DennisLinkletter

Re: A cautionary tale Touché... Gawd... Me thinkest you may need to scrub a little to get the K residue off your monitor... Gerard your always welcome, your history with Mexi-K has scarred you so your cynicism is hardly a surprise.. But it's curable I would like to educate you a little about Komodo Kamado and myself. This is really one of those Phoenix stories. Your statement, "This is an extremely new product with no history." is both true and at the same time very wrong. Let me clarify this for you. As you know my workers built hundreds of Indo-K's for Mr RJ. So before they even started to work for me, they had experience in building these cookers.. This definitely give them "History" with this type of product.. which of course transfers to my product. They had the history to build them at least as well. Now they have been building for me for 3 years.. that's a total of 6 years.. not really a new company.. Round one to KK Before I accepted my personal challenge to build the best ceramic cooker I was capable of building, I studied the forums to understand to solve the problems that plague all the different models. I would not have done this project just to build another ceramic that had all the same problems and did not stand out from the pack. If I could not have made something special, I would not have done it at all. I know production as I designed, built, shipped and sold in my own stores more than 600 containers of high end teak indoor furniture from '89 to '95 which I'm proud to say grossed over 24 million dollars. Anyone in Los Angeles knows about Not So Far East Trading Company which was on La Brea. My crew was up to 420 workers building 125 different designs when striking workers burned my factory to the ground.. (that's another story) My point here is that I have paid my dues and know design and production. I lived on the internet for months studying materials, writing to people, calling people to talk about what I wanted. I cooked on a K every other day.. I quickly learned what I hated about it's design.. it's real problems. It took me months of tinkering and futzing to solve the strap self opening problem but it now sets my cooker apart from the others. As Porkchop points out.. I went to the engineers of the largest refractory company in the world and let them design the ultimate body.. We needed the following: a refractory material that would be very durable, could handle extreame temperature fluctuations, would reflect heat as but also have great insulating qualities.. They always laughed and said that you could go middle of the road but what you really need is two materials.. As you know I have a dense inner material and a lightweight outer. So I now cast twice.. But it's the best insulated cooker period. Both these materials have "History" and were designed and field tested for years to be used every day in conditions your KK will never even dream about. Therefore I have a production pedigree, a masters at that and my bodies material does also.. Round 2..KK You wrote, "But issues such as durability, customer service, and warranty support require years to become clear." Durability can be engineered and by design.. If you use materials and building techniques with a track record, the results are predictable. There is no rocket science here.. It's a tiled refractory cooker.. the funniest thing is like I say on my web site.. Common sense improvements.. that's all they were. My customer service was the second prong of attack.. why I knew I could stand out. My CS is excellent because I know how I would like to be treated. It's good now.. why would I change it? I've had my problems shipping trust me.. terrible problems. My recessed wheel although it solved the eyesore, contributed to many a chipped foot. My belief is that it's better to replace a cooker and make zippo or even loose a little than to have a customer with a compromised purchase. The funny thing is that many of those customers are the ones on the forum.. Most people I wrote to never posted references and after 2-3 Emails I gave up. So I'd have to say that the third round is not the Knock out of the first two but I still win in points.. Gerard, I like you... I really enjoy your being on the forum and I'm looking forward to your being sold on my cookers durability and my CS and you hope never have to deal with any warranty problems. I respect your right to be a bit cynic but reserve the right to shoot it apart and prove you wrong.. Respectfully, Dennis

New tile color JRE 341S Shot with a point and shoot.. the flash on the first shot sorta washes it out.. With or with out proper lighting, I'd have to say it's simply beautiful... Can I build one for you?

Huh is Right! Heylo Gerard, I agree somethings wrong there... Komodo shares a factory and office staff with my primary business which for 16 years build furniture and now builds wide plank textured teak flooring for primarily hotels and developers. We have a costing department and spread sheets that track both cost of materials and accumulate production history for labor costing. As one must delegate, this number crunching is on the top of my list of things I hate to do. Although there is a constant battle with the dollar fluctuating.. (two weeks ago it was 17% less than last September) and materials changing, this is no excuse and it is ultimately my responsibility to make sure the numbers are correct. So here I stand feeling and looking unprofessional.. argh Last time we did costing, I searched for anomalies in each spreadsheet but obviously did not compare them this way... So this is very embarrassing to see such an obvious mistake here.. Actually good timing as I need to reorganize the price sheet to include Textured cookers with the Deluxe and Supreme packages. Thank you Gerard for bringing this to my attention... please remind me of this when you order your OTB so I can repay the favor!

Huh? Call me blind.. Spammers where & about what?

Your 2/3rds correct... When I started the forum.. my first adventure into a forum I might add.. I filled out the blanks and set up the administrator as KKforum... Then for myself DennisLink as I wanted there to be no confusion who I/the owner was... The plan was when entering information such as links etc I would use the KKForum and when somebody asked about the product it would be DennisLink i.e. the owner answering... Great in theory but... in this case it looks like I was caught typing before I had my coffee... As you can see.. I'm answering as Dennis not a ghost person.. This is not a case of me moonlighting as my Gemini twin.. Just a simple mistake.. I probably need to go and figure out how to make DennisLink the administrator and put KKforum to rest... Thanks for the heads up.. gotta keep this place the antithesis of the house that Richard built FYI leejp has his profile up on the new "Komodo User Profiles" BTW Thank you for your involvement on the forum, great to have you here

Shipments go out on Fridays. Depending on when the order/deposit is received, I can get it onto a boat either that friday, or the friday after.. transit time to LA is 24-26 days.. To Naples FL 40 days then a few days for the homeland security guys and it's in your yard..

The concrete truth.. This Portland ain't no city in Oregon As I hired The other tiled cookers work force.. there is nothing I don't know about three years of their production here in Indonesia. The secret formula is common portland cement using crushed volcanic cinder (lava stone) as an aggregate. Well albeit a very cheap formula is seems to usually stay together at high temperatures.. Money where my mouth is.. Don't believe me... drill into one and have it tested..if it's not primarily portland cement, I'll pay for the test and give you $1,000. I can't say that he has not changed the formula but test any cooker made during the 3 years he was in Indonesia.

Tile Loss / Problems This is my post from "Tile Loss / Problems" in the FAQ section.. This is something I've worked very hard to understand. The first thing I discovered is that "his' (RJ) now my workers were not wetting or brushing mortar on the back of the tiles. They were just pressing the dry tile into the mortar on the grill.. This would result in only about 40-60% for the tiles surface to be secured by grout and this also left a void that could cause problems with water later. The second problem is that his grill is as you know a mix of Portland cement and volcanic cinder, a kind of ground pumice(at least when he built them here). This dense material has problems with trapped moisture expanding and turning to steam/gas then in turn breaking/cracking the grout and sometimes even the body. As you know everyone reports small steam jets erupting through their grout and bubbling etc. The BIG problem here is this causes breaks in the grout and mortar. These breaks are now holes that later permit rain to get in under the tiles causing them to fall off especially in extremely cold/ freezing conditions. On the other hand my grill has a dense inner layer which I add special micro fibers into. When heated they incinerate leaving thousands of micro holes which enable the steam to vent before it can build pressure and do damage. The lightweight outside layer is very porous and is very easy to dry.. My grills are pre dried in the factory using a vacuum kiln that I use for my furniture production. Basically the grills are put into a chamber, heated then under vacuum the water turns to vapor and leaves the material.. we can pull about 4 liters out of each half! This of course protects the mortar and grout on the outside.. Therefore my grill is not plagued with the initial firing schedule problems of the "Old School K" First time you use your grill, fire it to 750?f and sear to your hearts content. I firmly believe that the secret is to maintain the integrity of the grout seal.. theirs of course is compromised in the first few firings.. I also recommend using a grout sealer once a year and watching for failures in the grout i.e.. cracks.

Here is a page with Komodos dressed in different tiles.. KOmodo Tiles

Thank you all for your concern as you read about the semi volcanic eruption here in Indonesia. Mount Merapi, at 9,900 feet, reawakened in recent months after years of inactivity. Molten lava has been visible over the past few days bubbling inside the crater and numerous streams of fire can be seen at night on Merapi's slopes. The biggest danger from this type of volcano is from hot gas clouds can reach temperatures of more than 572 F and travel quickly down her slopes cooking all in it path... I've sent a truckload of my Volcanic Classics for the children near merapi to hide in should there be a catastrophic eruption Merapi is near the city of Yogyakarta which is a 40 minute flight from where I am in Surabaya, East Java. We are all safe and building 5 or 6 Volcanic Textured OTb's this week to honor the eruption! Thanks again for your kind concern..

I love the idea I love the idea of being to have a way to easily slide a torch into a built in tube and be able to light the charcoal in place. Maybe another faceplate on the other side.. There are no images of their "Touch-N-Go Propane Ignition" system online. I think I saw this Weber at the ACE Hardware here in Indonesia.. Maybe gotta go take a good peek for "inspiration". I use a propane bottle to light my chimney starter... and a hair drier to make it roar Went back to bed and then got a flash of inspration... What about a draft door modified to hold a torch, a propane bottle and a Peizo electric start button... After coals are lit.. slide it out, slide in your low airlfow control draft door and voila, easy cookin' The peizo would not get fried as it does not stay in the belly of the beast.. Comments please...

Peizo electric start.. Hi John, I actually played with a burner that had an Peizo electric start... and I just figured that it was just one more thing that could break and cause user frustration. I agree that turning on the gas and tossing in matches is asking for trouble but my burner has a pilot light that can be safely lit first. I went this way for long term dependability.. I have a box of standard screw-on connections on the way here.. Thanks for your ideas.. please keep them coming.. Dennis

Come in from the cold.. It's warm in here.. Hello Gerard, As a past member of the cult, I doubly welcome you As I said before, everybody even LaserGeko would in theory be welcome here but he would not be able to rant, rave and insult people or other types of cookers here Your Primos and BGEs are truly welcome here... Even the metal Weber boys are free to drop in... Did I say something blasphemous? is that ahh... sacrilegious? All jokes aside.. Thank you for joining, I'm sure you have lots of valuable tricks up your sleeve as a veteran ceramic cooker. Chickamauga, GA what a great name for a city.. The founding fathers must have been characters.. I can just hear them.. well ah... let's call it Chickamauga! We have a Cucamonga, CA but I think that it was named the same night after a few more drinks.. LOL Once again welcome, I hope you visit often and look-forward to your posts.. Best regards, Dennis

Holes There are no silly questions and this is actually good question. The Guru faceplate comes filled with a soft plug that can easily be broken and removed when you purchase the BBQ Guru. It is then closed when not in use with the supplied by Guru high temp silacone plug. The polder tube comes from the factory with 2 plugs, the roticerie is not open it has a closed socket like fixture inside.

Thank you and welcome to the forum.. Hello Beddie First of all, welcome to the forum.. That's a great idea.. There are faceplates on either side of the cookers with 2 - 3/8" bolts to attach accessories. These could easily support a gas tank. Thank you for the idea.. another plus of having a forum, product development. I'm on it and will add it to the Supreme and Deluxe packages.

The Stoker is a temperature control device for your cooker.. It can be controlled online from your computer or phone.. print graphs. Also can run two meat probes. Please ask owner John Jackson for the fan nozzle that fits the Guru inducer tube. All new KK's have a Guru inducer installed into the faceplate. http://www.rocksbarbque.com

Greeaat... Just what the doctor ordered! I've been wanting to make my own rubs but did not know where to start... The only ones I have here are what I bring back on my annual trip to the States or what ACE hardware sells, mostly dusty Webber stuff. Question.. The "2-3 T" in the Main players are tablespoons? That would be my guess if the supporting players are teaspoons... I can hardly wait to grind up some fresh rub! Thanks again...

CNC laser cut name in plate I just picked up a sample of stainless which sits under the lower latch assembly which is under the handle. I had them cut Komodo on the left and Kamado on the right.. My idea was to later fill the letters with grout. Time to brand the cookers... Yes photos are on the way...

Supreme Classic with Stainless cover Supreme OTB built/countersunk into the body with fiberglass cover

This takes the phrase "Up on the Roof Top" to new heights... Here's a shot of Uwe in Holland who decided he must have a Komodo Kamado on/in his roof top garden. This was of course after I shipped directly to him from Indo.. When you gotta have the best Thanks Uwe.. We're in Awe..

Fuel... and more fuel... My early problems were that I only put in the charcoal that I thought the cook required... Wrong! Put in way more and then a little.. remember that the burn is controlled by the airflow and when your finished you can shut it down and use the charcoals for next time.. A huge mountain of red roaring coals can be killed in a few minutes if you starve it of air. So filler up, give her air and watch the temps climb.. PS if you want to sear in the nasty off the chart temps put a small grill down on top of your charcoal bowl.. maybe 15 sec per side, use your welding gloves when working down there near Dante's inferno! I'm off to Thailand to play in Songkran the worlds largest water fight! Your only young once, but you can be immature forever! Remember Theo the famous K cry.. "If your looking.. your NOT cooking!

Western Union transfer... Western union is fine.. To which country depends on your timing.. Please email me when your ready.

Here they are from the charcoal basket with the tall handles that can be used as shelf for heat deflectors or high temp searing. To the lower grill to the main grill. Both have brackets for the meat hanger.. An option for those of you who must have your grill at the same level as the cooker's lip.. The optional main grill elevator.

Thermometer As far as I'm concerned their is only one Komodo qualtiy thermometer and that is by Tel Tru. Their the accuracy and quality are excellent. Product No: 23100565 Model LT225R Dial Size 2" StemLgth 5" Range 150/750°F Conn. Loc. Back Dial Plain Price $19.00 This also comes in a model that reads from 200/1000°F I'd rather have the reading on the low end. I've written to them about making them the OEM thermometers for Komodo..

Payment The ideal transaction would be a TT, telegraphic transfer also known as a wire transfer which can be made online or at your bank. If that does not work for you or you need to use a credit card I have both Paypal and Moneybookers accounts. For those of you who do not know of it Paypal is an online service that lets you send money to anyone with an email address or phone number in 55 countries. They were originally set up for and now purchased by Ebay and have 96 million accounts/users. But I do believe it's completely safe to use as a buyer.. You can always sign up and then take you credit card number off after the transaction.