MichelleDT unfortunately those particular Kamado's (komodo) are garbage. The guy making those is a scam artist and I wouldn't buy one for $100. The one I have is the "Vision Grill" which is sold by Costco for $540, complete with cart, side boards and very nice cover. It is about the same as a Big Green Egg although they are usually in the $1000+ range. The one I have is a "real Kamado" type grill, comes with a lifetime guarantee. The company seems to be top notch and very responsive. On mine the first time I used it the firebox developed a crack which is not all that unusual for these types of grills, however I emailed the company, got a response from the CEO in 5 minutes and without any questions sent me a new firebox that very day that I received 6 days later free of charge. I now have 2 fireboxes, as the one that is cracked could last another 10-20 years or more then I have a lifetime of fireboxes. I just took the new one left it in it's popcorn packaging and heavy box and stored it away for when its needed. "Most" Kamado style cookers are actually in the $800-$1400 range, Big Green Eggs are probably the most popular, Primo's, Kamado Joes, Grill Dome, Saffire. There are numerous ones, I chose the Vision Grill because I could buy it from Costco which means both excellent price and best return policy ever and I could just go and buy it and not order online. It was a chore for my wife and I to move it to our back deck however because it weighs like most Kamados about 250# and we have 37 steps to go down from our car to front door. For the price I do not think there is a better BBQ/Grill/Smoker available anywhere. This is ours on our deck smoking away, have cooked on it 5 times so far and everything has come out perfect especially the Prime Rib. this is the inside firebox. Comes with very nice heavy duty thick stainless racks, it is 19" across. and a nice heavy well made cover.

Posted by trevorlawson I think its fair to say that the CC will out cook a thermadore due to open burners. Fair to say based on what? Please describe what this means. The high end is 22K BTUs-pretty close to Capital. This is the rating for the heat output, nothing to do with open or closed. The low end is 375 BTUs. We don't know what Capital has for that. I am sure everyone knows what I sell. What I sell does not detract from the fact that open burners outperform sealed burners. The difference between open and sealed burners is significant nothing nominal about it. We tested a wolf range with caps on and caps off using same pan same water side by side at the same time, the burner with caps off boiled water over 23% fast..... that is significant Here is the video. Outperform would be a mischaracterization of this "test". I see performance as more multidimensional than putting the most heat in the center of a pan. If you had a wider pan, or changed the metal it was made of, or what you are cooking, your results would be different. This falls under the category of showmanship rather than anything scientific. How can you say this-"the burner with caps off boiled water over 23% fast."without any supporting data? You are right it is not how big the burners are but how the burner delivers heat to the CENTER of the pan, so the base of the pan gets evenly hot. Sealed burner send vast majority of the heat to the outside of the pan, open burners send the heat to the center of the pan. Please explain using the principals of heat transfer how delivering heat to the center of a pan is allowing the base of the pan to get evenly hot. If you have a ring of heat on the bottom of the pan, heat will travel in both directions from that ring to heat the pan. The center will receive heat from more directions and heat quicker, until it comes to equilibrium, than the outside so it is optimum to have a ring with the maximum heat more towards the outside of the pan than the inside. It is much harder to get heat to the part of the pan outside of the ring. A sealed ring burner flame pattern is only slightly wider than an open ring burner, a little more if you have it wide open. If you use a pan with reasonably good heat transfer like copper or aluminum, the burner shape doesn't really matter as much, but I wouldn't want the heat in the middle of the pan. The only way I would see heat in the middle of a pan as a benefit is if I were using a very small pan or a wok. I use everything from a 7 inch pan to make caramel with no stirring to a 14 inch aluminum pan on my sealed burners. For any pan less than 7 inches, I have a "small pan burner" I can make fried potatoes in that 14 inch pan with even color all the way across. I use cast iron if I need a lot of heat as in searing meat.

"Not only moisture but heat retention. Insulated metal cans don't compare. If they did there would be no market for ceramic cookers." fyi: http://bbq.about.com/od/charcoalgrills/tp/Top-10-Kamado-Grills.htm Traditionally Kamado style cookers have been among the most expensive charcoal grills/smokers on the market. Originally made with a heavy ceramic shell, these grills seemed fragile (though they are not with proper care) and priced much high than the typical metal kettle grills. The Char-Griller Akorn is a kamado style grill. It has all the fuel efficiency, high temperature cooking abilities, and low and slow capacity that the much more expensive units do, but at half (or even less) the price. So what's the catch? While competently built, and more than capable of keeping up with he competition, this model lacks the construction quality and long term durability of those pricier other grills. The question you have to ask is, do you buy a cheaper grill to get into this style of grill, buy something more basic and far less money, or go big and buy one of those ceramic grills everyone raves about. If you google BGE v. Akorn you'll find this pretty much sums up the hundreds of posts from real users on both sides (Amazon was helpful when first looking due to larger sample size). And in the words of the OP: "We don't BBQ much except for our quarterly family gatherings (approx 25 people) and everybody is a foodie these days." And yes, the Akorn pizza stone works fine or you can use the smoking stone for pizza. Being a foodie doesn't make one any smarter, more frugal or knowledgeable about markets than the next person.

I did not flirt, as far as I know - I doubt that would do me very much good! I made cornmeal pancakes on my rectangular griddle this morning (which weighs over 10#), and I'm a bit glad that my new pizza pan will not weigh that much. I might even switch to using my comal plus the new pizza pan when making pancakes, and then I can use two front burners. I used to make them in my 10.5" cast iron skillet, and that was not ideal because of the steep sides, although they did cook well, one at a time. Kevin's new mug is all metal, I think. When I make tea, I use the red teapot that Sheshebop sent me, and it holds 21 oz. I use one teabag for that much water, and the cup/mug that I use holds 7 oz., and so that makes three cups/servings. On days that I work, I drink one cup of tea at home and then one at work, using a teabag at work. So one pot of tea lasts three days, but I have to store the tea in the fridge and then microwave it on subsequent days. On days that I do not work, I drink two cups (14 oz) of tea in the morning, and that is all the caffeine that I need. On vacation, I will sometimes drink coffee, especially in places like Hawaii and Italy. I was not impressed with Costa Rican coffee - I thought the coffee in Antiqua, Guatemala was better. I drink coffee in New Orleans also, but not in Texas. The Kona coffee in Hawaii was the best I've ever had, and it is not possible to find the equivalent here. Even the coffee beans that we bought on Maui were not as good as the coffee we got at restaurants/coffee shops on Maui. I think the best beans do not leave the island. The coffee we had in Italy was almost as good, but it probably came from Africa - Ethiopia most likely.