Anyone heard or own a Kamado Joe?

[snoqualmiesmoker]

I don't know what they are smoking. I stopped by the local "Joe" dealer, and the thing is a far cry from an egg. There is at least 1/2 an inch or more between the wall and the fire-ring/firebox. There is no screen on the intake door. The hinge and bands are the same, no better. The metal top is the same, except they have put gasket material at the base of the lids chimney probably for either fit or to help shut off the cooker. Weird.
I forgot to look at the gasket, but it was in the same spot as the eggs, which sucks.
The stand is pretty weak. Not that the egg is much better, but the Joes uses skinny round tube and smaller casters.
The grate is stainless, and nice.
There was no plate setter/pizza stone, etc but I am sure the egg stuff fits.

To say the cooker is that much better than the egg is laughable. Its the ford vs. chevy. It was sitting next to the Primo, which is massive compared to the egg/joe, and has a recessed gasket.
That gap between the walls and the firering is troublesome, though.
Oh, I compete on my egg as well, and am not a egg evangelist. It has flaws. But I am sold on ceramic. The only thing I would sell my Egg for is for a Primo as it fits the cuts of meat better. I am sure the Joe makes a fine cooker. Just wanted to post my first hand opinion.

 

[Smokin Butts]

I will be cooking on these in a few weeks if anyone of you might want to hit the trail and give me a run for your money. Happy Smokin.

 

[ropinfires]

Kamado Joe

I have a kamado Joe and is the best cooker/grill/smoker you can cook just about anything on this: from steaks to stir fry and even bake cookies. I have had the same size green egg. The joe is 1000 times better then the green egg No you can not get it any bigger yet. But stay tuned they have more cool joes coming I have herd. This is a very great investment if you love to cook great food.

 

[thillin]

I have a kamado Joe and is the best cooker/grill/smoker you can cook just about anything on this: from steaks to stir fry and even bake cookies. I have had the same size green egg. The joe is 1000 times better then the green egg No you can not get it any bigger yet. But stay tuned they have more cool joes coming I have herd. This is a very great investment if you love to cook great food.

What makes it 1000 times better than a BGE?

 

[Abelman]

The joe is 1000 times better then the green egg

As was asked before, please explain

 

[thillin]

No one ever answers me on these threads....

 

[HHpepper]

it appears to be another first time poster praising it. None of them have said WHY it is so much better. Tell ya what, send me one and I will do a side by side comparison and cook. Then I will report to the board my findings.

There, put your smoker where your mouth is.

As far as the praise postings I call shenanigans.

 

[ropinfires]

Red cooker

As was asked before, please explain

The kamado Joe is better for a lot of reasons.
It has a much better control in the tempertor. It is a much tighter cooker than the bge. You do not have that sudden burst in heat like you do with the egg. It has a 304 ss grill and rack and plate setter for not worpping like my egg did. The cart is a lot more stable than my egg and it came with it. The egg didn't it was all extra $. I spent $899 retail on the Joe and I have over $1,300 in the egg for the same set up. It sounds crazy but I can smoke 2 babyback slabs in bout 2hours on the Joe and they are perfect @ 230'. The egg it always took 4-5 hours if the temp would stay the same 230'. With the pizza stone those papa murphys pizzas are great better the the brick oven pizza parlors. The pork loins and corn are Always very tender and moist because you can sear meat on the joe then it cools to grill temp with no hassel. My wife like to bake cookies and cornbread on it and browines. I never could do thus on the egg with out burning them. With the plate setter you can make the greatest roast and pataoes ever or peach cobbler. I even use the Joe to stir fry with my wok it is really easy because the egg always got to hot and burned the sause. The Joe is much more controled for this. Me and my buddie can load it in the back of my truck and take to the tail gate. You can fold down the bamboo sides and put the HD cover over it and it doesn't take up too much space on the patio. And it is red Go Cheifs/Cards. That is just a few things.

 

[ropinfires]

Yes I am new to BBQ form here and was reading here. I have had both and I was a die hard bge person until i tried the Joe. It has been a much better cooler for me then the bge. And no it can't smoke 15 slabs and 20lbs of meat at one time but for the every day cooking that we do it does really good. I have cooked with it a two offroad meets and every one that trying the food and cooked on it liked it. So this is my stand point.

 

[Abelman]

Well. I guess I'm glad for you on your new cooker.

I have been a BGE user for awhile. Your posts were a little hard to understand for me but if I got it right, I haven't had those problems.

I don't have temp spikes, no warping (I guess that's what you were saying), pizzas are good, etc.

As for the cost, not sure how you did that either.

Anyway, math aside, glad you're happy. Still don't understand how it's 1000% better but as long as you're happy....that works. I guess given how much you now dislike the Egg, you'll pretty much have to sell it pretty cheap, uhh? Should be interesting when someone asks why you're selling it. You should just post this thread!

I'll stick with my BGE and figure it should continue to be problem free.

 

[jrb03]

I do not lik the BGE and wood never by ether of these, butt yur arguments makes no cents at all. I feel stoopider aftr reeding them.

 

[Rick's Tropical Delight]

this is pretty funny. :roll:

 

[GreasePig]

There is a dealer here that carries both the BGE's and the KJ's.

The KJ is impressive and it does a lot of things right. The nest is nicer. The side tables are nicer. The bands are stainless I believe. The thickness of the unit is nice. The air intake is nicer. The fact that it includes the platesetter and nest and tables in the price is nice. You can get a fully equiped KJ for what you get a bare egg for.

That being said, if I had to get one today... I would probably get an egg just for the fact that I KNOW their service dept is good and I KNOW they will be here to warranty the product if I had problems.

No knock on KJ here. Nice looking cooker. I actually would prefer it if it had a little more time on it. But if I was going to spend the $$$ today I would go with the proven brand.

 

[HoDeDo]

smoke and fire in OP, Ks sells them next to their Primos. They choose not to sell primo rounds, and put this product in for that size range. Kc BBq Store just down the road sells the Eggs.... so you could see all three in an hour or so in KC.

I posted my thoughts on how it compared to an egg earlier... got to do our Plowboys demo on a brand spankin new KJ

 

[swamprb]

I've sent numerous requests for more info and dealers in my area through the KJ website and have never gotten any response. If they can't even reply, what kind of customer service can you expect from them on their "lifetime warranty"??

I did speak to the guy that advertises the KJ on craigslist/seattle and he's also a Primo dealer. He basically said he carries it because it "looks cool" in his store, and admits it would probably cook as well as a BGE or Primo, but stressed the quality was far less than them. He cooks on an Oval Primo and was more interested in selling them than the KJ. When I mentioned some of the other "knock offs" like the Star, Comet, Bayou Classic etc. he was familiar with them too and just laughed!
It must be hard to sell them when you have no advertising budget from the home office or distributor and have to rely on craigslist!!!

 

[MilitantSquatter]

The kamado Joe is better for a lot of reasons.
It has a much better control in the tempertor. It is a much tighter cooker than the bge. You do not have that sudden burst in heat like you do with the egg. It has a 304 ss grill and rack and plate setter for not worpping like my egg did. The cart is a lot more stable than my egg and it came with it. The egg didn't it was all extra $. I spent $899 retail on the Joe and I have over $1,300 in the egg for the same set up. It sounds crazy but I can smoke 2 babyback slabs in bout 2hours on the Joe and they are perfect @ 230'. The egg it always took 4-5 hours if the temp would stay the same 230'. With the pizza stone those papa murphys pizzas are great better the the brick oven pizza parlors. The pork loins and corn are Always very tender and moist because you can sear meat on the joe then it cools to grill temp with no hassel. My wife like to bake cookies and cornbread on it and browines. I never could do thus on the egg with out burning them. With the plate setter you can make the greatest roast and pataoes ever or peach cobbler. I even use the Joe to stir fry with my wok it is really easy because the egg always got to hot and burned the sause. The Joe is much more controled for this. Me and my buddie can load it in the back of my truck and take to the tail gate. You can fold down the bamboo sides and put the HD cover over it and it doesn't take up too much space on the patio. And it is red Go Cheifs/Cards. That is just a few things.

To me, this all sounds more like a quasi-subliminal advertisement without any facts or opinions as to why...

Jusyt curious - If the KJ and BGE (or similar) are roughly very similar in shape/design, materials etc..

1) why do you think the KJ produces so much better results ?

2) Why do you think it's "tighter" with better control?

3) What causes the KJ to avoid the "sudden burst in heat" (never experienced this with BGE's)

4) I'm fascinated to know why the KJ cooks babybacks perfectly in only 2 hours when almost another cooker known to man cooking at the same temp of 230 will all take nearly twice as long to get the same result. Please explain..

5) What allows the KJ to cool to grill temp so fast without hassle after a high heat sear ?

Some of your other pros are the same as the BGE or similar too . (ability to load in car, fold down the side tables, put a cover on it and minimal space on patio.

Etc... Etc.. Etc..


Anyway.. Welcome.. Please go to Cattle Call and formally introduce yourself. Thanks !!

 

[bobaftt]

how much?

Kamado Joe is one of the newest additions to the ceramic world. My brother and cookteam partner had the pleasure to cook on one of these gems last weekend. He was so impressed with the quality that was put in the construction of this smoker. He said that the ceramic is a little bit thicker but the big improvement was that there is more room in the bottom for coal and all of the metal is powder coated. We are in the process of changing over our green egg cook team to Kamado Joe's. These things rock. By the way I now have 2 largwe green eggs for sale.

How much do you want for the large BGE?

 

[Smokin Butts]

Sorry its been a while since I have been on this site. I wanted to give a quick update on the KJ. I have kooked on it for about 3-4 months now and am very impressed. I am not going to sit here and say that it is 1000% better but it is a very solid and nice unit.
The temp display is bigger and I find this nice because I have 4 of them going at once and I am hard of seeing so this is a plus in my eyes.
The units came almost 100% assembled in its own box. I know that my local BGE store charges $75 to put one together.
I did notice that the fire ring does not sit snug to the wall of the base, this has not caused me any problems yet but does take a little getting used to since I have looked at the inside of the BGE for 15 years now.
I have talked to there office manager and she seemed really nice and actually sent me a new fire ring "Free" due to me cracking one.
As far as the design goes it is very simmilar to the green egg, I have noticed that it does hold more coal and I think that I get a little longer cook time due to this.
I know that my wife loves the red color and thinks that it looks much better on the deck then the BGE.
Other than that I think that the $$$$$$$$$ says it all. You get much more bang for your buck with this cooker than you do with the BGE. Retail is $800 fully loaded.
When it comes to the lifespan of this cooker I will update you in a few years. It seems to be holding up perfect soo far.
Overall I am very happy with mine and look forward to what the furure holds for us. We will be cooking on them next at "Cherokee Pignic" in Canton, GA on Oct 16 and 17 if anyone wants to swing by.
Happy Smokin'

 

[Smokin Butts]

By the way I am not sure how everyone else on here did their comparitive analysis?
This is how I have done mine for the last 4 months!

 

[drbbq]

I will be cooking on these in a few weeks if anyone of you might want to hit the trail and give me a run for your money. Happy Smokin.

Let's do it. Where you gonna be?