I just got my beautiful terra blue KK yesterday, and it is currently in my garage while my backyard kitchen is being built!
I must say, I have spent a few hours in my garage just looking at this thing, and I have to say, I am just astounded. Every detail, from the tile work, the grout work, the welding, the metalwork, the CNC lathed lip, you name it, this thing is without a doubt, one marvel of human engineering. Being a person with OCD myself, it is just always a kick to encounter a product like this that is so obviously the product of an obsessed mind, it just makes me grin at how over-the-top this thing really is! As an example, I have a huge stainless steel tool box in my garage with a built in refrigerator! I am sure Dennis spent sleepness nights thinking about every aspect of this grill, obsessing about more crazy features he could add to it!
The walls of this cooker are at least 2 inches thick! The lip fits like a glove when you close it. The tile work is immaculate. Just for fun, I went back to the BBQ store today, and looked again at the BGE. It's like comparing a low-end toyota to a hand-made supercar. The grates that came with this grill are solid steel- the main grill must weigh 30 pounds! The trap door that comes with the KK main and lower grill and allows you to put in charcoal from the top? Nothing like that on a BGE - their main grill is this cheap powder coated thing that will probably rust within a few years. The charcoal basket that comes with the KK? Nothing like it on the BGE. Once you've put charcoal in the BGE, you are done my friend, for better or worse. And good luck separating the charcoal from the dust if you have any unspent fuel left after a cook - hope you enjoy picking out pieces of nasty charcoal by hand, because that would be the only way.
With a KK, all you gotta do is lift out the charcoal basket, and then clean out the ash from the bottom. With the BGE, the bottom draft door is this cheap, flimsy thin piece of aluminum that has been fit in there with some silicone - not the CNC lathed door that fits like a glove on the KK. I don't mean to bash the BGE, I am sure it does its job well. But I was trying to justify the expense diff between the two, and it's just so obvious where the money went. Every aspect of the KK has been thought about and rethought and tooled and retooled. Again, just really impressive.
I swear this is built like a friggin' brick Kremlin. I lurked on this board for about a month before I bought one, and until you get one in your hands, until you can touch it and work the lid and (hug it?! - haha) there is just no way you can appreciate the build quality fully. I don't know about you guys, If a tornado every comes over my house, I know where I am spending the night!
Right now, this is stuck in my garage, until next week and the workers can help me get it back there. Dennis and everyone at KK, thanks a lot. I know I am going to enjoy it.
