Promised I'd report back. Went all in on first cook since we were having some neighbors over. Went great!
It's hotter on the firebox side and up top, obviously, but a big foil pan with water on the charcoal grates (yes it comes with charcoal grates) in the food chamber evened the left/right (25 degree difference) everywhere except right over the intake and collected some of the grease...it also allowed me to burn bigger logs (The academy ones) and keep temps down. Hotter fire kept the fire clean the whole time.
The doors are not air tight and that bugged me and I thought I'd go back and gasket it, but after I got up to temp, it's stopped leaking smoke and I don't think I even care about the doors leaking since it was sealed at the bottom and grease wasn't leaking on the patio. It did fine on a very windy day. Also the little gap in the side gave me a place to run the probes.
18 inches is only 18 inches. That's no fun but it is what it is. i guess if I can get 6 spares on long ways with minimal trimming, it doesn't really need to be bigger for me.
Also, the exhaust is high on the cook chamber which I guess isn't ideal. Initially I thought I would mod that but a part of me thinks I might just learn to use the different temp zones.
The top rack will slide back out of the way when you aren't using it. Nice touch.
With that said, the built quality is great for 499. The metal is thicker than the Pecos and OK Joe I've been looking at. The grates are ridiculously beastly at 15.5 pounds each and completely non-stick.
It's probably too early to say "Go buy it" but I like it a lot and can't imagine a better offset cooker for that price.
Feel free to ask me any questions. Also, I may do a video on this so if you guys have any suggestions on what I should include, I'm all ears. Thx.
