DonBB

About once a year for me.

I've never needed to clean my grates. After every cook I fire it to 500, then brush them and shut down the Kamado.

The one thing I see is that your pit only sat at the target temp for 15 minutes before you opened it. I typically leave mine at the target for about an hour to let it stabilize and heat soak.

So KJ's response is definitely concerning. A teflon coated skillet is one thing (although personally I don't use those either), but teflon inside a Kamado that can potentially reach temps of 700 - 800 degrees.....?

KJ lump, in my experience, has become wildly inconsistent from bag to bag and I no longer use it because of this.

I've stopped using KJ entirely for this very reason. One bag can be normal then another can have a chemical smell/taste. I also got one bag that sparked so much ash covered all my food. I no longer trust KJ lump.

I typically fire my Kamado up to 500 then kill it after most cooks just for ongoing cleaning. However much charcoal you will need to reach 600 is how much charcoal you will need if you're just doing a cleaning burn. It does not need to be completely full.

Smash burgers are meant to increase surface area and be cooked on a flat top, not the grill grates. The increased surface area and flat top provide for more crust.

Yeah that's for sure no good. Was thinking about purchasing as well until seeing this.

I've ordered Prime ribeyes from Snake River before and was disappointed. While the quality was good, the steak itself was less than an inch thick. Their brisket is always solid though.

I have also switched to JD because of consistency problems with KJ. The last bag of KJ I used sparked so much there was ash all over my food.

Is your heat deflector in the upper or lower position?

What grade was it?

Was this actually the very first cook on the KJ? I usually recommend running a burn-in once before using just to be sure any residue from the factory is sufficiently burned off.

A water pan is used for temperature control, not necessarily for moisture control.