AKORN Charcoal Grill

Having used this for four years now, I can easily give this five stars. I use it several times a week summer and winter. There's several qualifiers though. I have three smokers and a gas grill and I've smoking and grilling foods for almost 50 years. The acorn requires some experience though because it can get very hot. That works for some things but with a little monitoring and some accessories the temp is very controllable. Two essential accessories are ; the smoking stone, and pitmaster 101 control unit. Alton Brown uses this in his Weber and they have a model for the acorn. With this and stone you can do controlled smoke down to 150. Is very efficient at burning charcoal. I use a good lump charcoal and I keep the ash pan at least half full so it can hold coals. I haven't smoked a brisket yet but have done pork shoulders. Try ring of fire method. There's plenty of YouTube videos on that. I get great bark. Sometimes I use a water pan under grate. As for high heat, I've never seen anything better. Thirty years ago a friend had a Korean komodo and it worked great. I considered a green egg but couldn't justify the cost. Getting it very hot is easy. I butterfly chickens and at about six hundred degrees I out them on we have juicy chicken with crispy skin. Also steaks at six hundred degrees cook fantastic. I have several pics on Pinterest if you want to see. I have done tomahawk steaks too. I put large chunk of whatever hardwood I want to use and I get great smoke penetration. I've done turkeys too. If there's a drawback it's limited surface area but I have other grills to use as well. But so far the acorn has been enough. With the savings you could get a gas flattop to compliment it. I'll be using my acorn today to grill some salmon. So far this has exceeded my expectations. But it's not start and ignore. Oh also I use a Bluetooth temp gauge as the one mounted has limitations and once I have everything going I can monitor remotely. I'll update this again but I would buy another one. May 2023. I just posted a picture of what I am using my acorn Komodo to cook. I have a pork shoulder, brined pork belly for bacon and a few country style ribs that I'm smoking with hickory. Paired with pitmaster 101 controller works fantastic. I have seen that char broil has a new egg that incorporates a controller. If looking to buy a new one I'd definitely check that out. I've used this a long time. I use it all year, even during winter and it's cold here. It always works great! In addition to smoking I use this to cook chicken. I split the chicken into halves and when the egg is about 450-500 I put it on. Everyone says this is the best chicken they've had. Crispy skin, and very juicy. In six years it has made fantastic meals. I can buy at least 3 of these for price of Green egg. Or this plus a flattop grill. So check it out. Oh also if the grill gets cruddy just open the lower vent and top vent and it'll burn everything off. Next day I just brush the dust off and use Canola spray to re- season the grill. The smoke stone is vital to operation. I use the accessory grill that's provided also. An excellent value. Makes superior smoked turkey also. My kids won't let me cook turkey in oven anymore.

Update 12/5/19 --- I've had this now for 1.5 years, and I still really like it. I'm not seeing any signs of rust, and all the seams still seal, even though I've been using this probably twice a week on average. I still think it's a great price to get into a Kamado BBQ. I smoked a 20lb. turkey for Thanksgiving last week, it was moist and juicy and smokey, with crisp skin. Then I reverse seared a 3lb. prime rib roast the next day. You can make great veggies on it, too. Maybe the biggest hit has been the baba ganoush (smokey eggplant and garlic dip), but any roasted veggies will come out excellent. Original review --- TL;DR: You have to consider this $300 Kamado in comparison to spending 2-8x as much for other Kamado style grills. I am sure I would love to have a Weber Summit or a Kamado Joe, but I can buy this over and over again for the cost of one of those units. I have had this for a year now, and it's been great. It's much lighter and less fragile than the ceramic units, and provides great control over temperatures. By buying bags of different types of wood chunks, you can tailor the smoke flavor to the food easily. The Akorn took me about 1.5 hours to assemble, and I had no issues. All the parts were present, and all the fasteners were packaged in a blister pack that identified everything, so it was easy to see that I had all the parts. All the parts lined up and everything mounted the way the instructions said it should. The gaskets both sealed perfectly, and have continued to seal for the 6 months I've had it. This is the only Kamado grill I've owned, but it has been easy to figure out. I've cooked half a dozen pork butts on it, I've done a couple full briskets, lots of spare ribs, 3 or 4 prime rib roasts, probably 8 turkeys and a bunch of steaks. I love doing a "reverse sear" on prime rib or steaks (smoke the meat low at 225°F until it reaches about 120°F internal, take the meat off and crank up the heat to 500°F or more, then sear the meat for about 2 minutes on each side). Everything has been at least good, and after a bit of practice, most things have come off great! I've also roasted peppers, done artichokes, eggplants and a bunch of other veggies, in different ways, on this grill. It gives you super control and a wide range of temperatures, and you can raise the temperature really fast. It only takes 5-10 minutes to do the raise from smoking to searing I mentioned above. Speaking of which, it's very important, especially for cooking at lower temperatures, to keep a careful eye on the grill temperature as it heats up. It's much easier to bring the heat up than to try to cool the grill down. This isn't a knock on the Akorn itself, it's a property of all the Kamado style grills. Be very careful not to let it run away, or it will take you a long time to get it back down to where you want it. You also definitely want to buy a pizza stone/heat deflector stone for this, in order to do low and slow cooking. I think I paid $35 for the one I bought to go with the Akorn. This is what allows you to cook over indirect heat, to smoke low and slow, to put a water pan in to keep the food moist for longer cooks, and to catch drippings for sauces and gravies. The cast iron grate is easy to use and keep clean, if you season it first. Mine is black and somewhat glossy, like a cast iron pan, and food doesn't stick to it. The ash removal system is easy to use and effective. After removing the ash pan, try to pour the ash out away from the air intake or you'll get some between the walls. A number of reviews talk about rust problems. I'm about 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and we can have a lot of fog, so I was concerned about that. I haven't seen any rust forming yet, but I did buy a cover for the grill to try and protect it. At this price, if it rusts out in 5 years and I have to buy another one, I'll be dead before it costs me as much as a Weber Summit. As others have reported, the thermometer in the lid is not accurate. I factored that into my expectations, and I already had a wireless thermometer that I was using on my gas grill. Consider, if you don't already have one, getting a 2 (or more) probe wireless thermometer. You want to have a probe for the grill temperature and another for the food. This will allow you to do longer cooks without opening the lid and losing heat. Also, I would recommend that you get some heat proof gloves, so you can add or remove the heat deflector while it's hot or there's a fire going.

I'm impressed with the quality of this grill, and it's bigger than I expected. If you're on the fence about ceramic-style grills, don't hesitate—these are awesome. This is actually my second one. My first was a Brinkmann, which was great and lasted five years, but it wasn't built to the same standard as the Akorn. I highly recommend watching some videos before you get started. There's a learning curve, but it's not difficult—just different from a standard grill. What I love most is how well these hold heat. Even at 30 degrees outside, they maintain temperature beautifully. They also use very little charcoal, and you can cook for hours without adding more. Another big advantage is moisture retention. These grills keep your meat incredibly moist. If you love smoked chicken, this will produce the best you've ever had. These are a great alternative to expensive ceramic kamado grills at a fraction of the cost. Plus, ceramic grills are extremely heavy. If you ever need to move it, this one is much more portable.

I'm really satisfied with this grill. I bought it really cheap compare to ceramic grills. It has a big diameter (more food on the grill). Grill came packed really well and assembly was easy. It's perfect just for making easy steaks, Bratwurst or smoking ribs, pulled pork. Just recommend to buy pizza stone (heat deflector) for indirect grilling/smoking. And cover if you have it outside

Muy buena parrilla 👌🏻 para cocinar tus cortes a la perfección la recomiendo al 100%

The grill works great. However I only realized that the side tray connecting arm was bent when I completed installation. Does not affect the grill itself, but the side tray cannot be opened flat because of the bent arm.

Great!!!

Bigger than i expected, easy to assemble, quality seems good and its about 1/4 the cost of a green egg