Char-Griller 16619 Kamado Kooker Charcoal Barbecue Grill and Smoker, Black

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Price: $271.09    

Product Feature

• Cooking space is 306-inch and a warm rack of 165-inch
• Insulated design means more heat uses less charcoal and less airflow means insulated heat for juicy meat
• Cooking surface is cast iron and will hold up to 23 burgers
• Cart is constructed of tubular steel with rubber wheels
• Features locking lid, two folding wood shelves, easy dump ash pan, double wall insulation, heat gauge

Product Description

Kamado style cooking comes from ancient cooking methods that used large clay ovens for insulation. Kamados of recent years are made of heavy ceramics. King-Griller by Char-Griller has developed this product for Kamado style cooking using innovative technology to make it more durable, convenient, affordable and lighter weight than traditional ceramic Kamados. This Kamado Kooker can cook anything from burgers to fish to ribs to pizza. Truly the best food you will ever cook on a grill.

Char-Griller 16619 Kamado Kooker Charcoal Barbecue Grill and Smoker, Black Review

I have had this grill for a week. I absolutely love it. Its ability to QUICKLY climb to high heat or to HOLD heat and bake in a moist sealed environment puts it into a different category than a gas grill or a Weber Kettle grill.

I have cooked a pork rib roast at 350 that came out great. With a moist and smoky environment.

I have had it up to 650 and did fabulous burgers. They had a brown and crispy surface with out being dried out.

The problem comes in when I want to get it below 300.

There is too much air coming in from the bottom vent. I was going to seal the back of the vent where it seals to the ash pan. When I removed the ash trap to work on the vent-- I found that the entire round ash trap bottom is just tacked to the top in a butt joint and there is already a gap at one place where it is separating from the flat top part that butts up against the sealing gasket for the ash trap. The metal is deformed in another area directly behind where the vent attaches. Said another way the metal had already deformed behind the vent slot.

I question the long term air tightness with this construction detail.What use is a sealing gasket on the ash trap when the whole area below it is just butt jointed and tack welded in several places?

The photos are available on the customer images when you are viewing the product. Take a look it is quite startling.

This detail is on the removable ash trap and in theory this small part of an otherwise great grill could easily be improved. It looks like this joint may become more and more leaky over time.

The photos for what I am describing are the customer photos when you are viewing the product page.

UPDATE 4-25-2012

I contacted CharGriller about this problem. They say they will replace the ash trap as a warranty item.

The thing is you MUST HAVE YOUR RECEIPT. So if you buy this Akorn Kooker save your receipt. Thank goodness that Lowe's is great about issuing a new one. Just as Amazon is great at letting you go into your history and print a receipt.

They also had no word about if the replacement ash trap will be made the same way. This is absolutely a design created problem.

UP DATE 5-22-12
Char-Griller did sent a new ash trap and it had the same defects and developed leaks only not as bad. This unit cooks much better when it is air tight.

Here is a link to the KAMADO GURU forum in which they cover fixing the air leaks.

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In addition some people have used theirs extensively and feel it is holding up well.

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UPDATE: 6-2-2012

There is an element to the design of this AKORN that people should be aware of. This unit is egg shaped. The result is that the top over hangs the more narrow bottom. Any fat that renders out will either be caught in a drip pan on top of the smoke stone diffuser or it will run down the sides. Any grease that reaches the ash trap area will either drip into the ash pan or run under the top flange and soak the gasket on the ash trap seal.

Cleaning the ash trap will remove the oil that has collected there. The sealing gasket should also be checked and DE-greased if it is wet with grease.

I put a grill grate on the smoking stone position and built a fire to get more intense heat to do burgers. I filled the outside edge of the grate with 20% fat burgers. I got nice crispy burgers. When I closed the lid and shut the top and bottom vents----the dome temp gage shot up to 650F.

The next cook was going to be three pork butts a couple days later. Except I could not get the ash pan off to clean it. To make a long story short---the ash trap gasket was glued on to the separating surface with carbon. I had to pry it off and scrape the carbon crystals off both the mating surface and the gasket. A new gasket is available from Char-Grill. To install it just pry with a plastic object between the gasket and the flange it is attached to. The gasket is held in with metal attachments that snap out. The new one just snaps in. This takes about five minutes.

Users should check the gasket for oil when they empty the ash pan. There is not likely much chance for a grease fire while doing a low and slow cook. It can happen the next time you take it up to 600. A drip pan should be used for low and slow to catch as much grease as possible.

This probably is not a good grill to use for direct high heat grilling of fatty things like 80% burgers or sausage. The high heat and the abundant oil are what caused mine to catch fire.

As I inspected the design more I did notice that the very out side edge ot the grate extends over a gap between the inner fire bowl and the outer insulated shell. Any grease that gets into this gap will run down to the ash trap with no chance to burn off. I believe that this is what contributed to my grease fire. i now keep any thing that I cook back from the edge and over the inner fire bowl.

DESIGN MODIFICATION---- If a metal flange were installed above the ash trap area and sloped to the back. A pipe could be run out the back and the grease caught in a bucket.

UPDATE 10-2-2012

I have used this CharGriiler Kamado since April about 3 times a week. If you are interested in Kamado style cooking this is a good place to start. The AKORN gets the same results as the more expensive Kamado style cookers that start around $900 and quickly end up in the $1500 to $2,000 range.

You can grill at 650 degrees or do true BBQ at around 250 degrees. I have done nine pork butts for pulled pork with great results. I have done ribs, chicken thighs, chicken breasts, steaks, hamburgs, WOKED vegetables,ETC and all were great.

You can cook chicken with the skin on without getting the typical huge flare up. In fact there is no fire at grill level at all. I do find that slashing the skin on the thighs and cooking them skin side up works best.

I have not had a grease fire since the one noted above. I now take it up to 600 and do a burn off immediately after I cook something fatty and I keep what I cook over the inside of the fire bowl.

To get good performance you will need to put felt behind the vent slide, seal behind the vent to the ash trap area, and any gaps in the seam between the top of the ash trap and the outer bowl. I have had to replace the felt behind the slide three times so far. There is a lot of information about these mods at the Kamado Guru forum--in the Char-Griller AKORN Kamado/ King Griller group and in the topic section Mods and Fixes. This is a must visit site if you own one of these.

This cooker heats up fast and is slow to cool down so the techniques needed are different from other grills. They are not difficult just different. There is a lot of info about this in the AKORN section at Kamado Guru.com in the ----starting a fire low and slow definitive. I find a dual temp digital thermometer ( grate temp and meat temp ) to be extremely helpful. I find the dome thermometer to be slow to respond.

I love the taste of lump charcoal and wood chunks on my food.

In my opinion this grill is a bargain but you will need to take an active and on going approach to keeping it air tight to get the best results. Yes I would buy it again---but be warned you will want one of the pricey Kamados in a few years down the road. Do notice that I said want. This grill will last for many years if you keep it coved and out of the weather and the food will taste the same coming out of the AKORN or a $1,000 ceramic kamado.

EDIT 4-22-13

Lowe's finally put a display model out this year and the air slide was even more sloppy than mine. It litterly rattled in the track.

BJ's had two of these AKORNS on display that are now called the King Griller AKORN. One air slide was so tight that it was difficult to adjust and the one on the other was very smooth and it had less play that the Primo Oval XL that I looked at. So it does appear that some of the models for sale this year now have good air control on the bottom.--- with out putting felt behind the slide. This is encouraging--I just wish that mine was a made to those tolerances. The truth is both of the units at BJ's were so tight thqt nothing could fit behind the slide.

In addition the center insert now is all grate and no emblem to block the heat--IMO another good thing.

It does appear that CharGriller is refining the AKORN as time goes on. It may be hit or miss though.

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