cschaaf

70??? you promised to keep it under 55!!!!

Great news! I can't wait to see what happens when Project Smoke season 2 starts

Great news, Geo! I just got my 23" this weekend. Someone, and I'll never say who, on this forum talked me into the stainless insert shelves, too. They are on order and haven't come in yet. Hopefully soon... very soon.

Welcome! I am also a new 23" owner. Haven't had the chance to fire it up yet - hopefully tomorrow!

Okay, I unveiled the KK over on the Guru. Let's see what happens. A few additional notes: My wife didn't see the grill in person until we carried it around the house and set it on the patio. She said, "Wow, that's pretty!" After giving me approval for the purchase, she started giving me a bit of grief last week. Little comments like "I love what you cook on the KJ, I don't see a reason for this one." "It's the price of a used car!" "The KJ is a good size. We don't need more!" etc. I didn't respond to most of them directly. On Saturday, she made one more comment... paused, and said, "Hmm, well... but if you'll like it, I guess that's as good of a reason as any. And I can't be upset about you wanting to try to make food even better for us." By letting her come to that conclusion herself, I think I'm much better off than if I tried to make that argument over and over. The Reef's got to feel how hot the outside of the KJ gets. I had it up around 375 to cook some baked beans, then shut it down when they arrived. It was probably 90 minutes later when Charles touched the outside and felt how hot it still was. So hot, that, it wilted an aloe plant that was next to the KJ. I had slide the KJ over to make room for the KK and didn't really think about the plant that was a foot or so away. Poor thing got a little crisp on some of the tips and generally droopy all over. ETA: Oh, and... my wife says it looks like Sigmund the Sea Monster from the early 1970's show of the same name by Sid and Marty Krofft. Other than the color, it's a bit hard to argue with her on this one

Yeah, Charles left me alone for 10 seconds and I broke the thing! Oh well, I think of it like a new car - you know that is't going to get dinged at some point no matter how careful you are. Once you get that first ding, you aren't so nervous about it anymore.

Probably next weekend unless I already have plans that I don't know about yet. We didn't have good sun out today, I can't wait to see this thing reflecting the bright sun. After the Reef's left, we were surprised how much warmer the tiles on the sun side were. I should have grabbed my IR thermometer to check, but the sun side was considerably warmer. The black tiles may soak up the heat.

Goodnight, KK.

I'm hoping it will. I sent Dennis an email to see what he thinks.

I messed up a few of the tiles while moving the lid. About 5 of them are like this. There were two things missing from the kit - grout and the thermometer. But I did get 2 top vent gaskets. The installed gasket got a bit frayed through all of the trips this wayward KK had to take, but I don't think it's serious enough to warrant a replacement at this point. Now comes the hard work of figuring out what to make first!

My new KK is home! A BIG THANK YOU to ckreef and skreef for bringing it down and helping me get it set up! Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of the setup process, we were too busy working. I do have a few pictures of the new guy in his place. Here is is next to my KJ Classic The clean insides: Komodo Kamado! Speckled black!

Thanks, Wilbur! I can't wait to see those quick startup times you've talked about! Sounds like a great lineup of cooks - chicken, butt, brisket, steak, pizza! I still struggle getting cook pics, but I'm getting better. And my family rolls their eyes a little less each time I start snapping away. Thanks for reading it, Jon! I was a bit worried about rambling on too much, but when I saw the attention that this wounded KK drew, I figured the story fit right in.

Got it. Thanks!

Thanks PRippley! I'll definitely snap some pictures!

LOL! I'm pretty sure of that, too! I knew there was some interest in it, so I had to act quick. It'll be great to meet you two! I'll cook us up something good for lunch... on the KJ. Thank you, kjs. Excited to be here. Thanks, tiny! Good to see so many familiar names over here.

Tony Have you seen this? https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/the-egg-calculator You can use that to find a 100% SV temp for your eggs. Takes a bit longer than what you have now, but it's only one step.

Yeah, I have to figure out what to cook and still be relatively low temp before a burn in. I probably won't have a chance to do that until the following weekend. We eat a lot of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, so that might be the first cook. I have some cedar planks waiting to be used, but I usually do cedar planked salmon up around 400-degrees, so that might have to wait for the burn in.

Hello everyone I am eagerly awaiting my Speckled Black 23" KK. It's quite possibly the most famous un-owned KK in the history of KKs! http://komodokamadoforum.com/topic/6016-crazy-bent-what-happened-here/ A long story about how this all came to be below if you are interested. This wasn't something I ever expected I'd do. I did a ton of research on every kamado I could find on the Internet before jumping in and buying a Kamado Joe Classic. I wanted the Big Joe, but when I saw it in person, I thought it was too big for my family (me, my wife, and her 3 young adult daughters - all of whom will be leaving the nest in the next 3 years or so). That entire process was probably 6 - 8 months. I was never really a fan of the way the KKs looked, and, when I saw the price, I backed away. Not that I didn't think they were 'worth' it, it was just more than I wanted to spend. I really thought that KJ would be the last grill I ever owned, and never would have believed that I would jump up to a KK. That all changed a few weeks ago due to an odd series of events. Bosco had posted the Project Smoke pictures over on the Guru and I noticed that the wheel was bent on one of the units. It was clearly from being manhandled across grass and rough terrain on the set. I made a quick post (tongue-in-cheek) asking if it would be sold as 'scratch and dent'. I never indented to suggest that I wanted it. ckreef saw my post and PMd me and said if I was interested, to call Dennis as he was probably selling the 2 KKs as demo units and deals are rare, so this is a good chance to get one. I replied that I wasn't really that interested... and I wasn't... but said I might give Dennis a call just to see what deal could be made. About a week later, I realized that I had clicked on those pictures and the KK site over and over and over... I was devouring all of the information about KKs that I could find. So, I sent Dennis a quick email asking if those grills were available and, if so, what was the price - particularly of the 19" Table Top with the bent leg - figuring that would be the best to deal on. And I told myself, "If I can get a good deal, I'll take it. If not, I'm perfectly fine with what I have. I have nothing to lose by asking." About 10 minutes later, I was outside cleaning my KJ and my wife came out with my phone and said I was getting a call from Los Angeles. It's my work phone and I get a lot of random calls, I don't know anyone in LA, so I said to just ignore it. When I looked later, there was a voicemail from Dennis! He said I should give him a call. This was on Saturday afternoon. He also replied in an email that the 32" was sold, but that the other two hadn't been sold yet. He also tried calling me on Sunday, but I missed that call. I called him Monday morning when I got to work. He told me that the other two grills had been spoken for, so I figured that was the end of that... but no! He said he might be able to do something for me. He said he had a 23" Speckled Black KK that was in Georgia somewhere that had a minor issue that needed repaired. And he explained everything that the thread linked above talked about. After a few minutes, he said that it was ckreef that was fixing up the grill. Again, at this point, I wasn't really sure this was what I wanted to do - it's a lot of money for something that I don't really need (I know, I know... "Need" isn't really the point here;) ). I said I'd have to talk to my wife and I'd get back to him. I reached out to ckreef to tell him about that conversation and ask more about the repaired KK. He assured me that the grill was as good as new and even graciously offered to open up the Bistro so I could come look at it - and check out his KKs. We were in the process of trying to find a day that worked best for us. We are about 3 hours away from each other. He also said, and get this, that he would deliver the KK and help me get it set up! chreef took some extra pictures of the grill to send me and answered any questions I had. I also talked a bosco for a while one night and he was very helpful answering my questions - it was a good perspective to hear from someone new in the KK game. I talked to my wife, who is always super supportive, and after a few days of some back and forth, she said to go for it. I'm the one that has the issues spending the money, she's always fine with me spending on things I want to do. I'm the one that has to go to 10 stores to find a belt that I like... then when I get it, I say, "I probably shoulda got that other one instead..." lol I have to admit that a part of me wanted her to say "No" so that I didn't have to worry about making the decision. I called Dennis the next morning to grab up the grill. 5 days had elapsed from when I sent that initial email to Dennis. Do I also have the title of Fastest Decision to Buy? Now I am just waiting to find a date that works for me, ckreef, and a few helpers so that we can drag this thing to my back yard.