What is a kamado grill?
Traditionally, a charcoal kamado is a Japanese earthenware cooking vessel. The most common version today is a hinged ceramic pot with grates, airflow control ports because of this they are often referred to as ceramic grills. While very simple in their design, the quality of the food they produce has generated a cult following for these grills. Ceramic grills are also much more weather resistant than metal grills that have a habit of rusting away in many climates.
Why use a kamado grill instead of a metal grill?
Much more temperature control and stability, less airflow results in more retained moisture in foods.
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Charcoal always burns at the maximum volume for the allowed airflow therefore controlling airflow is how you regulate temperature. Because a low and slow cook can run over 20 hours the volume of air flow and evaporation it creates dramatically influences the moisture content of the final product. The thicker walls of a ceramic grill create the thermal mass giving it stability and reducing heat loss. Metal grills on the other hand absolutely radiate heat and require more fuel and airflow to maintain the cooking temperature. With a metal grill as the ambient temperature changes you must adjust the airflow to correct for the changes.
Stability..
The heat held in the ceramic grills walls creates the inertia to reduce temperature fluctuations. This stability makes long, low and slow cooks much more user friendly. With metal grills you need to adjust your airflow to compensate when temps drop or even the wind starts to blow to maintain your target cooking temperature.
What is a Komodo Kamado grill?
A Komodo Kamado is a user friendly, luxury ceramic type grill on steroids.. That being said, it's not made from ceramic materials in fact everything from the materials used, to the shape and build quality is radically different from all the other kamado grills on the market. These differences affect not only the cooking experience but the quality and consistency of the food created in it.
Body- Glazed pot ceramic grills
All the ceramic grills on the market today are basically a simple glazed ceramic pot with a high temperature firebox to shield the body from the hot charcoal. They are around with straps around the middle attached to hinges. The problem with this design is that you can't escape physics, the grills expanded and contract when heated and the straps continually need adjustment. When they loose this adjustment they leak and burn up gaskets.
Body- Komodo Kamado
A Komodo Kamado is not a ceramic pot, it is made of refractory cements which is what industry uses for high temperature containment in everything from blast furnaces and nuclear facilities.
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It is a multi-layer design with a dense, durable hot face jacketed with a vermiculite and aerogel insulating outer layer. This is then jacketed/protected with a layer of beautiful ceramic tiles attached with an UV resistant acrylic insulation that is elastomeric.. giving it the ability to expand and contract when the grill is heated. This acrylic insulation also has nano ceramic spheres that reflect heat back into the grill. This gives Komodo Kamado absolutely unheard of performance.. At 235° - one bowl /16 pounds of charcoal will burn for 85 hours.. Common sense would dictate that burning less fuel which requires less airflow would create less evaporation creating food with a higher moisture content. When charcoal burns the organic volatiles crate vapor that it transferred to your food by condensation.. Because less airflow gives more time for the vapor to make contact with your food to condense the result more flavorful foods...
Komodo Kamado stability
While this reduced airflow lessens evaporation and creates great food, this insulation creates stability for unheard of set and forget cooking. Set your airflow controls and walk away.. because the ambient temperature no longer affects your grill. Get a good night sleep when you awake your grill be within a few degrees of where you left it, period that simple. No adding fuel or fiddling with airflow even at 30º below zero.
Komodo Kamado Components
The Komodo Kamado is lavishly appointed with 304 stainless steel components,, The 32" grill has 128 lbs of stainless and the 23" grill 85lbs.. Much of this is from the multiple 3/8" rod grates.. The 32" comes standard with four of them and the 23" grill has three that can be used on four levels. The over the top build quality of the stainless could easily be considered over kill on a charcoal grill but to adhere to the best of the best materials and method of fabrication using the laser-cut and digitally folded components were the only choice. The hinge which looks like a suspension component on a race car might not produce better food but it looks amazing and is over built and engineered to last a few lifetimes..
