The ceramic, high efficiency grills/smokers appeal to me for a number of reasons, including the really good seal, reputation for durability and the fuel efficiency/quick starting.

Here’s the results of about 30 minutes [...]]]> As I’ve been getting interested in charcuterie and curing, I’ve been trying to think how I’m going to do some smoking of meats, fish, etc.

The ceramic, high efficiency grills/smokers appeal to me for a number of reasons, including the really good seal, reputation for durability and the fuel efficiency/quick starting.

Here’s the results of about 30 minutes of googling/reading/viewing various sources (the caveat here is that I have never owned a kamado-style grill, so this is just stuff I learned on the Internet):

I’ve heard of the Big Green Egg, but upon googling around this morning, I find that the BGE company has a lot of marketing muscle behind it, and there are alternatives.

The first thing to beware of is that it looks like the tile-covered Kamado.com product is not without its detractors. It sounds like some folks feel that the tiles can cover over engineering weaknesses and materials defects in the product. It also sounds like some of Kamado.com’s customers are not happy with its customer service.

On the Big Green Egg front, they rely on local resellers for sales (they say that buying from an internet merchant voids the product’s warranty). My paranoid product/vendor/merchant sense makes me think they’re just enforcing a premium pricing scheme.

it looks like at least one fairly authoritative vendor has moved to other brands. The bbqguys(.com) say in the linked video that this decision was driven primarily by design and quality issues, but there may also be other reasons (business, sentiment, etc.) that we’re not aware of. The bbqguys also have a grill comparison chart, which is informative, and it looks like they carry the brands Grill Dome, Primo and Dragon Fire Kamado.

I can’t figure out how much a properly vended Big Green Egg kamado grill would cost, but I can give you price ranges for the other kinds (via the bbqguys and some other internet vendors).

Dragon Fire Kamado (19 1/2″ diameter, 250 pounds): ~$750 for the grill, cart included, optional stainless steel cabinet cart: $999

Grill Dome (Infinity Series, 18″ diameter, 175 pounds): $630 for the grill, simple cart: $80, wood cart: $230, rolling cart granite cart: $450, stainless cabinet cart: $999

Primo (19 1/2″ diameter, 140 pounds): ~$730 for the grill, it’s hard to sort out the cart options, but like the Grill Dome options, perhaps $100 more for comparable carts.

Primo also carries oval section kamado-type grills at similar pricing, but a little more expensive. It’s probably harder to find third party carts for that shape, though.

Other brands available: Comet, California, Unique, King, …?