something cheap to grill on while I figured out my next moves. Convinced myself to keep the Weber, which I had grown to like a lot, and get a fancier smoker instead of going for the Kamado Big Joe 3 to do it all. I'm happy as a clam. Certainly more so with the Weber than I expected to be. I keep saying I'm going to get a 3rd grill, but its hard to do when the Weber does well enough.

Kamado accessories are pretty pricy & limited by maker. Weber accessory market is wide open & pretty free flowing. Lots of choices.

The Kamado, while a great grill, is a jack of all trades. It does something well better than others. Smoking was hit or miss IMO. I had really good goes along with some bad. Maintenance was a bit of a pain as is moving them around. In an ideal world we'd have more metal-walled Kamado offerings, but for some reason they're pretty limited.