Pit Boss Kamado Bottom Door Vent mod

[Steve J]

WARNING: Semi-long read ahead.

If you're still here, then here goes. There's an old saying that you get what you pay for. That's not always a bad thing...case in point, about a month ago I bought my Pit Boss 22" Kamado grill. There are many that consider it a knock off or cheap imitation of the Kamado Joe or BGE, but for the amount that I spent on it vs. the amount of a KJ or BGE, and the fact that it can produce the same quality of food, I don't think I made a bad choice. Nevertheless, that isn't what this post is about.

One of the things I noticed with the Pit Boss is that unless you purchase the 24" edition from Costco, your kamado grill does not come with a second vent door on the bottom vent. As a result, the single door that it does come with sits in a sliding tray that is designed to fit an additional door, but since it's not standard, there is a lot of play between the door and the actual grill. This can cause more air to get in despite how open or closed your vents are, making the grill run hotter than you planned. Additionally, since more air is getting in, it can make shutting the grill down take beyond FOREVER (trust me, I know). Yes, I know that because kamados have such great heat retention, that they normally take a while to lower the temps, but the amount of time is exaggerated due to the gap between the vent door and the grill.

Thankfully I came across a fix for this that doesn't take long to do. The only tools required are a ratchet with a 7/16" socket, an Allen wrench, and some high temp Nomex felt gasket. Simply use the Allen wrench to hold the two screws at the base of the door vent in place, and use the 7/16" socket to loosen the two bolts on the inside of the grill. Remove the bolts, and screws, and the vent door will slide right off the tray. I measured about 2-1/2" of Nomex gasket and cut two strips to go on each end of the backside of the vent door. The gasket I bought is a little thick which prevented the door from sliding all the way to the back of the tray, so I trimmed the tape so that it wasn't so thick (for thickness, see the pic of the tools required for this mod). This allowed the door to fit in the tray, and slide all the way open with absolutely no play or air gap between the door and the actual grill.

I hope this helps someone.