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Kamado style cooker

Another Akorn owner here. If you research the modifications before you buy it like I did, then you just do them when you are putting it together and there are no hassles at all. The only thing I did was put some gasket material on the air intake at the bottom. Not exactly rocket science. The only reason I went to another smoker was for capacity, not capability.
 
I got lucky with my vision grill from costco. it was end of season and they ran out, so i got a floor model. was able to to talk it down to $220. But i love this grill. I would pay retail for it, but many times costco always has it on clearance at the end of season. If you can hold out until fall I would. But this is worth the price tag.
 
I've got an Akorn and I really like it. Just make sure you seal it up really well and you should be able to hold temps for smoking without issue. You do have to learn how to dial it in first but it only took me a couple of cooks. Make sure you bring it up to temp really slow or it can be easy to overshoot your target temp. I don't use mine as much as I used to anymore.... for grilling I tend to always use my Weber Kettle and when I'm smoking I tend to use my UDS. It's nothing against the Akorn, I think I've probably even produced some of my best Que smoking on the Akorn. I just prefer the Weber for grilling because I can easier position coals/lump for indirect, and I just like smoking more on my UDS because I built it and I think it's cool. The Akorn (or any Kamado) is way more fuel efficient than a UDS. It's a good "do everything" cooker, you'll really like it.
 
I didn't do any modifications to my Akorn (Home Depot cart model) and have no problems holding 200-220 for low and slows. Completely airtight? Nope, I can see some small tendrils of smoke make it out around the edge but it doesn't effect my ability to cook low and slow, and the meat couldn't be juicier. IMHO, people blow the tightness of the Akorn issue all out of proportion. That being said, I'm using the Smokin' Stone accessory and I think the ceramic of that helps stabilize the Akorn a lot easier.
 
sumrtym said:
I didn't do any modifications to my Akorn (Home Depot cart model) and have no problems holding 200-220 for low and slows. Completely airtight? Nope, I can see some small tendrils of smoke make it out around the edge but it doesn't effect my ability to cook low and slow, and the meat couldn't be juicier. IMHO, people blow the tightness of the Akorn issue all out of proportion. That being said, I'm using the Smokin' Stone accessory and I think the ceramic of that helps stabilize the Akorn a lot easier.
Click to expand...

Some are sealed better than others. Some of the early models had issues around the edges of the ash pan. Some are perfectly air tight right out of the box. Mine wasn't perfectly air tight and sometimes on a windy day it would cause the temps to fluctuate more than I wanted.. I just took the air intake off the front and put some big green egg gasket material behind it and put it back on. I also ran a bead of high temp silicone around the edge of the ash pan. After doing so it holds temps like a champ. These "mods" took all of 5 minutes, not hard to do at all but if you don't have to do them in the first place....that's even better.
 
Well, got it up and running for my first real cook with it today. Doing a pork butt, for pulled pork bbq tomorrow.

It has been real tough keeping temps. I did bend the latches a bit to get it a little tighter.

The problem for me has been keeping it low. Between 250- 260 no problem, but try for 215, and I just keep snuffing the fire out. The way this is going I am either going to have a real long night, or throw this but in the electric till its done.

Chris
 
cmseeley said:
Well, got it up and running for my first real cook with it today. Doing a pork butt, for pulled pork bbq tomorrow.

It has been real tough keeping temps. I did bend the latches a bit to get it a little tighter.

The problem for me has been keeping it low. Between 250- 260 no problem, but try for 215, and I just keep snuffing the fire out. The way this is going I am either going to have a real long night, or throw this but in the electric till its done.

Chris
Click to expand...

215 is too low. Try to shoot between 250 and 300.
 
I don't know much about this style of grill, but I just went to the Komodo.com forum and the first thread I saw was someone bitching about build quality... Not a good sign.

I work in the manufacturing industry (vastly different product) and I can tell you we on the line pick out cuts in the quality of materials and overall product quality dropping due to increased production quotas about 6 months to a year before we hear complaints from customers. That means a bunch of product in the field before the quality gods react.
 
tnfan47 said:
215 is too low. Try to shoot between 250 and 300.
Click to expand...

215 is too low? I thought 215 was the "Ideal" temp for smoking a butt?

After having to relight, I have been keeping it in that range 250-275.

I guess that you need a draft control to really be able to just keep it low for a slow cook? When I seasoned it, I kept it just above 400 for 8 hours or so, with very little effort.

Maybe I need to look at getting a pid draft/temp controller

Chris
 
Whitewookie said:
I don't know much about this style of grill, but I just went to the Komodo.com forum and the first thread I saw was someone bitching about build quality... Not a good sign.

I work in the manufacturing industry (vastly different product) and I can tell you we on the line pick out cuts in the quality of materials and overall product quality dropping due to increased production quotas about 6 months to a year before we hear complaints from customers. That means a bunch of product in the field before the quality gods react.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are definitely a couple of "quality issues". Having said that though, I think for the money It will definitely serve my needs just fine.
 
Don't fight the cooker. If it wants to settle in at 250ish and snuffs out at 215 degrees, cook at 250ish. You can put out great BBQ cooking hotter than 225. I regularly cook at 300-325 and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference if I gave you a plate of bbq cooked at 225 and some cooked at 300.
 
cmseeley said:
Well, got it up and running for my first real cook with it today. Doing a pork butt, for pulled pork bbq tomorrow.

It has been real tough keeping temps. I did bend the latches a bit to get it a little tighter.

The problem for me has been keeping it low. Between 250- 260 no problem, but try for 215, and I just keep snuffing the fire out. The way this is going I am either going to have a real long night, or throw this but in the electric till its done.

Chris
Click to expand...
I never smoke that low on mine (it takes to damn long too). Like others said let it settle in where it does. Youll produce damn good Que at those temps. Mine will usually settle in between 230-250 no problem. A very small adjustment will go along way on the Akorn so you have to be careful when doing so. When i smoke on mine i'll have the intake is barely cracked...sometimes like only a 1/4 in to 1/2 gap open and the exhaust is barely open at all (i set it about halfway between fully closed and the 1 setting, sometimes on the 1 setting depending on the cook). I do the volcano method with wood chunks barried in the lump. A couple of cooks and youll have the grill figured out.:thumb:
 
Just had to relight it again... I see what I am doing wrong now... The ash is starving the rest of the fire out by blocking the air paths. Moved some stuff around we shall see what happens now.

Chris
 
tgstrang said:
What kind of lump are you using?
Click to expand...

I just had to relight it again... this is insane.

It is frontier brand. They had it at sams club.

I guess at this point, I am going to let it run hotter, otherwise I will be up all night babysitting this.

Maybe I just don't know what I am doing when it comes to low and slow over charcoal...

Chris
 
cmseeley said:
Well, got it up and running for my first real cook with it today. Doing a pork butt, for pulled pork bbq tomorrow.

It has been real tough keeping temps. I did bend the latches a bit to get it a little tighter.

The problem for me has been keeping it low. Between 250- 260 no problem, but try for 215, and I just keep snuffing the fire out. The way this is going I am either going to have a real long night, or throw this but in the electric till its done.

Chris
Click to expand...

I don't see the problem then Cuz 275* is a Great all around BBQ Temp for everything. :thumb: Most of my stuff is 300*ish (+/- 10*) on charcoal n wood chunks ( UDS,Cabinet and Kettle) and 260-275*ish in the Bandera Stickburner.
 
Well Its all done. Pulled it at 200. Turned out better than I thought it would. After that last re-light, I kept it between 270 and 300. I guess that is what I should have done to start with instead of shooting for 215. I guess I just thought 215 was the "sweet spot" temp to keep.

I might just get one of those PID temp draft controllers and see what it can do for the lower temps. And then maybe I will trust it for an overnight cook?

At least this time when I went away from it for too long the temp was going low instead of shooting up.

Chris
 
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