I'm not real happy to have to do this, but we are here to help one another so here goes. I would imagine that in time Max Good will get ahold of one of these. It will be interesting to see what someone with his experience has to say.
All of the reviews I've seen on the new Kettle Joe have been of preproduction units sent out gratis for evaluation. Various YouTube reviews as well as some very good write ups by Alphonse on these pages comment on various features, the SloRoller attachment in particular. To be fair to those reviews, they didn't know what the production units would be like so most stayed focused on the cooking performance with little to no commentary on quality. And, again to be fair, quality perceptions are subjective and can, at best, be made relevant by comparison to better know products on the market.
I purchased this understanding that I was buying something new to the market and that user information was limited. Like many I was/am intrigued by the development story, engineering, and science behind the SloRoller with it's designed in vortex and it's effects on the smoking process. There is always a risk in buying something sight unseen, and compound that with a first production run product which could be prone to teething issues. Any trepidation I might have had with that was tempered by my past experience with Kamado Joe. I bought one of their original ceramic cookers the first year they came out because I saw one and was impressed that the quality was every bit the equal of the industry standard Big Green Egg. And they did stand behind their warrantee then when the fire box cracked in a couple places which warranted them sending out their newest design with the multi-segment configuration. Win win, good job. Sadly, this story is going in the opposite direction.
When I unpacked the parts to assemble I saw that two of the ceramic fire basket placards had heat stress cracks in them already. When the SloRoller ring came out of it's wrapping it had a void about two inches long in the porcelain coating. My thought was, once I registered my purchase, these things would be taken care of through warrantee replacement.
This afternoon I received a reply from KJ customer support that I will cut and paste so there's no chance for misunderstanding their reply:
"From: Payton E Williams
Sent: 5/3/2021
Subject: Warrantee replacements
Good Afternoon,
Thank you for contacting Kamado Joe customer support. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. The paint on the inside of your grill and stress cracks will not impact the quality of your grill. Therefore, does not warrant full replacement. However, we do have a 5 year warranty on metal parts and lifetime on ceramics if this ever causes any issues."
I guess I should be thankful that they didn't charge extra for the cracks and void.
Now, beyond that poor customer support, there are other issues with the cooker. Let me start with the idea that any good cook can get good results from almost any cooker. Alphonse has shown that in his posts on this cooker. I have done three grilling sessions so far, but haven't put the SloRoller to the test yet. I suspect it will function fine though who knows if the design really makes a difference. My other issues are with the overall quality level, beyond those shortfalls noted above. The feel of it is somewhat light and tinny. It's not awful, but to get a little past the subjective thing, it doesn't have the better feel of a Weber kettle as far as "heft" for want of a better word. It leaks more than any Weber kettle I've used, though I have added some nomex gasket material to the top and SloRoller ring which helped a little. Both the intake and exhaust dampers fit pretty loosely, and this shows up at shut down when it takes a few hours for the fire to go completely out in the remaining coals. By the next morning probably half the coals left at the end of the cook are ash. It leaks plenty. Again, the Weber kettle does much better, as does the Oklahoma Joe's Bronco I use a lot. The Bronco really puts the KJ to shame for quality, and for a couple hundred bucks less. It seals well from the factory with it's woven lid gasket and tight intake and exhaust dampers. Both the Weber and the OJB lose little to afterburn when shut down. Back to the Kettle Joe, the ash collector basket is very flimsy and sloppy in it's hole. It lets some small chunks of lump charcoal drop thru to be underfoot while you're cooking at times. It's a small issue, but has happened.
There are a few more nits to pick but I'll just end it here by saying this thing has some marvelous engineering features that make it appear to be a better device. Kamado Joe has, in the past, earned a reputation for quality at a fair price with added features a standard. Now that it's under the same roof as Masterbuilt those positives no longer seem to exist. I call this kind of product "built down to a price, not up to a standard". We'll see over time how others in the marketplace react, but from my point of view this isn't good value. Perhaps the SloRoller used as an attachment on the Weber or other 22" cookers could be a game changer, but the Kettle Joe as a whole package is lacking value.
All of the reviews I've seen on the new Kettle Joe have been of preproduction units sent out gratis for evaluation. Various YouTube reviews as well as some very good write ups by Alphonse on these pages comment on various features, the SloRoller attachment in particular. To be fair to those reviews, they didn't know what the production units would be like so most stayed focused on the cooking performance with little to no commentary on quality. And, again to be fair, quality perceptions are subjective and can, at best, be made relevant by comparison to better know products on the market.
I purchased this understanding that I was buying something new to the market and that user information was limited. Like many I was/am intrigued by the development story, engineering, and science behind the SloRoller with it's designed in vortex and it's effects on the smoking process. There is always a risk in buying something sight unseen, and compound that with a first production run product which could be prone to teething issues. Any trepidation I might have had with that was tempered by my past experience with Kamado Joe. I bought one of their original ceramic cookers the first year they came out because I saw one and was impressed that the quality was every bit the equal of the industry standard Big Green Egg. And they did stand behind their warrantee then when the fire box cracked in a couple places which warranted them sending out their newest design with the multi-segment configuration. Win win, good job. Sadly, this story is going in the opposite direction.
When I unpacked the parts to assemble I saw that two of the ceramic fire basket placards had heat stress cracks in them already. When the SloRoller ring came out of it's wrapping it had a void about two inches long in the porcelain coating. My thought was, once I registered my purchase, these things would be taken care of through warrantee replacement.
"From: Payton E Williams
Sent: 5/3/2021
Subject: Warrantee replacements
Good Afternoon,
Thank you for contacting Kamado Joe customer support. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. The paint on the inside of your grill and stress cracks will not impact the quality of your grill. Therefore, does not warrant full replacement. However, we do have a 5 year warranty on metal parts and lifetime on ceramics if this ever causes any issues."
I guess I should be thankful that they didn't charge extra for the cracks and void.
Now, beyond that poor customer support, there are other issues with the cooker. Let me start with the idea that any good cook can get good results from almost any cooker. Alphonse has shown that in his posts on this cooker. I have done three grilling sessions so far, but haven't put the SloRoller to the test yet. I suspect it will function fine though who knows if the design really makes a difference. My other issues are with the overall quality level, beyond those shortfalls noted above. The feel of it is somewhat light and tinny. It's not awful, but to get a little past the subjective thing, it doesn't have the better feel of a Weber kettle as far as "heft" for want of a better word. It leaks more than any Weber kettle I've used, though I have added some nomex gasket material to the top and SloRoller ring which helped a little. Both the intake and exhaust dampers fit pretty loosely, and this shows up at shut down when it takes a few hours for the fire to go completely out in the remaining coals. By the next morning probably half the coals left at the end of the cook are ash. It leaks plenty. Again, the Weber kettle does much better, as does the Oklahoma Joe's Bronco I use a lot. The Bronco really puts the KJ to shame for quality, and for a couple hundred bucks less. It seals well from the factory with it's woven lid gasket and tight intake and exhaust dampers. Both the Weber and the OJB lose little to afterburn when shut down. Back to the Kettle Joe, the ash collector basket is very flimsy and sloppy in it's hole. It lets some small chunks of lump charcoal drop thru to be underfoot while you're cooking at times. It's a small issue, but has happened.
There are a few more nits to pick but I'll just end it here by saying this thing has some marvelous engineering features that make it appear to be a better device. Kamado Joe has, in the past, earned a reputation for quality at a fair price with added features a standard. Now that it's under the same roof as Masterbuilt those positives no longer seem to exist. I call this kind of product "built down to a price, not up to a standard". We'll see over time how others in the marketplace react, but from my point of view this isn't good value. Perhaps the SloRoller used as an attachment on the Weber or other 22" cookers could be a game changer, but the Kettle Joe as a whole package is lacking value.
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