Interesting Announcement

[freddyjbbq]

This is a Gorgeous Kamado.  What are people’s thoughts on incorporating pellets ? 

 

[prowe]

Deja vu

 

[T_om]

Pellets are not something I would ever consider... overpriced and underperforming from my experience with friends using them...but folks do what they want to do.  

 

Tom

[freddyjbbq]

2 minutes ago, T_om said:

Pellets are not something I would ever consider... overpriced and underperforming from my experience with friends using them...but folks do what they want to do.  

 

Tom

 

It will be interesting to see where it goes.  Getting TONS of comments on the KJ Instagram post; positive outweighing the negative by a fair amount. 

[freddyjbbq]

13 hours ago, prowe said:

Deja vu

 

 

You buying one? 

 

13 hours ago, prowe said:

Deja vu

 

 

You buying one?

 

[Charcoal Addict]

It interesting.  It has a great and visually appealing design.  It breaks with the offset design used by other pellet manufactures.  

[Polar Bear]

On ‎9‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 1:26 AM, freddyjbbq said:

 

It will be interesting to see where it goes.  Getting TONS of comments on the KJ Instagram post; positive outweighing the negative by a fair amount. 

Theyre playing to thier own audience over there. I doubt many people would be there if they could think of anything negative to say about KJ in general

 

 

On ‎9‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 1:28 AM, Charcoal Addict said:

It interesting.  It has a great and visually appealing design.  It breaks with the offset design used by other pellet manufactures.  

 

The trade off for most pellet smokers is increased grill space in return for less optimal heat retention

A kamado pellet grill would offer better heat retention and stability but at the cost of relative grill space

Theres also the issue that, i imagine, a ceramic bbq would require A TON of pellets in order to heat to pizza or searing temps as the fuel source doesnt have the same thermal energy as lump charcoal would.

 

[freddyjbbq]

2 hours ago, Polar Bear said:

Theyre playing to thier own audience over there. I doubt many people would be there if they could think of anything negative to say about KJ in general

 

 

 

The trade off for most pellet smokers is increased grill space in return for less optimal heat retention

A kamado pellet grill would offer better heat retention and stability but at the cost of relative grill space

Theres also the issue that, i imagine, a ceramic bbq would require A TON of pellets in order to heat to pizza or searing temps as the fuel source doesnt have the same thermal energy as lump charcoal would.

 

1. Fair point and you have to take comments for what they’re worth (both positive and negative), they are just words.  I left a positive comment, like the idea and love the look of the grill but will I purchase?

 

2.  Agree. I was hoping that this kamado would be dual fuel  pellet & charcoal; it isn’t, but maybe future models will.  Comparing straight up to pellet grills, my traegers have 20 & 22# hopper capacity (compare to kj 8#) and 650 & 1300  square inches grilling capacity.  

 

Looking forward to seeing one in person, I’d love to do a couple of cooks on one.  Love that KJ is giving this a shot and the frill looks great!

 

 

[fbov]

12 hours ago, Polar Bear said:

The trade off for most pellet smokers is increased grill space in return for less optimal heat retention

"Less optimal heat retention" is one way of saying "leaky." And that's not a bad thing. 

 

We've used pellets for home heating for the last ~20 year. Pellets and wood stoves are opposite approaches to wood heating. One uses lots of air and meters the pellet fuel. The other loads a stove with fuel, then meters the air. The problem with the latter approach is pollution. Metering air results in partial combustion products up the flue, which has driven a lot of mountain communities to outlaw wood-burning stoves. 

 

A Kamado is a wood-burning stove; it meters air. You cook with the partial combustion products. 

 

A pellet Kamado will meter fuel. I'm curious where they go from there. Pellets will need stick-burner levels of "leakage" to work properly. Will they perhaps duplicate the stick-burner result more closely?

 

Have fun,

Frank

[John Setzler]

Pellet grills DO work on an almost identical principle as offset stick burners.  You have a high airflow environment with a very small hot burning fire.  That's what I love about pellet grills.  I have been working for quite a while to make my Kamado mimic that process and I have had great success with it.  The resulting process is more like running a stick burner with hands on intervention every 45 minutes to an hour depending on how hot you want to run.  

 

The problem of discussing pellet grills on a forum like this is that every one here wants to compare it to their kamado.  You just can't do that.  It's not an apples to apples comparison.  Pellet grills in general suck at searing and don't even consider the high temperature pizza option.  They just aren't cut out for that.  The Kamado audience has their list of reasons why the kamado is better.  That's fine.  But you still can't compare the two on equal terms.  

 

I am a big fan of pellet grills and I can't wait to try this one.  I know where pellet grills excel.  Yup.. they do some things better than a Kamado.  I am completely unbiased on the two and I am fully willing to admit from experience that each grill is better than the other in several areas.  Kamado faithful fans will never admit it.  Neither will the pellet grill faithful.  

 

I also see a lot of negativism toward pellet grills from people I know have never owned one.  "I've heard that pellet grills can/can't do........" does not count.  

 

Here's a hard fact:

 

If you are a decent cook at all, you can cook on whatever you want or whatever you have.  Having a preference is fine.  

 

I am on my third pellet grill.  Whenever the KJ pellet grill lands, it will be #4.  

[Charcoal Addict]

1 hour ago, John Setzler said:

Pellet grills DO work on an almost identical principle as offset stick burners.  You have a high airflow environment with a very small hot burning fire.  That's what I love about pellet grills.  I have been working for quite a while to make my Kamado mimic that process and I have had great success with it.  The resulting process is more like running a stick burner with hands on intervention every 45 minutes to an hour depending on how hot you want to run.  

 

The problem of discussing pellet grills on a forum like this is that every one here wants to compare it to their kamado.  You just can't do that.  It's not an apples to apples comparison.  Pellet grills in general suck at searing and don't even consider the high temperature pizza option.  They just aren't cut out for that.  The Kamado audience has their list of reasons why the kamado is better.  That's fine.  But you still can't compare the two on equal terms.  

 

I am a big fan of pellet grills and I can't wait to try this one.  I know where pellet grills excel.  Yup.. they do some things better than a Kamado.  I am completely unbiased on the two and I am fully willing to admit from experience that each grill is better than the other in several areas.  Kamado faithful fans will never admit it.  Neither will the pellet grill faithful.  

 

I also see a lot of negativism toward pellet grills from people I know have never owned one.  "I've heard that pellet grills can/can't do........" does not count.  

 

Here's a hard fact:

 

If you are a decent cook at all, you can cook on whatever you want or whatever you have.  Having a preference is fine.  

 

I am on my third pellet grill.  Whenever the KJ pellet grill lands, it will be #4.  

 

The pellet grill will excel at long low and slow cooks over the Kamado grill and cold smoking.  Kamado’s are no where near as efficient at cold smoking.

 

High Quality Pellet grills have an edge over the Kamado in brisket cooks. 

 

It’ll be interesting to see someone do a comparison between the KJ pellet and the Traeger Timberline.  Realistically those are the two models that are worth comparing.   

 

I’m not sure what advantage a KJ pellet grill would have over a similarly priced fully insulated Timberline Pellet grill. 

[JohnnyAppetizer]

I own a Traeger and a vision. I bought the vision for searing steaks and the like. I have smoked on the vision, it did a good job. I made a pizza on the Vision, again a good job. The Kamado is a much better swiss army knife than the Traeger. Very versatile.

 

I have roasted chicken, smoked meat as well as cooked a steak,  burger, salmon on the Traeger. Not as good as a kettle grill or gas grill for searing, but acceptable.

 

Think of the new pellet kamado as a new hybrid pellet grill, nothing more. The vision gas Kamado? How about some comments on that ? Just another hybrid. Whirlwind I believe, is a pellet grill with some kind of searing option. Hybrid or crossover, I dunno? 

I am sure there will people who like a kamado pellet grill, even if it is just a smoker. Probably some guy will make a cart/wagon with a traditional charcoal kamado and pellet kamado mounted on it side by side.

 

 

 

[freddyjbbq]

13 hours ago, John Setzler said:

Pellet grills DO work on an almost identical principle as offset stick burners.  You have a high airflow environment with a very small hot burning fire.  That's what I love about pellet grills.  I have been working for quite a while to make my Kamado mimic that process and I have had great success with it.  The resulting process is more like running a stick burner with hands on intervention every 45 minutes to an hour depending on how hot you want to run.  

 

The problem of discussing pellet grills on a forum like this is that every one here wants to compare it to their kamado.  You just can't do that.  It's not an apples to apples comparison.  Pellet grills in general suck at searing and don't even consider the high temperature pizza option.  They just aren't cut out for that.  The Kamado audience has their list of reasons why the kamado is better.  That's fine.  But you still can't compare the two on equal terms.  

 

I am a big fan of pellet grills and I can't wait to try this one.  I know where pellet grills excel.  Yup.. they do some things better than a Kamado.  I am completely unbiased on the two and I am fully willing to admit from experience that each grill is better than the other in several areas.  Kamado faithful fans will never admit it.  Neither will the pellet grill faithful.  

 

I also see a lot of negativism toward pellet grills from people I know have never owned one.  "I've heard that pellet grills can/can't do........" does not count.  

 

Here's a hard fact:

 

If you are a decent cook at all, you can cook on whatever you want or whatever you have.  Having a preference is fine.  

 

I am on my third pellet grill.  Whenever the KJ pellet grill lands, it will be #4.  

 

 

There are several good points made here & I agree with all of them 

[freddyjbbq]

11 hours ago, Charcoal Addict said:

 

It’ll be interesting to see someone do a comparison between the KJ pellet and the Traeger Timberline.  Realistically those are the two models that are worth comparing.   

 

I’m not sure what advantage a KJ pellet grill would have over a similarly priced fully insulated Timberline Pellet grill. 

 

Point 1 :  here is the comparison, don’t even need to cool a pellet joe to make it:  Both grills work and cook exactly the same (all pellet cookers do).  Timberline has larger food and pellet capacity.  Both may have different features. Both will cook food exactly the same. Both look very different on the outside.

 

Point 2:  for any Kamado or KJ brand enthusiast who wants to try/own a pellet grill, the pellet joe will have the advantage. Both pellet grills will cook exactly the same way.

 

imo the pellet joe is gorgeous and exciting.   Coming from a guy who owns 3 charcoal Kamados, i would’ve had a charcoal and pellet Kamado if the option were available because the are very different grills and do different things.  The only difference between my junior, classic & BJ is the amount of fuel & food that they will hold 

[Charcoal Addict]

5 hours ago, freddyjbbq said:

 

Point 1 :  here is the comparison, don’t even need to cool a pellet joe to make it:  Both grills work and cook exactly the same (all pellet cookers do).  Timberline has larger food and pellet capacity.  Both may have different features. Both will cook food exactly the same. Both look very different on the outside.

 

Point 2:  for any Kamado or KJ brand enthusiast who wants to try/own a pellet grill, the pellet joe will have the advantage. Both pellet grills will cook exactly the same way.

 

imo the pellet joe is gorgeous and exciting.   Coming from a guy who owns 3 charcoal Kamados, i would’ve had a charcoal and pellet Kamado if the option were available because the are very different grills and do different things.  The only difference between my junior, classic & BJ is the amount of fuel & food that they will hold 

 

I would still lean towards a Timberline for my pellet grill.