Thinking of rearranging deck to move big Joe to where the back of it would run along an exterior wall on the side of the house. Painted wood two story house, no overhangs on the side. How close can I get it to the house to be safe from fire hazard and heat damage to side of house? Thanks!
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It depends on if you're asking about a regular cook, or an accident. With a regular cook, the fire hazard from being close to the Kamado is probably pretty small, right? I know I have wood 2" from my smoker and no worries.
But think of the things that can go wrong when loading/unloading coals and wood, and ask how close you want those to your house. For example, I have a Backwoods Chubby, and my biggest risk is dropping the fire basket. But I rarely ever pull out a hot fire basket, for lots of reasons.
But if pulling it out was part of my routine, I wouldn't want it anywhere near my house.
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I would think there would be almost no danger at all. How close can it even get with its lid open?
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I have no experience with kamados, but I do have a bit of experience with house fires. Convected heat and overhead obstructions are the first problem, but that seems mitigated. Keep adjacent doors and windows in mind as well. Sparks and embers are next, so make sure you address that, especially with a wood deck and the litter that can accumulate underneath. And finally there's radiant heat, which is your main question. A rule of thumb is if it's too hot to touch and hold with a bare hand then it's too close. Pyrolysis, https://www.britannica.com/science/pyrolysis, is a process of decomposition by heat that occurs with low temperature until the organic matter carbonizes and is more easily ignited. Strive to keep radiant heat sources far enough away from your house and adjacent combustibles to stay below that temperature point, i.e. the vapor or boiling point of water (212F at sea level). A cheap infrared temp gun to check the wall temp will help you figure that out. And as always, have a fire suppression plan and tools (garden hose, min 2A:10BC extinguisher, etc) at hand and never leave an open fire unattended.
And yes, I have been to many structure fires that resulted from pyrolysis by poorly installed heating and cooking appliances.Last edited by CaptainMike; January 8, 2019, 11:43 AM.
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CaptainMike 's comment is better than mine. Dude throwin' out the science!
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Damn, that's a great answer! I would add that my Vision grill is actually on a wooden porch with a 6 ft wooden overhang. I have a hose nearby. It does not get too close to the house. The thing that I learned early on was to "burp" the grill. One fireball is all you need to learn that. For that reason alone, I wouldn't have it too close to the house.
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Now THAT is a solid answer.
I live in San Diego & we're all about fire prevention here. A 10 min segment on the news changed how I store stuff outside. (It was a fire inspector.)
A natural place for me to store my firewood & briquets is under my house gable, to provide some rain protection. "That's nothing but kindling for a house fire."
That's also where I stored my propane tank. Not anymore.
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You're funny.
Mainly the worry is about things that are easily ignited if there is a large fire nearby. The last big fire in San Diego (the Carr fire) got 3 miles from my house. What happens is that some embers are small enough to float, but hot enough to stay hot while floating. They land on somebody's pile of leaves a half a mile away, and suddenly you've got another fire. Hence the "don't pile easily combustible things right next to your house" idea.
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You have nothing to worry about. My Kamado table is made of wood and it sits with in 1/32 inches from the side of the kamado. No problems.
If it were anywhere near hot enough to start on fire, you would see charing or at the very least, discoloration on the wood. As you can see, there is none. And I have had this baby rolling at over 800 F. All seems to be just fine.
All this being said, you should at least have it on a grilling mat to avoid dropped coals starting a fire, but the grill itself will be fine. Always, Always have a fire extinguisher handy at your grilling space. I have one in the kitchen, shop and patio.
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Ahem, a statement was made to "check with a local fireman" . That could not be a truer statement, because the longer they are on the job & higher in rank, the more "fire" science they have been exposed to. With that said, I refer you back to CaptainMike. There is your local fireman. 🤔 🕶
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As I currently live in a most fire friendly structure (an old trailer), and have used kamados for a few years; maybe this can help. I keep my kamado at least 4-6 feet from any unprotected wall. What is a protected wall? A wall that has cement board or other fire-proof covering. No overhanging roof that is not fire resistant. Have a fireproof base to keep things from igniting if you spill coals, etc..
For most kamado cooking, you will have little problems, BUT, when grease accumulations(which can happen despite most efforts), ignite, you can have a problem on your hands. More than once, I have had to quench my kamado, let it cool, then burn off in the open due to grease build up. It takes very little grease build-up to see this effect, in my experience.
So, fire-proof the surrounding area from the kamado and you'll be fine.
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Anything is possible, and you shouldn’t ever scoff at fire hazards.
That said, wood tables and kamados are very common. BGE, Primo, and other manufacturers will even sell you a wood table made for your kamado grill. I built my own, the varnish on the table top isn’t even discoloring. the hottest my lid ever got to was around 350, which is still 100 degrees below the point where wood can begin to burn. And that was only because I wasn’t paying attention and left the vents wide open a little too long doing a burn off. If I keep the internal temperature to 500 the hottest exterior surface stays below 300. The sides are even cooler.
So as long as there is 4-6 inches of space between the top vent and the wall then the lid is open, your good. I would be more concerned with smoke marks than fire, if there is an overhang or something above the grill.
I did move my kamado away from the backyard chickee hut though. The hut has a natural palmetto thatch roof and lump charcoal can throw off embers when it is starting up. Also flashover is a hazard when you are doing higher heat cooks and open the lid too fast. So just for safety I moved it away from that fhing (the gas grill and stove is still under it though).
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wcpreston any kind of fire training counts, well not any maybe, after the Fire Marshall bill routine was shown. But in seriousness it does. The other fellow that I know of, I remembered half of his moniker, it’s TechSmoker.
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