Kamado Joe® Classic Joe™ I Premium 18-inch Ceramic Charcoal Grill and Smoker in Red with Cart, Side Shelves, Grill Gripper, and Ash Tool. 250 Cooking Square Inches, 2 Tier Cooking System, Model KJ23RH

This grill is a game changer! I have been a gas grill dude for a long time because of its convenience and affordability. The problem with a frequent griller is that these consumer metal grills die after a few years even with good cleaning practices and I really missed the smoke/charcoal flavor that you don’t get from a gas grill. Tired of buying replacement parts every year, for the next grill search, I wanted to look into a ceramic style grill because of all the great feedback heard for several years. These aren’t budget grills and are pricey but getting a grill every 5 years adds up and gets frustrating. This time I decided to stop the cycle and spend some money on a high quality unit; the Kamado Joe Classic was my choice. My first thought is wow, I can’t believe how great this grill cooks and it seems the more I cook on it, the more it cures. I’ve cooked brisket, burgers, chicken, sirloin tip roast, baked cornbread, and tons of vegetables. This thing just continues to amaze me and my family is super happy not no have to lie about the char from my past grills. I’m not saying that this grill automatically turned me into a award winning grill master, but the divide and conquer set up gives more options to perfect your cook as opposed to traditional grills where shoving the delicate stuff on the top rack and closing the lid is about your only option. The grill arrives in a crate and is extremely well packed. This is a heavy grill and is simple to set up, however, you need two to three people to lift this beast on to the base. Once on the base, the inside fire box parts and the rest of it goes in really easy. The construction is thick ceramic and has a beautiful red glaze. It’s essentially a giant pottery cooker. Owning charcoal grills back in the day, I assumed that clean up was going to be a fairly dirty affair, however I found that with using the recommended chunk charcoal, there is a lot less to clean up than with briquettes. The Kamado can use chunk charcoal and wood. While briquettes will work as well, I personally will not use them in this grill to avoid that fuel smell imbedding in the grill. There are several chunk coal brands on Amazon that will work great including the Kamado brand charcoal. Lighting this grill is easy as long as you have good charcoal and a good starter. I use the haystack looking starters and food chunk charcoal. The included divide and conquer system is an innovative way to maximize a cook, meaning that it allows for indirect and direct grilling simultaneously. There are other accessories available as well which extends the options of use. The top and bottom vent work together to provide consistent heat through your cook. Once you learn how to work the vents to control heat, you can walk away with confidence that nothing crazy is going to happen. This pottery marvel keeps the heat better than any grill I’ve used. I found the Kamado to keep a 300 degree temp with the vents closed after a cook for about 3 hours. I was blown away. Knowing this, a batch of cornbread followed my last cook. The thermometer works well, but was hard to see, so it was replaced with a more visible model. The ash drawer is a nice addition and helps with cleanup. The side shelves are solid metal and match the metal legs. I like that they fold down and are metal-wood always rots away. The wheels work well. Be sure to assemble the locks to the front the grill instead of the back in case you set up in a corner like I do. There are tons of videos available to help you on your way if needed. I am extremely happy with the quality and versatility of this grill and am confident that this grill will outlast me. I highly recommend this to anyone that is looking for a heavy duty ceramic style cooker!

I love this grill. I previously owned a Big Green Egg, but gave it to my son when I was living in a high rise. Now I'm back on solid ground with a patio and needed a grill. After a lot of research, I decided to try the Kamado Joe. It's not cheap, but given the fact that it comes with plate setters, ash tool, and grill grate tool, it is cheaper than a Big Green Egg which includes no accessories. I was amazed at how fast I got it. Free 2 day shipping with Amazon Prime. There is some assembly required, but that is also simple. You will need someone to help you get it out of the crate, but that's more from bulkiness than weight. I loved my Big Green Egg, so I was a little worried that the Kamado Joe wouldn't have the same quality and temperature control abilities. No need to have worried. This is a well built product that has actually made some improvements over the Green Egg design. I'll compare the two since my dilemma was to buy this or The Big Green Egg: 1. The temperature control is as easy, accurate, and consistent as my Big Green Egg. Once the charcoal is lit, you can adjust the dampers to achieve your desired temperature, and it stays right there even on windy days. 2. The top has a felt ring around it that holds the cast iron damper cap in place even when opening and closing the grill. This is an improvement over the Big Green Egg which just had the cap sitting on the ceramic. I would have to remove the cap when opening the lid to keep it from falling off of the Egg. 3. With the Big Green Egg, you needed a bucket and ash tool, that was not included, to clean out the ash after cooking. The Kamado Joe has a slide in drawer that catches the ashes. The drawer holds enough ash to burn down a full load of charcoal, then you just pull it out, empty it, and put it back in. It would be a good idea to occasionally remove the fire box, etc. and clean around it (also true of The Big Green Egg), but this tray makes it much easier to empty the ash out during every day use. 4. You could only cook on the upper or lower level at one time on The Big Green Egg. The Kamado Joe comes with the Divide and Conquer system that allows you to cook all on one level or half the grill on the upper level and half on the lower level (closer to the coals). It also allows you to make half of the grill indirect heat while cooking with direct heat on the other half. This was great for reverse-searing steaks. I could cook them to medium rare with indirect heat then move them to the lower grate with direct heat to quickly sear them. 5. The only thing I can think of that the Big Green Egg has over the Kamado Joe is the ceramic cap that you can put in place after using to shut off airflow and put out the coals. Closing the damper on top of the Kamado Joe has the same effect, but maybe a little less efficiently than the ceramic cap. I don't want to take anything away from the Big Green Egg, because it is a quality product and mine is still in use performing like-new after 4 years. I have only had the Kamado Joe for a few months now, so while I can't say how durable it is, I can say that it feels as solid as the Egg and I would expect it to also be performing like a champ in 5 years. Overall, I am very happy with my Kamado Joe, and keeping in mind that I have 5 years experience with the Big Green Egg and only 3 months with the Kamado Joe, so far I would recommend the Kamado Joe to anyone who is on the fence like I was between this and The Big Green Egg.

This grill is a much better value than the same size (large) Big Green Eg (BGE). The ceramic vessel is nearly identical in size, shape, and thickness to the Big Green Egg. Therefore you can expect it to cook just as well. For this $1,000 Kamado Joe, you get the ceramic vessel, the heat diffuser plate, a multi-tier grill, the side-shelves, the rolling base, a poker, and a grill gripper. Furthermore, when I received this item it was completely assembled. All I had to do was put the vessel onto the stand. The same equipment, plus delivery, plus assembly for a local BGE dealer would have cost me $1,500 to $1,600. The Kamado Joe also has a better quality thermometer and a very convenient ash collection tray. I own a big green egg minimax and I have grilled with both Kamado Joe and BGE and I can attest that the grilling results are comparable. As a final touch, the Kamado Joe comes with a well written and concise instruction booklet with simple and comprehensible diagrams; whereas the last big green egg I bought came with some brochures to buy more accessories ... I was really torn over getting the large big green egg or this item. I read several online reviews that conclude the performance of the Kamado Joe is identical to the BGE, with some minor preference for the Kamado Joe because the steel bands holding the dome lid and the felt gasket materials are slightly better quality. I am glad I followed the guidance of the review (buy the cheaper grill). All the pros to the Kamado Joe I mentioned above have reassured me that I made the right choice. I am truly grateful to the Kamado Joe company staff for creating this product that gives me so much more value. I still feel dirty from my encounters with sleazy BGE retailers who don't even post the prices of the BGE grills on the floor of their stores. It seems like depending on the day, time, and even weather their price fluctuates up and down by plus or minus $60 with the total price coming in $500 higher than this Kamado Joe. Furthermore, the dealer disorients me with a barrage of all the add-ons: more money for the shelves, the poker, the grill gripper, the stand. Oh, and by the way, they are happy to sell me some of their own patio furniture for an extra thousand dollars. On the other hand, Kamado Joe, will sell you three simple ceramic feet pices for a nominal cost so you can simply set your grill on the ground or your existing patio equipment. I think the BGE is stuck in a 20th century mentality of screwing the consumer with "authorized retailer" markup. Finally, it is kind of nice how Kamado Joe is named after the original Japanese style Kamado ovens, giving credit to those who came before and made important contributions to the grilling craft. A few of practical points: 1. This is a very heavy package. It was packed in very durable heavy duty cardboard. Nevertheless my grill did move around inside its package. I carefully inspected the item and I could not find any damage or cracks. Ordering through Amazon, gave me confidence that I would be handled fairly if I receive an item damaged because of shipping. 2. The metal insert for the ash collection has a small lip that I needed to bend with pliers to get it to fit optimally in the base of my Kamado oven. 3. You will need two strong people to lift the vessel into its rolling cradle stand. It will be very difficult for one person to lift it, but it can be done by putting one of your hands in the base ash tray opening and carefully stabilizing the kamado with your other hand on the hinge. While holding the Kamado oven in this position one of the metal shelf supports will be dangerously close to your testicles.

This is our first Kamado style grill and it does everything: grilling, smoking, baking, brick oven style. While waiting for it to arrive we watched several YouTube videos on how to light, operate, cook on, and clean this specific grill so that once it got here setup was quick and easy and we were able to start using it right away. It arrived in a nice sturdy shipping box with a pallet. It’s really heavy and I recommend at least two people for assembling and moving. We did notice right away that the gasket seal on the lid has some frays in it. This did not prevent us from being able to use it. I went to Kamado Joe's website, registered it and submitted a customer service request with a picture included and they sent me out a new seal gasket that next day (no charge) and I got it in the mail about 2 days later. Since then, we have used it several times to grill and smoke and have had no issues with operating it and the food has been turning out amazing for us. We did notice the Kontrol Tower (the top where you control the smoke coming out) had paint peeling about 4 days later. I submitted another customer service request with pictures to Kamado Joe and they have mailed out a replacement Kontrol Tower (their spelling) already, no charge. I am really impressed with Kamado Joe's customer service. Although technically I shouldn't have to be submitting issues for a grill I have had for about a week, the fact that none of the issues prevented use of the grill and that the manufacturer is taking care of the issue immediately and free of charge, I felt comfortable giving it a 5 star rating still. I have since recommended the grill to several family and friends and they have been impressed with it. I personally liked that this grill had the 2-tier cooking system and came with everything it did included. The only additional purchases I have in mind are a soapstone and pizza stone. This is a Kamado grill with a good reputation, great customer service, and great cooking results (as long as you operate it correctly). I am very happy with it. I do recommend watching some review/how to use videos on YouTube.

I purchased the Kamado Joe Classic during an Amazon Prime Day special and also received an included Joetisserie unit in addition to the usual accessories. It arrived on time with free shipping and w/o any visible damage to the box or contents. All parts inside were in good order, well packed, nothing damaged. The unit assembly was easy, the wheeled legs seem sturdy and I like that it has a brake on the wheels. My father has been using a big green egg for, wow, 40+ years, he paid $25.00 for his. He has made a smoked Thanksgiving turkey every year now for decades and it is the bomb and is one of the big reasons I got this. I can't believe its taken me this long to get one of my own. The quality of the unit is top notch and there were no visible defects upon assembly. I have now used it to sear steaks, grill veggies/corn, slow smoke beef cheeks for tacos, rotisserie a chicken , and rotisserie a prime rib roast and I love it. I've used lump charcoal w/ Kamado Joe fire starters. Temperature control is easy and consistent. I love that the top cap is attached and can't fall off when the kamado is opened. Once the temperature is set, it will stay consistent for hours. The ash drawer is a very useful feature. There is a very informative series of you tube videos on cooking with the Kamado Joe, the explanations of how to make adjustments to set the temperature I found extremely useful and has eliminated trial and error in setting the temperature. The prime rib dry rub along with the smoky flavor and moisture from cooking in the kamado made the rotisserie prime rib roast the best prime rib I have ever eaten!! I love the smells that cooking food in the kamado generates.......going to smoke some pork ribs this weekend and will have to try cooking a pizza soon. I've always used a charcoal grill but cooking with the kamado adds another dimension to your outdoor cooking, very versatile.

It's everything it's hyped up to be. I have only used it 3 times. Did a pork roast, then a pork butt, the last cook was some of the best rib eyes I have ever eaten. Everything was to perfection! I have used a lot of different grills and smokers from your standard charcoal webber style, gas grills (yuk), electric smokers, wood smokers, and the last one was a pellet smoker which is hard to keep ashes cleaned out and I never felt I was getting the best smoke flavor out of it. I think this will be my last one. So far so good anyway.

The grill was delivered quickly and on time to my patio out back by the logistics folks. It arrives on a large pallet. First things first, I inspected the packaging for any damage as other reviews I saw had some issues with that. Thankfully, everything was in tact and undamaged. Assembly: Unpacking it took a while, just due to the sheer size. LOTS of Styrofoam!! I ended up putting the large outside box back on the pallet and just filled it with all the packaging. First things first, I assembled the stand. Not too bad at all. From there I ended up having to lift the grill by myself onto the nest. The bottom vent provided a handy handhold - but I would recommend getting at least another person if you're lifting it up. I'm in decent shape but the process would've been MUCH easier with a little help! These grills are HEAVY! Getting the bottom ceramic plates assembled was a bit tricky - but I eventually got them all in there. Note, I've had them fall out from the ring attachment here and there, so I've had to re-assemble them a few times. From there it was just putting everything else on, the side shelves, the Slo-Roller, the x-ring attachment, deflector plates, and grill grates. The directions were very clear and concise. Initial burn: I also purchased some Kamado Joe lump charcoal as well as their fire starters. I filled the charcoal basket, fired it up, and just let it burn for a while. I did this to burn off any dust/lingering Styrofoam/manufacturing residue. Easy peasy! First cook: I had watched a hefty amount of YouTube videos leading up to my decision to buy this beast. It seemed to be pretty easy to use and control the temps. I did futz around with the vents a lot, but that was mostly just out of anxiety, worrying I was going to ruin my beautiful meat!! I ended up doing a pork shoulder and following a recipe and game plan from Smoking Dad BBQ (HIGHLY recommend this YT channel if you have a KJ or are considering one). Dry brined the pork with a rub the night before, then the day of the cook, followed his instructions. A big thing to keep in mind when cooking on the KJ is to be very patient and deliberate when building the fire. You need to wait for the ceramics to heat up and the dome to get heat soaked. This is super important as this grill is incredibly efficient and it helps you ensure you've got the right temps. Even though I messed with the vents a lot the temperature stayed very consistent. Long story short, the pork turned out great, but I didn't put in enough charcoal so I ended up having to transfer the pork to my oven for the final hour of the cook. Either way, my family was very happy with the results! Great bark, first smoke ring I've ever achieved while grilling/smoking anything, and phenomenal flavor. It really does make a difference! Maintenance: I haven't really had to give this one much thought so far as it's basically cleaned itself. You can crank up the temps and burn most of the grease and other residue off after you're done cooking. I imagine I'll have to clean and de-grease my Slo-Roller soon as I've had some drippings come down on the outer ring. Haven't had any issues yet. That's one of the reasons I went with the KJ over like a Traeger to be honest - even though there's more of a learning curve, long-term the maintenance aspect is just so much easier with a charcoal grill. Final thoughts: I love this thing. It's a jack of all trades. I'm still learning, still experimenting. Fuel management is a big thing for me right now. It's a constant give and take trying to figure out the perfect amount of charcoal to throw in for whatever I'm cooking. We've done whole chicken, ribs, chicken wings, and another pork shoulder, all have turned out amazing. Brisket is on the list but it's also pretty intimidating!! Keep in mind that this does have a learning curve but it isn't as bad as you might think. Just do your research, watch lots of videos, and experiment on your own. Extra thoughts: I would highly recommend getting a Meater thermometer - this really takes the guesswork out of the cooking. I'd say it's a must for any grilling and smoking regardless of the type of cooker you get. Also get lots of tin foil, the foil boat method is a keeper. I also ended up getting one of those grill guns. They're super fun to use, a little scary, but they make starting the fire insanely easy. Which was really the biggest rub for my first couple cooks, lighting the charcoal could be a PITA and required a lot of babysitting. Buy good meat, take your time, and plan your cooks, and you will be loving your KJ as much as I love mine.

After lots of research of this series 3 versus the previous two, and compare/contrast against the egg, I went with this. The sloroller, divide-and-conquer, and grate/plate kit provided with the base purchase are super attractive. A month later, I finally have it, and assembly was easy enough if you discount the missing/bent parts. This is the result of two deliveries. The first one was obviously rejected as you can see the hole blown into the box by a forklift and damage to the shell visible through that hole. I have no idea why the delivery person even bothered. The second delivery was a box that was apparently destroyed as they slid the exposed grill onto the lift, along with all the boxes they could find(yes, parts are missing), and I retrieved my convertible dolly to unload as it was 1) better than theirs(they even remarked how they needed one like mine) and 2) the lift didn't come down to ground level, so the plywood pallet was slid off of the lowered lift onto my dolly. Since the inspection didn't show any apparent cracks in the shell, I went ahead and accepted it. After the delivery truck returned to my residence with another box found in the truck(wheels for the grill), most of the assembly was completed. There is a bent hinge mount for the side tray, and a random washer and nut found in the body amongst the dust and exploded silica packet balls that were everywhere. The ash tool is missing, ceramic feet are missing, and the hinge engagement tool kit is nowhere to be found. I'm not sure if the plan was to sent out the busted one first to offload this one, but XPO is really failing at the handling part of shipping and handling here, even forgiving getting this thing a month later.