Customer Ratings: 
List Price: $399.00
Sale Price: $315.51
Today's Bonus: 21% Off
I have had this grill for a week. I absolutely love it. Its ability to QUICKLY climb to high heat or to HOLD heat and bake in a moist sealed environment puts it into a different category than a gas grill or a Weber Kettle grill.
I have cooked a pork rib roast at 350 that came out great. With a moist and smoky environment.
I have had it up to 650 and did fabulous burgers. They had a brown and crispy surface with out being dried out.
The problem comes in when I want to get it below 300.
There is too much air coming in from the bottom vent. I was going to seal the back of the vent where it seals to the ash pan. When I removed the ash trap to work on the vent-I found that the entire round ash trap bottom is just tacked to the top in a butt joint and there is already a gap at one place where it is separating from the flat top part that butts up against the sealing gasket for the ash trap. The metal is deformed in another area directly behind where the vent attaches. Said another way the metal had already deformed behind the vent slot.
I question the long term air tightness with this construction detail.What use is a sealing gasket on the ash trap when the whole area below it is just butt jointed and tack welded in several places?
The photos are available on the customer images when you are viewing the product. Take a look it is quite startling.
This detail is on the removable ash trap and in theory this small part of an otherwise great grill could easily be improved. It looks like this joint may become more and more leaky over time.
The photos for what I am describing are the customer photos when you are viewing the product page.
UPDATE 4-25-2012
I contacted CharGriller about this problem. They say they will replace the ash trap as a warranty item.
The thing is you MUST HAVE YOUR RECEIPT. So if you buy this Akorn Kooker save your receipt. Thank goodness that Lowe's is great about issuing a new one. Just as Amazon is great at letting you go into your history and print a receipt.
They also had no word about if the replacement ash trap will be made the same way. This is absolutely a design created problem.
UP DATE 5-22-12
Char-Griller did sent a new ash trap and it had the same defects and developed leaks only not as bad. This unit cooks much better when it is air tight.
Here is a link to the KAMADO GURU forum in which they cover fixing the air leaks.In addition some people have used theirs extensively and feel it is holding up well.UPDATE: 6-2-2012
There is an element to the design of this AKORN that people should be aware of. This unit is egg shaped. The result is that the top over hangs the more narrow bottom. Any fat that renders out will either be caught in a drip pan on top of the smoke stone diffuser or it will run down the sides. Any grease that reaches the ash trap area will either drip into the ash pan or run under the top flange and soak the gasket on the ash trap seal.
Cleaning the ash trap will remove the oil that has collected there. The sealing gasket should also be checked and DE-greased if it is wet with grease.
I put a grill grate on the smoking stone position and built a fire to get more intense heat to do burgers. I filled the outside edge of the grate with 20% fat burgers. I got nice crispy burgers. When I closed the lid and shut the top and bottom vents----the dome temp gage shot up to 650F.
The next cook was going to be three pork butts a couple days later. Except I could not get the ash pan off to clean it. To make a long story short---the ash trap gasket was glued on to the separating surface with carbon. I had to pry it off and scrape the carbon crystals off both the mating surface and the gasket. A new gasket is available from Char-Grill. To install it just pry with a plastic object between the gasket and the flange it is attached to. The gasket is held in with metal attachments that snap out. The new one just snaps in. This takes about five minutes.
Users should check the gasket for oil when they empty the ash pan. There is not likely much chance for a grease fire while doing a low and slow cook. It can happen the next time you take it up to 600. A drip pan should be used for low and slow to catch as much grease as possible.
This probably is not a good grill to use for direct high heat grilling of fatty things like 80% burgers or sausage. The high heat and the abundant oil are what caused mine to catch fire.
As I inspected the design more I did notice that the very out side edge ot the grate extends over a gap between the inner fire bowl and the outer insulated shell. Any grease that gets into this gap will run down to the ash trap with no chance to burn off. I believe that this is what contributed to my grease fire. i now keep any thing that I cook back from the edge and over the inner fire bowl.
DESIGN MODIFICATION---If a metal flange were installed above the ash trap area and sloped to the back. A pipe could be run out the back and the grease caught in a bucket.
UPDATE 10-2-2012
I have used this CharGriiler Kamado since April about 3 times a week. If you are interested in Kamado style cooking this is a good place to start. The AKORN gets the same results as the more expensive Kamado style cookers that start around $900 and quickly end up in the $1500 to $2,000 range.
You can grill at 650 degrees or do true BBQ at around 250 degrees. I have done nine pork butts for pulled pork with great results. I have done ribs, chicken thighs, chicken breasts, steaks, hamburgs, WOKED vegetables,ETC and all were great.
You can cook chicken with the skin on without getting the typical huge flare up. In fact there is no fire at grill level at all. I do find that slashing the skin on the thighs and cooking them skin side up works best.
I have not had a grease fire since the one noted above. I now take it up to 600 and do a burn off immediately after I cook something fatty and I keep what I cook over the inside of the fire bowl.
To get good performance you will need to put felt behind the vent slide, seal behind the vent to the ash trap area, and any gaps in the seam between the top of the ash trap and the outer bowl. I have had to replace the felt behind the slide three times so far. There is a lot of information about these mods at the Kamado Guru forum--in the Char-Griller AKORN Kamado/ King Griller group and in the topic section Mods and Fixes. This is a must visit site if you own one of these.
This cooker heats up fast and is slow to cool down so the techniques needed are different from other grills. They are not difficult just different. There is a lot of info about this in the AKORN section at Kamado Guru.com in the ----starting a fire low and slow definitive. I find a dual temp digital thermometer ( grate temp and meat temp ) to be extremely helpful. I find the dome thermometer to be slow to respond.
I love the taste of lump charcoal and wood chunks on my food.
In my opinion this grill is a bargain but you will need to take an active and on going approach to keeping it air tight to get the best results. Yes I would buy it again---but be warned you will want one of the pricey Kamados in a few years down the road. Do notice that I said want. This grill will last for many years if you keep it coved and out of the weather and the food will taste the same coming out of the AKORN or a $1,000 ceramic kamado.
EDIT 4-22-13
Lowe's finally put a display model out this year and the air slide was even more sloppy than mine. It litterly rattled in the track.
BJ's had two of these AKORNS on display that are now called the King Griller AKORN. One air slide was so tight that it was difficult to adjust and the one on the other was very smooth and it had less play that the Primo Oval XL that I looked at. So it does appear that some of the models for sale this year now have good air control on the bottom.--with out putting felt behind the slide. This is encouraging--I just wish that mine was a made to those tolerances. The truth is both of the units at BJ's were so tight thqt nothing could fit behind the slide.
In addition the center insert now is all grate and no emblem to block the heat--IMO another good thing.
It does appear that CharGriller is refining the AKORN as time goes on. It may be hit or miss though.
UP DATE: 11-4-13
The Man Cave Meal demo videos for the CharGriller AKORN are no longer available to the public. If you need advice on tightening up an AKORN there is plenty available on the Kamado Guru site ---in the section-CharGriller AKORN Kamado in the section for various brands of Kamados. Many people are now reporting that they do not need any after market sealing---BUT the quality of product is not uniformly consistent and some say the one they have still needs it. IMO the AKORN remains a bargain along with the ceramic Vison Kamado's.
I am am still using my AKORN and have been through two full seasons of cooking now. You owe it to your self to look into Kamados if you enjoy out door cooking. The food is fantastic and easy to make on a Kamado.
Eventually I will buy either a Kamado Joe-Big Joe with a split fire box and flexible grate set up or I will buy a Primo XL with a split fire box and the accessories to make it flexible.
There new videos being released on the Kamado Joe you tube site that demonstrate Kamado cooking. These are linked to from the Kamado Guru site. If you end up buying any Kamado --the Guru site is well worth looking at. Just do a search for Kamado Guru. There are plenty of documented cooks with pictures to inspire you.
If you have any question having to do with Kamados you can post it on KG and most likely will get an informed answer--because the people there are knowledgeable and helpful.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
We compared the Big Red with Big Green Egg, Primo, Kamado Joe, and the Big Keg. The price differential was substantial and we doubted whether it could perform up to the competition. However, for $300 vs $1,000 how could we go wrong?
Since our recent purchase, we have smoked pork back ribs twice, pot roast, smoked salmon, and a pork roast (we only missed one weekend for grilling). The results have been wonderful. There is a learning curve in shifting from a traditional gas grill. We had to gain experience utilizing the right proportion of fuel and the proper air flow on the Big Red through the vents at top and bottom. But we are having great success and learning quickly. Now, we really crave the slow cooking/smoking of the ribs (210 degrees for 6 to 7 hours with a Kansas City style rub and the last hour with Sweet Baby Rays.)
The slow cooking is a very easy and low-attention cooking process. This is in sharp contrast to the higher temp cooking on a gas grill coupled with the very irregular hot spots. The cooking on the Kamado is warm, moist (less air), and uniform heat.
The quality of the Big Red unit is high, it is easy to assemble, easy to clean, easy to start with electric starter ($8 at Menards). Big Red will get up to temp in a about 10-15 minute for low-temp cooking. For low temperature cooking, we do not ignite all the fuel at once and keep the temperature low. Creating a high temperature and scaling back can take 45 minutes. The unit is incredibly well insulated and the only way to reduce the temperature is to suffocate the embers.
High temperatures can be obtained in about 10 minutes. This is quicker than the low temp. cooking since there is no concern for slow steady heat. Just open the air supply vent at the bottom and the vent at the top, and you have an intense cooker of 600 degrees. This is great for cleaning the grill and searing.
Back to slow cooking/smoking: We use a mix of large Mesquite lump coal from Sam's and smaller lump coal of various blends of wood from Menards (we use smoking pellets for flavor). Once temperature is obtained, we can maintain the constant 200-220 for 7-plus hours. We really like the practicality and durability of the steel structure versus the ceramic. We live in Chicago and we don't worry about cracking a ceramic egg by the radical heat change. The lid on the BGE is extremely heavy to lift whereas the Big Red (BR) is light weight. The Big Red has stove gaskets that are held with clips. We liked the ease with which these can be replaced vs the scape-off/glue-on with BGE. It is simple and easy to remove the ashes from BR: release 2 levers, slide forward, and remove the bottom section and dump. With the BGE, you crouch down and scrape out the ashes through a vent.
The cast iron grate has a practical feature for bearing the overhead rack for extra capacity. We use this for smoking potatoes. We grill 3 full slabs of ribs using a inverted wire rack resting on the main grate (cut ribs in 2 equal sections and stacked upright in 6 slots).
Customer service is responsive and pleasant. I was not careful and dropped the cast-iron grate and cracked it in half. The replacement grate was shipped the same day and we received it in 2 days.
We used an Oneida large pizza stone and rack from Bed Bath and Beyond. The rack was a perfect fit for straddling the inside tabs and suspending the pizza stone to deflect the heat for indirect cooking. I learned that spilling cold water on a hot stone causes them to crack (my wife has great patience with my experiential learning.)
I was a committed gas griller for the practicality and convenience (we use natural gas rather than a refillable propane tank). However, the ease of use and wonderful smoked-cooking of the Kamado have shifted the gas-grill to the back burner (pun intended).
We follow a number of the recipes from Hi-tech barbecue on You Tube and BGE forums.
We use the Kansas City rub from Cabelas for the ribs and marinate over night.
This an absolutely great value and has dramatically changed our attitude toward grilling. Our whole family looks forward to the weekend meal from our smoker. At $300, this is a steal.
There are no draw backs on this one.
UPDATE 2-18-2013
I purchased the Auber Industries for Temperature Controller for Large Big Green Eggs Item #: SYL-1614SYS-G for $130. This accessory controls the temperature to within 5 degrees. It takes all of the challenge out of controlling the temperature. It is a fan-powered air supply that inserts into the channels of the lower air vent of the Kamado. It is not battery operated. Rather, the Auber plugs into an outlet. Auber makes precision controllers for industry and found a niche for the kamado cookers. This is a very reasonable price and does exactly as designed.
Required:
1. Place some felt on the metal flange of the controller to give it an air-tight seal.
2. Optional: Remove the spring attachment. This is required for other smokers. You can leave it in place.
3. Wrap the electric wire that runs to the temperature probe with aluminum foil to provide added protection from heat.
4. I prefer to bring the Kamado up to the set temperature, and then activate the controller. I feel the heat gain can be too aggressive with the controller and it will overshoot the targeted temperature. Then it is difficult to bring the temperature down.
5. Once the controller is in place and operational, close the top vent on the Kamado. Especially at low temperatures (200 degrees), the coals will suck air through the top vent and exceed the set temperature.
6. When opening the lid for more than a few seconds, unplug the air controller. Otherwise, it will sense a drop in temperature and pump in air and heat up the coals.
7. This is a powerful little air controller that works with great precision when following the above procedures.
8. The unit is NOT designed to operate at below 32 degree outdoor weather. I made a cardboard box and have a low-wattage incandescent light bulb (do not let it get close to the controller. It will melt it. It can also burn the box. !!!!!! Be CAREFUL !!!!!!!!) I have used this successfully at 2 degrees outdoor temperature.
Best Deals for Char-Griller Kamado Kooker Charcoal Barbecue Grill and Smoker
I got my new grill last week, and spent the weekend learning to use it.
First I should mention the previously mentioned air leak issue. In the current version of the grill, there is no air leak issue. The new cast iron top vent is designed to stop all air, except what you have dialed in to pass through the vent. If you turn it off, it will stop the air flow, and extinguish the fire. It has a high-temperature o-ring made of a silicone rubber, and has a nice tight feel to it. The lower vent seems to be fit good enough to do what it needs to do. But with two dampers (top and bottom) the airflow is controlled by the most closed of the two. Since the top one closes enough to kill the fire, any small leaks in the bottom one don't really matter. So I think the air-leak problem is in the past, the manufacturer really stepped up and addressed the issue. They are listening!
The grill I got should have been black, but instead it has a nice hammered two-tone finish. It is black on grey for the main shell, and black for the legs. It looks like a nice finish that should hold up well.
My goal is to learn to properly regulate the temperature, for low-slow cooking. One thing I learned is that even at a low temperature, the radiant heat from the fire will tend to overcook anything that gets direct heat if you are doing a long cook, so the first accessory that is a must have is some kind of heat deflector, such as a pizza stone. I used a sheet of foil with a drip pan on top, that worked too.
As for temperature regulation, learning that will require some patience and understanding. In a test cook, I was trying to get a temp in the 225 range. It turns out the vent setting for that temp is around .5 to .75 on the upper vent. Not knowing that in advance, I started on a setting of 2... The fire quickly started getting really hot, so I turned the vent down to 1, and waited a half hour. The temp was still high. So I turned it down to .5, and waited another half hour... it dropped to 350. So I set the vent lower, barely cracked... Half an hour later, it was at 300. The vent was almost closed so I decided to wait a bit longer to see if it cooled more... half an hour later it was at 275, so I decided to go ahead and put the meat on (a pork rump). I figured it would keep slowly dropping. What I didn't know was that the fire was out, it was the insulation that was holding the heat in. So my first lesson on what not to do... Head the warnings about starting low, once the temperature is too high, it is difficult to get it back down without extinguishing the fire and starting over.
One of the tricks is not to have too much fire to begin with. Make a pyramid of cold charcoal lumps, and only light a small section of the coals. For a low-slow cook, you will want the fire to slowly burn across your fuel load, so lighting one edge of the stack is better than dumping a load of pre-lit coals in. If you start with a full fire, you will never get the low temperature right. A good stack lit from one edge will give the fire an order with which to burn in, so that you don't go cold with unused fuel. Since most of the fuel is cold to start with, making sure it is all in a tight pile will insure the fire eventually is able to consume all of the coals.
The idea of using a propane torch to light the stack in one spot is a good way to go, thanks to the reviewer who suggested that. A propane torch on a hose is best for that, so you don't hold the bottle upside down.
Since your fire will be burning from one edge of your pile to the other, having a heat deflector will prevent the uneven heat from causing a problem. The fire will gradually move across the pile, and a deflector will keep the heat even regardless of where the fire is.
I found that I was able to hold a low-slow temp quite well, but it would change temperature slightly so I was tweaking the top vent every hour or so. I think my next project is to make a thermostat, and figure out a way to motorize the damper.
But so much for my learning to control the fire. I still have more to learn obviously.
I also tried some ribs, both pork and beef. The pork ribs were good, the beef ribs were excellent.
As soon as I get my pizza stone, I will do a brisket.
After a couple of meals featuring too much meat, I did a cook with a load of veggies, potatoes, corn on the cob, mushrooms, assorted peppers, and cherry tomatoes... It all came out very good, but veggies are easy and don't take long to get right.
The grill is well made, and the parts all fit as they should. The only problem I had during assembly was trying to use a wrench on the hex bolts. The bolts are chamfered, and so are my wrenches. well before the bolts are starting to get tight, the wrench looses the ability to turn them because of the chamfer causing them to just slip past each other. They are slotted for a Phillips screw driver, and as it turns out my big #3 driver could put more than enough torque on them, so I was happy once I put the wrench away. The chamfered bolt heads are actually nice in that they make a smoother surface... Just don't use a wrench.
My old stainless grill had bad rust problems. Turns out that there were places for water to collect inside of non-stainless parts. In particular the legs. I was happy to see that on this grill, two of the legs are not closed at the bottom, so no place for water to collect. The back leg with the caster-wheel looks closed at the bottom, so at some point I'll pull the caster off, and drill a small hole for water to drain out from. Older cars had this problem, rusting out from the inside... Car makers learned that lesson a few years back, and started putting drain holes in places water can collect, and as a result cars stopped rusting out from the inside (as long as some idiot didn't cover the drain holes with undercoating. The only other potential water collection point is the ash pan. I don't think I want a drain hole, so instead I may store the bottom inside the grill upside down... I'll be thinking about that for a while.
I did buy a cover from Walmart that fits really good, for under $6. It should last at least 6 months while I find a better one...
In summary, I really like this grill. The price is right compared to something like a Green Egg, I just need to keep on-top of the potential for rust, and if I can do that it will last a long time.
EDIT- The ash pan is a big water collector. Because it is insulated, there are two steel walls in the ash pan, and both collect water. A very small hole through both should fix it, at the cost of a small air leak (should be ok if the hole is small enough).
Also I have added a fan from Auber instruments (6.5cfm I think) that can be connected to any common PID. The fan fits perfectly without any adapters, and does an excellent job controlling the temperature. I can get 30+ hours of cook time from a single load of lump charcoal when I cook at a low temperature (like around 220f). Once I can control the temperature accurately, I get flawless fall-apart brisket every time!
Honest reviews on Char-Griller Kamado Kooker Charcoal Barbecue Grill and Smoker
I just bought one of these few days ago after shopping around for a kamado a long time.
Reason why i bought it was my old weber needed replacement and my neighbor recommended me a kamado type grill.They have the advanage to keep the temperature better than gas and weber grills. This one was far cheaper than the famous bands therefore I decided to give it a try, paid 299 USD.Assembly was pretty easy, it took approx one hour plus one hour 'burn in time'. I made sure to tighten all the screws well, construction actually seems pretty sturdy . So far I cooked with it two times , here is my comments:
Pros:
Price is very competitive, 299 USD vs 800+ USD for a 'famous brand' kamado .
Size, it is actually bigger than the competing "L size" kamados. Its 19 inch grid can fit three whole chickens easily.
Performance, seems to be good,for me it held low temperature 250F very well,I cooked ribs for 5 hours at 250F stable, impressing because it was cold,windy and rainy outside that day.I used hickory wood to smoke and saw no leaks in the construction.Controling temperature is very easy and the grill stays cool on the outside.After 5 hours of grillingi found it had used up surprisingly little coal!!
Note:I have not tried high temperature cooking yet,this bbq can be heated up to 700F to make pizza etc.
Construction, very impressive considering the price.It is made out of metal with ceramic interior, well insulated.This grill much lighter than he ceramic kamados.
I can recommend to buy few extras to set it up for smoking, I invested in a 17 inch weber grid plus a cast iron dripping pan , set me back additionally 30USD. The cover costs 24 USD.
Cons:
I found the thermometer is not accurate, way off actually.. It shows 250F when actual temp was 280F. But it is not a big issue in practice.
This is a steel construction and it will probably not last forever,The more expensive ceramic kamados probably will last longer, if not forever.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Char-Griller Kamado Kooker Charcoal Barbecue Grill and Smoker
For the most part, this grill is awesome... But it's incomplete. Here's what else you'll need:
1) In order to produce great BBQ you've got to be on top of your temperature (grill temp & internal temp of the meat). The temperature gage on the grill is TERRIBLE to the point of being virtually useless so you'll need a good thermometer. I bought the Maverick ET732 here on Amazon and it is awesome.
2) These types of grills use LUMP charcoal and you NEVER want to use lighter fluid to start them so you'll also need a chimney starter. I got the Webber Chimney Starter here on Amazon too. (you will only need two sheets of newspapers to get your coals red hot)
3) The grill doesn't come with a cover so you'll need that too.
4) If you would like to do indirect grilling (ie: ribs, pork shoulder, Boston butt, etc), you will need a smoking stone. You can also get that here.
Once you have everything you need, start out by breaking the grill in. Wash the cast iron grate, completely coat it with Crisco then run the grill for an hour on at least 400 degrees. Then you're ready to rock and roll.
Why I love this grill:
1) It's sturdy
2) It's well insulated. If you touch the outside while it's cooking, it's warm but not hot. So kids or animals won't burn themselves by touching it.
3) It's MUCH less expensive than its ceramic counterparts.
4) You don't have to worry about it cracking after being tipped over or by grilling in freezing weather.
5) The coals are so far from the grate that you never get flare ups.
I use it MUCH more than my gas grill.
ONE THING TO NOTE: This grill heats up VERY FAST and does a great job of retaining the heat. Therefore, if you want to grill at 225 (pulled pork) or 350 (baked chicken), start out with your vents slightly open and slowly eek your way up to the desired temperature. If you overshoot, it's tough to get back down to the desired temp.
