Leaderboard

I used a deflector with an air gap in my prior grill, and of course this was prior to the KK stone. The variables you want to consider, especially with a 1/2 inch standard pizza stone are the distance between your stone and the fire below it, and how hot that fire needs to be to maintain the cooking temperature. If your grill has enough thermal mass, and has been heated thoroughly, it will maintain the cooking temperatures with much less input - the fire doesn't need to be as hot underneath your pizza and you can get away with less vertical space. If you don't have as much vertical space, and/or your grill cools off quickly if you close the vents down, then a deflector under the baking stone will help keep the crust from burning. My old grill required the deflector, so I put in a deflector, some 1" thick metal spacers (I used spacers from a jeep lift kit, but s couple of big nuts will do fine) and set the pizza stone right on top of those. Worked great. The pictures in the opening post of this thread are on a KK, as well as the thick KK stone, so no deflector.