Char-Griller® AKORN® Kamado Charcoal Grill and Smoker with Cast Iron Grates, Warming Rack and Locking Lid with 445 Cooking Square Inches in Graphite, Model E16620

The media could not be loaded. Update 12/5/19 ---I've had this now for 1.5 years, and I still really like it. I'm not seeing any signs of rust, and all the seams still seal, even though I've been using this probably twice a week on average. I still think it's a great price to get into a Kamado BBQ. I smoked a 20lb. turkey for Thanksgiving last week, it was moist and juicy and smokey, with crisp skin. Then I reverse seared a 3lb. prime rib roast the next day. You can make great veggies on it, too. Maybe the biggest hit has been the baba ganoush (smokey eggplant and garlic dip), but any roasted veggies will come out excellent.Original review ---TL;DR: You have to consider this $300 Kamado in comparison to spending 2-8x as much for other Kamado style grills. I am sure I would love to have a Weber Summit or a Kamado Joe, but I can buy this over and over again for the cost of one of those units. I have had this for a year now, and it's been great. It's much lighter and less fragile than the ceramic units, and provides great control over temperatures. By buying bags of different types of wood chunks, you can tailor the smoke flavor to the food easily.The Akorn took me about 1.5 hours to assemble, and I had no issues. All the parts were present, and all the fasteners were packaged in a blister pack that identified everything, so it was easy to see that I had all the parts. All the parts lined up and everything mounted the way the instructions said it should. The gaskets both sealed perfectly, and have continued to seal for the 6 months I've had it.This is the only Kamado grill I've owned, but it has been easy to figure out. I've cooked half a dozen pork butts on it, I've done a couple full briskets, lots of spare ribs, 3 or 4 prime rib roasts, probably 8 turkeys and a bunch of steaks. I love doing a "reverse sear" on prime rib or steaks (smoke the meat low at 225°F until it reaches about 120°F internal, take the meat off and crank up the heat to 500°F or more, then sear the meat for about 2 minutes on each side). Everything has been at least good, and after a bit of practice, most things have come off great! I've also roasted peppers, done artichokes, eggplants and a bunch of other veggies, in different ways, on this grill. It gives you super control and a wide range of temperatures, and you can raise the temperature really fast. It only takes 5-10 minutes to do the raise from smoking to searing I mentioned above.Speaking of which, it's very important, especially for cooking at lower temperatures, to keep a careful eye on the grill temperature as it heats up. It's much easier to bring the heat up than to try to cool the grill down. This isn't a knock on the Akorn itself, it's a property of all the Kamado style grills. Be very careful not to let it run away, or it will take you a long time to get it back down to where you want it.You also definitely want to buy a pizza stone/heat deflector stone for this, in order to do low and slow cooking. I think I paid $35 for the one I bought to go with the Akorn. This is what allows you to cook over indirect heat, to smoke low and slow, to put a water pan in to keep the food moist for longer cooks, and to catch drippings for sauces and gravies.The cast iron grate is easy to use and keep clean, if you season it first. Mine is black and somewhat glossy, like a cast iron pan, and food doesn't stick to it.The ash removal system is easy to use and effective. After removing the ash pan, try to pour the ash out away from the air intake or you'll get some between the walls.A number of reviews talk about rust problems. I'm about 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and we can have a lot of fog, so I was concerned about that. I haven't seen any rust forming yet, but I did buy a cover for the grill to try and protect it. At this price, if it rusts out in 5 years and I have to buy another one, I'll be dead before it costs me as much as a Weber Summit.As others have reported, the thermometer in the lid is not accurate. I factored that into my expectations, and I already had a wireless thermometer that I was using on my gas grill. Consider, if you don't already have one, getting a 2 (or more) probe wireless thermometer. You want to have a probe for the grill temperature and another for the food. This will allow you to do longer cooks without opening the lid and losing heat.Also, I would recommend that you get some heat proof gloves, so you can add or remove the heat deflector while it's hot or there's a fire going.

UPDATE --- After almost a year of use... This is hands down the best grill I've ever had. I's say it's the best purchase I've ever made period, but I'm sure I'd be leaving out something really important like a house or a vacation to Australia or an engagement ring or something. But when it comes to food and cooking... forget about it. This thing is awesome.Here's why... everything you cook on it comes out good. Literally it seems impossible to mess-up. Get the grill too hot, the food just gets done quicker, but it still rocks. Dont' add enough coals and it's not warm enough... just give it more time or add coals right mid-cook... no problem... it comes out right. It's also very spacious; room for tons of food when you're cooking a week's worth in advance or having a few people over. I just love it.Some people say the Big Green one is better. I can't imagine how it could be.It's also held up very well in my harsh salt-water environment. So far it's pretty much like-new, or it would be if I'd clean it real good.ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW --->It's been four days since the Big Red Egg arrived. Possibly the best four days of my life? That might be an exaggeration but hey, that's how this grill makes me feel. Obviously I love it.My real concern when buying a grill online was that I would be displeased with either the quality of construction and/or materials and/or that the cooking area would be too small. Neither is the case. The construction is top quality and the cooking area is huge.Everything I read in the other reviews here pretty much turned out to be true. It cooks fast if you want it to, slow if that's what you want. I haven't had any trouble keeping a low temp as long as I start with a very small pile of charcoal, like maybe what would fit in the bottom half of a 2-liter drink bottle. More than that and it does get tough to stay below 300F.In four days I've smoked mullet, cooked two london broils, done some amazing chicken breasts in record time, and slow cooked a Boston Butt. Oh, and I also used it to season a cast iron skillet... why I've never done that on the grill I'll never know. It was much nicer than filling the house with smoke and the skillet seams seasoned better than ever. Maybe because I was able to recoat it with oil a couple of times during the process.The warming rack is awesome and the main cooking area is huge (20" diameter). I took the advice of another review and purchased the wireless thermometer which shows both the grill temp and the meat temp. That was nice. I used it for making some of the best baked potatos ever (forgot to list them above) 222 degrees for a great baked potato.I'm going to order the pizza stone and I'll try to remember to come back and update as more time passes.Assembly was easy and took about an hour. I bought the red one and it looks great. The metal side shelves are sturdy and the wheels seem sturdy as well.So far, I couldn't be happier.Regarding the title... I know you probably thought YOU were the Grill Master... sorry. Maybe before, but now that I have my Big Red Egg, I'm unstoppable.