Now I am Kooking!

Hi Maria,

You do have a beautiful ceramic cooker and the food from the ceramic cookers adds a great dimension to the many wine options. By using fruit wood for subtle flavor enhancement you can create flavors that impact the wine pairings. You will have many great food and wine adventures.

In the interest of a true product review/comparison, I have two tiled ceramic cookers; one from Kamado and one from KomodoKamado (a competitor). And to be fair, there are numerous ceramic BBQ's, but to my knowledge there are only two of the tiled ceramic BBQ's. My Kamado has not failed. My KomodoKamado is a superior product for function and amenities. The other cermics (BGE, Primo, and others) also produce very good food. The comparison comes down to tile (or no tile), ease of use, quality of components, price, and Customer service. I do not have experience with the non-tiled ceramics. Ceramic cooking offers the less experienced an easier way to BBQ over natural wood (giving unsurpassed flavor), and a shorter learning curve. In short, IMHO building and maintaining a fire temp is much easier in the ceramic BBQs.

My personal experience with Kamado was poor to say the least and that is why I ended up with a KomodoKamado. So, to anyone looking for a ceramic BBQ product, do you homework first, and I believe that is one of the points Will is making. These are not inexpensive cookers. Check out the websites Will listed above, there is very valid information there. There is a string of websites that might be helpful for the general BBQ topic http://www.thesmokering.com. Great BBQ and wine are a great pairing and the BBQ season is here.

Maria and Bob are happy and I am glad they enjoy their BBQ's. Admin is totally correct in the stance taken here. I am not here to spread venom, but to share my experience with the topic. I look forward to more discussions. I am from the Central Calif. Coast wine region. I'm not sure if I am out of line to mention the upcoming Paso Robles Zinfandel festival Mar 14-17. The beautiful spring colors and the location paired with wine tasting makes for an incredible outing.

[Jenise]

Thanks again for your patience.

Will, there's no one on this planet who hasn't had product dissatisfaction compounded by an insufficient response on the part of a manufacturer. But for every one of those there are dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of people who love what they bought. We obviously have the latter as members of our forum, and as one of the former you have every right to squawk and scream--in your own corner of the universe. But here? It's not so welcome. Basically, problems some others have had with these products and the company owner's various failings as a human being have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Bob H has owned and been supremely happy with his Kamado for years, just as we all hope Maria will be. Perhaps what rankles me, anyway, most about your post is that you didn't post here unasked out of concern for another customer, you posted to avenge Kamado the wrongs done you at that new customer's expense and in the process not only abused this forum's welcome with your deception, to borrow your adjective, you also participated in treating the members of this forum with derision and disrespect on your forum. Speaking only for myself of course, you didn't do your cause any favors.

Will -

I have to agree with Jenise, to some extent. You didn't offer up advice for someone who was thinking of purchasing a Kamado, you responded to two people who already have them. Bob's experience has been nothing but good (at least currently) and with luck, Maria's will be as well.

That said, I hope you have more interest in this forum than just the promotion of "anti-Kamodo-ism" . We're a fun group and generally friendly here. If you enjoy food and wine, I encourage you to stick around and discuss them.

Will,

Thank you for your apology. I appreciate it. I also appreciate the fact that you and your co-posters on your fraud board think you are trying to help others out by letting them know that you are a dissatisfied customer, (and I hope that is truly your intention, and not just to continue to get revenge… In the immortal words of your fellow member “Porkchop” [Mr. Mike Soule]

there are plenty of folks who already have problems with RJ/Kamado. personally, i hope she has no problems whatsoever. i mean, it DOES feel good sometimes to say "i told you so", but, really, she's never done me or anyone i know ill.

Full post - http://www.kamadofraudforum.org/viewtop ... light=hope .) but might I make a suggestion? You seem like a nice enough, articulate guy...maybe you could go about it in a different manner, posting on review sites with you proper name and your situation, making complaints to the BBB, etc. I notice that many of you on your board have spent a lot of time creating negativity and bitterness by posting anonymously to various sites dedicated to bashing and hating a company and family. These sites do not help new Kamado customers or even potential customers, and all they seem to accomplish is continuing to foster hatred and negativity in its(hate sites) members. We have all been burned or “taken” in some way by different companies, people, etc in our lives…we file complaints, give bad reviews, do not recommend them to others…then we chalk it up to a mistake, move on in our lives, and try to do positive things and focus on the things that are really important in life. I’ve found that in the end, if companies are unethical in their practices, karma will come back and those companies will get what is coming to them. However, continuing to feel angry and bitter, posting nasty, hateful comments, only results in hurting yourself. Maybe, your time would be better spent building a house for the poor, or using your BBQing skills to cook for a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. Or maybe you could even participate here on our food board by giving us some tricks on some good BBQ! There are others (those without ceramic cookers)in this post (and on this site) who are interested in learning more or even purchasing a ceramic cooker. Maybe you can spend your time telling us about YOUR cookers and simply telling us the reasons why you didn’t like YOUR Kamado, because I am honestly not interested in what a bunch of anonymous names and faces have to say about much of anything, especially if it is hateful.

I do hope that you stick around, Will, to talk about food related subjects…because that’s what this site is all about.

Welcome to the forum Patty! Thank you for your post...I truly appreciate it. Hopefully, I will have an experience similar to Bob's with my kooker. Thank you for coming over and telling us about your kooker...now others who are interested in purchasing a ceramic kooker can now make an informed decision about their purchase. And I hope you stick around to give me some tips and recipes!

Welcome to the forum Patty! Thank you for your post...I truly appreciate it. Hopefully, I will have an experience similar to Bob's with my kooker. Thank you for coming over and telling us about your kooker...now others who are interested in purchasing a ceramic kooker can now make an informed decision about their purchase. And I hope you stick around to give me some tips and recipes!

Thanks Maria. I was a real rookie when I gave up the gasser for the ceramic. But the quality of the food takes a huge jump. There are some places you can buy chunks of used wine barrels for smoke wood. Grapevines make excellent smoke wood as do various fruit trees. Key is not to use the wood 'green'. The various ceramic BBQ sites maintain forums with recipes. Once you learn fire starting and temp control (not that hard) there are plenty of recipes. As you know, in addition to meat, poultry and fish, you can cook pizza and bread in these cookers, and vegetables are incredible. And, just for safety I would be remiss to not caution you about flashbacks.

[Robin Garr]

In the interest of a true product review/comparison, I have two tiled ceramic cookers; one from Kamado and one from KomodoKamado (a competitor). And to be fair, there are numerous ceramic BBQ's, but to my knowledge there are only two of the tiled ceramic BBQ's. My Kamado has not failed. My KomodoKamado is a superior product for function and amenities. The other cermics (BGE, Primo, and others) also produce very good food. The comparison comes down to tile (or no tile), ease of use, quality of components, price, and Customer service.

Patty,
As Maria said welcome to the forum. If you do stick around and talk wine and food (along with a host of other subjects) with us, you will see that we are a genial bunch of folks. I hope you will share with all the food forumites the joys of ceramic cooking. I have been trying, and Maria just got her cooker, but we could use the help. As you know by now, I own a Kamado K7 and am pleased with it. I do not denigrate any other cooker, I just think that the Kamado is the best of the bunch. The thickness of the cooker it's self is one reason. I am not sure about the KomodoKamado cooker but the egg I am told is 1/2 inch thick while the Kamado is 2 inches thick. It makes sense to me that 2 inches of wall holds heat better than 1/2 inch. But not having cooked on the egg I can't say that for sure. There has been some dissatisfaction with some Kamado as is evidenced on the Kamado forum, and it is also evidenced that sometimes Customer Service slips a bit, however I haven't had any problem that way, and I suspect that a little working with the company will gather a much better response. Of course this is just MO and YMMV. Again welcome to the forum

Thanks Bob. As a newbie here, I feel I am walking on quicksand. It is not my intent to exceed the boundaries but to provide comparison information through my experience with both Kamado and KomodoKamado. The Kamado wall is about 2 inches thick, but until they introduced the 2008 model, was made of portland cement and crumbled lava rock, not ceramic material. For their new 2008 model, Kamado started using the same Harbison-Walker ceramic material that KomodoKamado uses, but I do not know if the formulas are the same. KomodoKamado uses a double wall design that is I believe 2 inches thick, but is surely explained better on their website. The opening system is important to consider on all the grills. Kamado has attached props that assist the opening of the heavy lid, but requires a handle to be screwed down to keep the lid open. KomodoKamado lid is on a adjustable spring with a latch, release the latch and the lid self opens which is by far the superior opening system. Primo is a lift off lid, and the last EGG I saw several years ago was a lift off lid. KomodoKamado air adjustment system also is easier to use than the Kamado with its coarse-thread stainless adjustment bar for the damper top, and the very precision pinwheel air adjustment on the lower door (eliminating the need to open the door at all on long cooks). Kamado announced a number of changes for 2008 model when they relocated to Indonesia for the second time, basically upgrading to the many of the same features already available on the KomodoKamado. Potential purchasers should determine whether prices quoted include stainless steel grills in 1/4 or 3/8 thickness or have baked enamel grills. The last I heard Kamado had a minimum three month wait to order and KomodoKamado keeps some inventory stateside, and special orders take about 5 to 6 weeks. I do not have knowledge of the formula or thickness of the other ceramics, but would agree that they are considerable thinner as the weights of the cookers varies greatly. The EGG and Primo definitely have greater market exposure, and I think the Primo is probably a nice entry level ceramic cooker. I do not know their general availability. As with many products, component pricing is important to compare. Option bundling affects the prices dramatically. I have only addressed a few of the differences and more details could be noted at the respective manufacturers websites

I would say that the ceramic cookers are not all created equal, and that especially internet purchases of this magnitude should be carefully weighed. And I do believe customer service is a major factor to consider. I have never owned an EGG but have looked at them in a BBQ store. I have never seen a Primo but have visited their website and liked their solid color choices. Viking appliances has a special model EGG that is encased in stainless steel. My best advice is to visit the websites of all and do a lot of lurking before coughing up credit cards. The tiled cookers are definitely an investment, but compare quite favorably with the higher end stainless gassers. The cooker is only one part of the equation, the chef and the food round out the final product

I can confidently say that ceramic cookers add an ease factor to outdoor BBQ. The food will retain greater moisture and the flavor is much better than a gasser. These comments come from someone who could never get a briquette fire started. I use natural lump charcoal (pre burned wood pieces). It is easy to start, and when you are done, you cut the air supply off to your fire and re-use the remnants in your next cook. There is no need for chemical starter or chemically binded briquettes which can impart flavor onto food.

Admin, I apologize if I have exceeded rules....it is my attempt to give a product comparison for the readers as objectively as possible. All cookers discussed have websites that can be easily brought up for further comparisons. Bottom line is you, Maria and myself have beautiful tiled ceramic cookers that can make us look like highly accomplished BBQrs.

Fantastic info Patty! Thanks for sharing that with us! You certainly know your kookers. I am glad you joined and could give us some insight on various products. Very helpful. Thanks!

[Jenise]

Admin, I apologize if I have exceeded rules....it is my attempt to give a product comparison for the readers as objectively as possible. All cookers discussed have websites that can be easily brought up for further comparisons. Bottom line is you, Maria and myself have beautiful tiled ceramic cookers that can make us look like highly accomplished BBQrs.

Patty, no rules exceeded--this is all very helpful and constructive information, and we appreciate your sharing I know is many many hours of research. Thanks.

Heck, am I a contrarian or just a cheapskate? Don't answer that, Jenise! Seriously, those Komodo things look cool, but I've had great luck with my good ol' Weber kettle and my home made smoker stocked with some great wood smoldering away.

Patty,

The Kamado wall is about 2 inches thick, but until they introduced the 2008 model, was made of portland cement and crumbled lava rock, not ceramic material. For their new 2008 model, Kamado started using the same Harbison-Walker ceramic material that KomodoKamado uses, but I do not know if the formulas are the same.

I also did want to mention, I am not really sure what material my Kamado is made from, but I do know that it is ceramic material, because technically any material that is not metal and not organic and is made by using heat is ceramic...

The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word κεραμικός (keramos). The term covers inorganic non-metallic materials which are formed by the action of heat. Up until the 1950s or so, the most important of these were the traditional clays, made into pottery, bricks, tiles and the like, along with cements and glass.

(From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic)

And really Portland cement mixed with crushed lava rocks sounds like a concrete which is an extremely strong material. I am not sure what kind of ceramic material is being used in the Kookers since none of the websites are really specific about it, but I am sure they are all pretty good materials...just like brick ovens that can withstand very high temps to cook pizzas and such. Please correct me if I am wrong though, but from my research before buying my K, that's what I could gather from the info on their websites.

Hi I new here too. I found the forum because of kamadofraud forum. I think enough has been said about that and some people here sum up my point of view very well. Maria I hope you enjoy your new kooker and the food that comes from it. I have a Komodo Kamado and the food from it is wonderful.

Now I did come to this forum to talk and learn about wine. I work at a winery as a wine chemist during the day and the off time is spent planting my vineyard. I have about 5 acres of Zinfandel planted just so I can see what I'm getting my self into. I'll look around a bit. I'm sure I'll find something interesting to read here.

Hi I new here too. I found the forum because of kamadofraud forum. I think enough has been said about that and some people here sum up my point of view very well. Maria I hope you enjoy your new kooker and the food that comes from it. I have a Komodo Kamado and the food from it is wonderful.

Now I did come to this forum to talk and learn about wine. I work at a winery as a wine chemist during the day and the off time is spent planting my vineyard. I have about 5 acres of Zinfandel planted just so I can see what I'm getting my self into. I'll look around a bit. I'm sure I'll find something interesting to read here.

Welcome to the forum Duane. We are (contrary to some) a very genial group. We love to talk, read, and write about wine. On the sister board just change wine for food. I hope you will stay around and speak wine, and food with us, and hopefully some of it will be Kooker food.

Hi I new here too. I found the forum because of kamadofraud forum. I think enough has been said about that and some people here sum up my point of view very well. Maria I hope you enjoy your new kooker and the food that comes from it. I have a Komodo Kamado and the food from it is wonderful.

Now I did come to this forum to talk and learn about wine. I work at a winery as a wine chemist during the day and the off time is spent planting my vineyard. I have about 5 acres of Zinfandel planted just so I can see what I'm getting my self into. I'll look around a bit. I'm sure I'll find something interesting to read here.

Welcome, Duane! Always good to see another chemist as well as another wine geek on the board. Hope you enjoy participating here.

Welcome Duane...it's always great to have to new members. This is a fantastic group of people. Thanks for the well wishes with my Kooker...I am looking forward to some wonderful food!

A wine chemist...that sounds like a really neat job. There are several members here to make their own wine as well. I hope you enjoy it here as much as I do, and I look forward to future posts about food, wine, and kooking from you. Welcome!

[Jenise]

Hi I new here too. I found the forum because of kamadofraud forum. I think enough has been said about that and some people here sum up my point of view very well. Maria I hope you enjoy your new kooker and the food that comes from it. I have a Komodo Kamado and the food from it is wonderful.

Now I did come to this forum to talk and learn about wine. I work at a winery as a wine chemist during the day and the off time is spent planting my vineyard. I have about 5 acres of Zinfandel planted just so I can see what I'm getting my self into. I'll look around a bit. I'm sure I'll find something interesting to read here.

Duane, terrific! Welcome.

Thanks for all of the nice welcomes.

I do enjoy talking about and drinking wine so working as a wine chemist is an enjoyable job also. Most of my work as a wine chemist is analyzing wine so the winemakers have an idea as to what is going on with it. I have been making my own wine since the late 70's off and on. It is a lot of work but I find it very enjoyable and rewarding. Currently I make wine almost totally by using my 5 senses instead of using all the fancy equipment that I have at work. I have yet to figure out a way to tell when malic acid has converted into lactic acid so I test for that at work. The free sulfor dioxide is also tested at work.

Cooking in a charcoal cooker is really a lot of fun. I make my own charcoal so getting a cooker to burn the charcoal was just the thing for me. I got the cooker because of the range of foods that can be cooked in it. I think you can cook just about anything in it that you can in your oven. One of best things that I have cooked is homemade sourdough bread. I found this interesting because I made my own starter. The whole process of baking bread has a lot of similarities to winemaking so I learn a little bit more about fermentations.

I looked around the forum a little bit and am a bit overwhelmed by all of the activity here. I'll keep observing unless someone points out where all the action is.

...I looked around the forum a little bit and am a bit overwhelmed by all of the activity here. I'll keep observing unless someone points out where all the action is.

Hi Duane and welcome. I've also been making wine at home since the mid-70's. It's fun and it keeps me off the street corners. As you browse around here, be sure to look through "Offlines", where folks arrange get-togethers and meet in person to share wines and "Friends and Fun", where almost anything goes.

[Jenise]

I do enjoy talking about and drinking wine so working as a wine chemist is an enjoyable job also. Most of my work as a wine chemist is analyzing wine so the winemakers have an idea as to what is going on with it. I have been making my own wine since the late 70's off and on.

You said you're growing zinfandel, so I presume you're in California? If so, what part? And do you work for a specific winery or do you work for an independent lab?

You said you're growing zinfandel, so I presume you're in California? If so, what part? And do you work for a specific winery or are you a lab rat?

I'm in Paso Robles.

"What winery do I work for?" How many layers are there in an onion? Ok I'll start with the biggest part of the company. I think we currently are calling it Foster's Wine Group. The local winery that I work at is Meridian Vineyards and there are many other labels that I work on from other wineries in the group.

I'm in Paso Robles.
"What winery do I work for?" How many layers are there in an onion? Ok I'll start with the biggest part of the company. I think we currently are calling it Foster's Wine Group. The local winery that I work at is Meridian Vineyards and there are many other labels that I work on from other wineries in the group.

Duane, is there a wine maker at Meridan vineyards named Art Nathan? If there is let him know that I asked about him. Tell him that we knew each other online way back in the old Prodigy days, and that I would love to talk to him right here. Also, tell him that I still make his recipe for chicken wings.

Bob, Yes Art of Winemaking is working at Meridian. The company makes us all wear safety vests now when we go out into the winery and that is how Art's vest is personalized, "Art of Winemaking". I see Art most days so I'll say hello for you and point him in this direction. He is busy making all kinds of new products for the company, labels other than Meridian or Beringer.

Hi Duane.....glad to see you made it here. These folks are gonna be watering when they see pictures of that bread you bake. One look at those pics makes you want to grab a glass of wine and cheese and a hunk of warm bread.

Speaking of cheeses, I think I will snoop around for a thread on that.