My ordering and unpacking experience with a KK 23� Ultimate

[wilburpan]

About a month ago, I had a great day. I was able to set this up in my backyard.

 

 

But first, let’s go back to the beginning. I hope you’ll bear with me on this first part, because I have relayed the story here and there, but I wanted to have the whole story in one place.

 

 

This is my old grill. It’s a Kenmore propane grill, with a standard three burner set up, but the really nice feature this one had was the ability to also use charcoal. There’s a small tray on the inside that can be loaded with charcoal, which you lit with the gas burners. I know that some folks think that stuff from Sears is not the greatest, but we were really happy with this grill. I had the flexibility of cooking something quickly with propane, and could use charcoal for when I had time to get the charcoal going.

 

But unfortunately, it died at the beginning of the summer, after a good 10 years of service. I thought about replacing the burners, but that would have been a very messy job that I just did not want to deal with. I started looking for another propane/charcoal combo, but there weren’t any quite like this model. 

 

And then I discovered kamados. After watching a bunch of videos, I was convinced this was the way to go. At first, I was interested in a Kamado Joe Big Joe in red. I placed an order around Father’s Day, figuring that I might be able to be back to grilling by July 4.

 

Well, July 4 came and went. Then the rest of July went by. Despite contacting Kamado Joe, both directly and through my dealer on numerous occasions, I never could get an answer as to when I could expect my grill.

 

August came along. My family and I left for China for a three week vacation. I told my dealer that if my grill came while I was gone, to please hold it until I got back. No problem from their standpoint. I figured that would be great: we’d enjoy our vacation, and since we would be gone for three weeks, we were sure to come home and start using our brand new grill.

 

During that trip, I had a lot of time to think about the grill, and to get more into the details of the various kamado grills that were out there. And that’s when I began to appreciate the features that were built into Komodo Kamado grills. I also began to read about issues with Kamado Joe grills that began to make me nervous: grills arriving after a long backorder wait with broken parts, and no parts being available to fix the situation; fireboxes cracking in use; bands holding the lids coming loose; less than perfect performance from the felt seals; misaligned lids, and so on.

 

That’s when I started to really reconsider my choice. I had asked a couple of questions here before, but then I started to look into Komodo Kamados in earnest. While in China, I began to talk to Dennis Linkletter by email about the Komodo Kamado, and he was quite gracious in answering my questions, even though he was also on vacation at the same time for part of our dialogue, and even though I told him that I had a red Big Joe on order. The cost was one hurdle to get over. The other was the look of the Komodo Kamado. Granted, the look isn’t for everyone, including my wife at first. But after looking over the options on the KK website, we eventually settled on the same pebble black finish that CeramicChef had for his 32†Big Bad. There was only one catch: that finish wasn’t available at that time. Luckily, my wife seemed amenable to the Olive Gold pebble finish.

 

After our three week trip, we got back home, and I checked in on my Kamado Joe order. Still no luck. Still no firm delivery date. I took that as a sign. I cancelled the order, called up Dennis, had a terrific conversation with him and placed the order. I still had to wait, but at least I knew where my grill was: on a ship on its way to the U.S. That placed me way ahead of where I was with the Big Joe.

 

At the end of September, I got an email from Dennis. Good news: the ship with my grill made it to the Port of Los Angeles and cleared inspection. Bad news: this happened.

 

A fire broke out at the Port of Los Angeles. Luckily, it was contained without too much damage or any loss of life. At this point, I could only enjoy the entertainment value of all of this. It was as if the forces of nature were determined to keep me from grilling some burgers and steaks for my family.

 

The fire held up the processing of packages for a whole day. After that, there was a logjam of packages that needed processing. Eventually my grill made it to the Komodo Kamado warehouse, onto a truck, and on its way from L.A. to New Jersey.

 

This turned out to be the smoothest part of the whole ordering process. Dennis sent me a tracking number for the grill, and I was able to track its progress across the country. The expected delivery date was Oct. 10, but the grill got to NJ one day earlier than expected. I got a call from the trucking company yesterday to schedule a delivery time. I asked if they could bring it to my house that day. They did. And at about 1:30 in the afternoon, one day early, this came. The truck driver was nice enough to bring the crate up our driveway, around the house, and to our back patio.

 

[wilburpan]

Next step: unpacking the crate. Here are all the tools I used for this. A drill with a #2 Philips bit, a utility knife, a ratchet wrench with a 10mm socket, garden clippers, a hammer, a crowbar, and a pair of pliers.
 

 
CeramicChef can attest to the terrific packing job that Komodo Kamado does with their crate. Suffice it to say that my crate arrived without any damage to the outside or inside components. The boxes on the top are some of the parts of the grill, and the accessories I ordered. Here they are.
 

 
I asked for two boxes of coconut charcoal. I wanted to see what this stuff was like before placing a big order.
 
Here are the other boxes.
 

 
Two teak side tables, the new model grill grabbers with teak handles, a charcoal basket splitter, an 8†rotisserie with a 6†reducer, and the new baking stone sized to fit the upper rack.
 
The crate is marked with all sorts of useful signs.
 

 

 

 

 
The first thing is to take off the top board, which doubles as a ramp that will help with getting the grill off the skid.
 

 
Underneath, you can see that the top of the grill is held firmly in place by the top of the crate.
 

[wilburpan]

The top and sides of the crate are attached with lag screws, two at each corner. I used my ratchet wrench with the 10mm socket to remove these. After that, the crate can be lifted up and over the grill. This was the one part of the unpacking where you really need two people. The crate itself isn’t very heavy, but it is bulky, and you have to be able to lift it over the height of the grill.

 

 

It’s impressive how much additional protective wrapping and padding there is on the grill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I have to spend some time taking the wrapping and padding off. Now I can get a better look at it.

 

[wilburpan]

The feet of the grill, the knobs, and the various draft doors are also well protected.

 

 

 

 

 

At this point I spent some time removing a heroic amount of wrapping material and cutting the straps that held the grill to the skid.

 

In the picture of the foot, you can see some pieces of wood that are nailed into the bottom of the skid. These wooden pieces help keep the feet of the grill in place. I used my crowbar and hammer to remove those pieces of wood from all four corners. It’s really nice that a crowbar comes inside the crate to help with this. Get a nicer crowbar. You won’t regret it.

 

I didn’t get a good picture of this, mainly because I was so excited to get the grill off the skid. Sorry.

 

Even then, the grill wouldn’t come off the skid, since it was resting on some pieces of plywood that made a box that sat underneath the center of the grill. I was able to get the grill off by standing at the front of the grill, grabbing the lid handle, lifting slightly, and nudging the grill off the box. I could then roll it down the ramp.

 

 

Now that the grill is off the skid, you can see how I set up the ramp and the box that was underneath the grill. The wheels were resting on the four darker pieces of plywood. The pieces of wood that framed the feet of the grill are all on a piece of cardboard at the top of the picture.

 

This was the other part of the unpacking where another person would have been very helpful. Clearly, I got it off by myself, and I’m not a huge guy by any stretch of the imagination. But if I had to do it over again, I would have gotten another person to help me get the grill off the skid.

 

Even so, this process didn’t take that long to do. It only took me an hour and a half to get from the time the crate got into the back patio to when I rolled the grill off the skid.

[wilburpan]

Here’s all the stuff that came inside the KK 23†grill. Like CeramicChef’s grill, a lot of stuff was packed inside the grill itself for shipping. 

 

 

The top items were strapped and tied down really well.

 

 

This is what came out of the grill. Many packages. It was like a clown car. I kept pulling things out of it.

 

 

 

Here’s the damper top. It was strapped to the skid, and was packed in a way that protected it very well.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the view into the unloaded and empty grill. You can see the two piece firebox, which means that there shouldn’t be any worries about cracked fireboxes like I’ve read from BGE, KJ, and other owners.

 

 

One thing to note is how tightly the firebox fits to the inside wall of the grill. This means that all the air that comes in through the bottom vent will come up through the charcoal, which is one reason why the KK is so efficient. Compare that to the Kamado Joe, where you can see gaps between the firebox and the inside wall. This allows air to come up around the firebox, bypassing the charcoal, and is less efficient.

 

[wilburpan]

Here’s the charcoal basket. I put it on one of my patio chairs for scale. It fits into the grill very nicely.

 

 

 

The lower grate, again on my chair for scale. It has a door that can open up for access to the charcoal.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the upper grill. It also has a door for access to the charcoal.

 

 

 

 

Both grates in place, with the access doors open.

 

 

And for a final size comparison, here’s the main grate on my old gas grill. It may look like the KK 23†main grate is smaller than a three burner gas grill, but because of heat loss, I never grilled out towards the edges of my old grill. I’m going to get more effective cooking area with the KK 23â€.

 

[wilburpan]

Finally, here’s the top grate, which rests on the main grate.

 

 

Finally, a run down of the accessories that came with my KK 23â€.

 

First, the heat deflector. This is made of the same refractory cement that the grill is made of. It’s a beast. Normally it would sit on the handles of the charcoal basket. I forgot to take a picture of that, however. Sorry.

 

 

Speaking of the charcoal basket, here are the components of the basket splitter.

 

 

From left to right, you see the piece that splits the charcoal basket in half, a solid plate that fits into the basket, and two half grates that also fit into the basket. In use, it looks like this, using the solid plate and one of the half grates.

 

 

Kamado Joe has gotten a lot of attention for the divide and conquer system. I think this setup is even more flexible than that. You can use the center divider and the solid plate by themselves to split the basket in half. The solid plate and the solid portion of the center divider forces all the air to go through the charcoal.

 

You can also add the open grate which allows you to fill just the top half of one side to reduce the amount of charcoal you need for a short, high heat cook. Or put both open grates in and use the top half of the basket. It’s a surprisingly flexible arrangement.

[wilburpan]

Here are the teak side tables. As a woodworker, I can say that these are nicely made. The wooden top is attached by screws on the underside, and Komodo Kamado took the time to plug the screw holes to prevent rust.

 

 

 

 

Grate grabbers, with teak handles. The teak handles are really nice to look at and to hold.

 

 

Spare parts kit. 

 

 

Notice the fiber gasket for the damper top. I’ve seen the felt gasket that’s used in most kamados, and was struck by how thin they are. There are a number of posts on this board about this issue. Here’s how thick the gasket is for the damper, with my finger for comparison. Impressive.

 

 

The main gasket that seals the top and bottom of the grill is no lightweight, either. It’s made of food grade silicone, and there are two raised areas that create an airtight seal. Because the gasket is made of silicone, if I spill sauce on it, it will still work. And it’s easy to clean.

 

 

I ordered a rotisserie basket. My family really likes duck, and I am going to try to cook duck on my KK grill, so I thought a rotisserie basket would be a good thing to have. Unlike every other kamado, KK grills come ready for a rotisserie. And if you’re using a rotisserie on a KK grill, it stays airtight.

 

[wilburpan]

The last accessory I got with my grill was a baking stone. This baking stone is sized to fit the upper grill grate. It’s really thick, probably close to twice as thick as the typical pizza/baking stone that other kamado brands have.

 

 

 

And finally, here’s the first fire I started in my KK 23†grill. I set the lower vent half open, and the upper vent so I could see the upper vent gasket. I hit 500ºF internal temperature in 10 minutes. Impressive.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking! As of today’s post, I’ve done a fair amount of low and slow and direct grilling in the three weeks since I first got the grill, and I’m just ecstatic about how well this grill performs.

[wilburpan]

By the way, we did name our grill. As I mentioned above, my wife was partial to the matte black pebble finish shown on the KK main website.

 

 

If we had gotten this finish, we would have named our grill “Toothlessâ€, after the dragon in How to Train Your Dragon.

 

 

But this finish wasn’t available, so we went with the Olive Gold pebble.

 

And so we’re nicknaming our grill “Smaugâ€, from The Hobbit.

 

[DennisLinkletter]

Great Post Wilbur.. I really appreciate this step by step un-crating. Really helps a customer to be understand what they are getting and what un-crating a KK is like.. Thank you!

[Loquitur]

Wilburpan: Can't wait to see that duck!!!! 

[tony b]

Me, too. I don't have the rotisserie, but have done ducks on my vertical roaster. Eager to learn more. They are one of the harder cooks to do well.

[MadMedik]

Great post. Color is similiar to my grill. Names are important....mine is Kahlan...after a beautiful, sexy Mother Confessor in a silly novel I once read.

You have several upgrades or changes with your grill. The lower great has a flip up edge to access the coal. I would like that, not so much for coal access but rather as cooking space. There is quite a bit of cook space missing on my grill.. Mine has no grill where yours has the flip piece. Even your grill handles, to pull off hot grills...your are customized with wood handles....how cool. The indirect stones are custom sized for your grills. You got a crow bar...I did not !,,, LOL

Everything looks great. You will enjoy it even more later..

Congrats

[wilburpan]

You got a crow bar...I did not !,,, LOL

If it makes you feel any better, I used my own crowbar.

[bosco]

very helpful review Wilbur... only adding to my wanting of a KK.  

[Aussie Ora]

really great write up mate the pics are awesome let me know what I'm in for and really zoom in and apreciate the quality which looks pretty good. Forgive me I'm at the I'm getting one stage so I was looking at the top cap pic when you zoom in on this there is a tiny hole was this from the venting or does it go right through for some reason only asking because I just notice the hole for a thermometer lol

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill ♨

[5698k]

This hole is simply for a kotter pin to prevent the cap from accidentally unscrewing all the way.

Rob

[bosco]

I still need to add my pins, I didnt realize that was what they were for

[cschaaf]

This is why everyone should have a KK expert on hand for delivery. @ckreefknew what the cotter pin was for and hooked me up