Kamado Joe Big Joe Series II 24-inch Ceramic Charcoal Grill and Smoker with Cart, Side Shelves, Stainless Steel Grates and 450 Cooking Square Inches in Red, Model BJ24RHC

This grill is HUGE, its hard to tell from photos the size of this thing. It is very pricey though so make sure this is what you want. I started off with a Chargriller Akorn and used that for around 2 years before deciding we wanted something bigger and longer lasting. The Akorn is a great grill and I still have it and I'm planning to move that to our cabin, but there is certainly big differences between the two but then you would hope so for a ~$2000 price difference.So far have made pulled pork, pork ribs, beef ribs, spatchcock chicken, and pizza on the new grill. The grill is able to handle everything we've thrown at it and the food all comes out great.The only complaint I have so far is not actually with the grill but with the Amazon "Expert Assembly" I got it because it was free at the time and this grill is so heavy. I tried to reach out several times to make sure they were aware this is a very big and very heavy grill and not a lightweight gas grill like they probably do a ton of. I had no luck getting through to anyone to understand my concern or make sure they're prepared with multiple attempts. As a result of course they sent one small guy to try to assemble my grill all by himself. Of course he couldn't do this solo and we even took a picture of him next to it (he barely stood higher than the crate) which he sent to his boss. Then the next guy to get scheduled was also alone, luckily he was able to get someone else to show up, but it's rather ridiculous that it was so disorganized. Once they had the right number of people they did a great job and I don't blame any of the technicians but the management and scheduling of the service needs to improve. When all the stats of what is being assembled are right there on the item page and I tried to warn them multiple times of the size and weight they should do a better job.

I had the Kamato original 18” grill and loved it but at times the grate space was a little crowded so I ordered the Big Joe 24” and it is huge. I included pics of the two grills side by side. If I had it to do over again I would keep the original 18” Joe. The 24” Big Joe is a great grill but just like a small car vs a SUV, it takes more gas to drive the SUV(charcoal). Both grills cook well but the 18” grill uses less charcoal and I feel was easier to keep on temperature but if you need the extra grate space maybe look at the larger grill. These things hold heat extremely well and will stay at temp for hours. I love the taste of charcoal over propane and while it takes a little more work to charcoal grill, I feel it’s definitely worth it.

This is a great value. The Big Joe 2 and 3 are rather pricey. I got this one on the big Amazon sale for under $750 which was an incredible value. But even at $1100 I can’t see spending over double for the version 3. I have it paired with a Joe Jr which is the perfect set up. The Big Joe holds temps like setting an oven and you’ll be surprised how beneficial the extra grilling space is. One thing about the BJ that never gets talked about is the ability to grill direct (without the deflector plate) but almost a foot above the coals. You get the benefits of direct grilling without scorching the outside of your protein. Perfect for spatchcock chicken. I have a bunch of different grills and enjoy them all but the Big Joe is easily my favorite. Zero regrets except should have bought one sooner.

I’m not a seasoned smoker yet, but so far, I actually love it! Made the absolute juiciest and best tasting burgers. There was about 12 of us and everybody kept raving how delicious they were. They were so perfectly cooked throughout. I have purchased some of the accessories, and I definitely plan to become more comfortable with using it. But so far it doesn’t seem too difficult to use and cook with.

We use this grill to smoke ribs, steak and chicken. We also used it took cook several pizzas. It is a large grill which allows us to smoke/grill enough meat for big crowd

I love this thing. I always enjoyed my weber charcoal grill, but wanted to try one of these for a long time. My weber broke down and I convinced myself the $200 for a weber wasn't worth it and got this instead.... First cook came out better especially for the chicken which was always good over charcoal, but this was really great.