HeadhunterMike

I bought my Big Joe from Conns in Pearland, Tx. 3yr - 0% interest. It was pretty much a no brainer for me. Use someone else's money to finance a great grill.

I have a BJ and love it. I primarily cook packer briskets and found that 18" grills were really not big enough for me given most briskets are somewhere between 20"-24". Can you fit one on an 18" grill, yes, but it is usually a tight fit for the first few hours until the meat shrinks. I believe others have mentioned the amount of charcoal required every time you fire it, and the BJ takes a little longer for temp to stabilize.

My KJ BigJoe arrived Wednesday 9/13/17. Cooked a chicken the first night at ~300F. Had a little trouble maintaining a consistent temp, but was more or less happy with results. Thinking a little technology would help, I purchased a ThermPro to help me monitor grill and food temp. Friday night I put a brisket on around 10pm. Intent was to cook at 225F. Temp was was initially stable around 230F and I felt that was good enough. Set the ThermPro for for 300 and headed off to bed. The alarm was sounded and I watched as the grill temp bounced a few degrees and then crept up to 255F. Got up, made a minor change to top vent, thinking small steps over time would solve the problem. I had the bottom vent about 1/4" to 1/8" open and top vent set near the first hash mark. Finally decided after an hour or so of that 255F was good enough and went back to bed. Pulled my brisket off when internal temp reached about 202F, wrapped it in foil and put in a cooler with an electric heating pad to keep the meat above 140F per health code. While I had a good smoke ring and good bark, the brisket was pretty dry. Then today, I went out to clean my grill and noticed that the paint near the corner of the top vent had bubbled up and come off. Contacting KJ today online. As anyone had temp control or paint issues or am I making some novice mistakes?

HEB - a Texas based grocery store has Central Market lump charcoal for $12.96 for 20# bag. What I liked about this was the large pieces of lump, not the small broken pieces you find so often. https://www.heb.com/product-detail/central-market-mesquite-lump-charcoal/986124 Good luck

Geocast, where did you find one for $299? Sams? I have been looking for some time and that sounds like a great price.