The Best Kamado Grill for 2024

We're taking some of the most popular kamado grills, such as Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, and Primo and running them all through a series of tests to see which one is the best kamado grill for you.

This article is all about comparing 8 of the most popular kamado grills available today. It's not our job to tell you which of these grills to buy. Our job is to test all of these grills out as fairly and transparently as possible to research for you. You get to decide which would be the best fit for your budget, use, and preferences. Let us know in the comments what you decide and why!

Who Makes the Best Kamado Grills?

In this year's testing group of kamado grills we have included 8 different brands ranging in size from 18 to 24 inches in diameter. Our testing candidates included the large Big Green Egg, Blaze Aluminum kamado grill, Everdure 4K kamado, Grilla Grills Kong, large Kamado Joe Classic III, NewAge kamado grill, Primo XL, and the large size Saffire kamado grill.

How We Tested For The Best Kamado Grill

We'd like to thank Porter Road for supplying all the meat for these tests. We gave the exact same cuts of meat to each kamado to grill directly, cook hot and fast indirectly, and smoke low and slow.

Porter Road has done its best to ensure that this meat is all hormone and antibiotic-free and pasture-raised, so we know the quality of this meat is all top-notch. Now it's up to each grill to see how they smoke meat. 

Lighting the Grills

For all of our testing we used the RocketFire fire torch to light our FOGO charcoal. If you haven't seen it, this is a really cool propane or map gas torch that has a diverter on the end that directs your fire 3 different ways to light your charcoal more quickly. You just bury the stainless steel tip of the torch in the charcoal and light it up. It made starting up this many grills a quick and easy process.

High Heat Grilling

We started out our kamado cooking tests with a high heat direct grilling comparison.

We got some beautiful NY Strip Steaks from Porter Road and seasoned them with the Dust Bowl seasoning blend from Bartlow's BBQ. We used the small probes from our ChefsTemp ProTemp Plus (Get 25% off with code "BBQLAB25") to keep an eye on the internal temperature for us so we could pull them when they hit 125°.

We went with the 90-second method of cooking these steaks, and if you're interested in learning more about that, you can check out this video.

After 90 seconds, a rotation, 90 seconds and a flip, this is what the sear looked like on the Big Green Egg, Blaze, Everdure, and Kong. 

And this is what the sear looked like on the New Age, Primo, and Saffire.

The Blaze and New Age were definitely the standouts for us in this category with the huge grates giving us well-defined hash marks on the steaks.

The Saffire and Primo gave us the best crust with the grilling grate so much closer to the fire when you rest the grates on top of the ceramic firebox.

All-in-all, the family really enjoyed the products of this round of tests and we were very happy with the quality and flavor of these NY strips from Porter Road. Hats off to the ProTemp Plus for keeping an eye on the internal temperatures for us so we could enjoy a consistent medium rare on each steak.

Hot and Fast Indirect Cooking

For our next cook we tested each grill with a hot, fast, and indirect cook of Porter Road chicken drumsticks.

We rubbed the chicken down with some sweet red dirt seasoning from Bartlow's Barbecue and placed them on each grill running 425° with a deflector plate in place to diffuse the heat.

Just as a point of reference, the Kamado Joe, Everdure 4K and Saffire each included a deflector, but the other grills would require that as an additional accessory add-on to do this type of cook.

After around 30 minutes, the drumsticks were reading between 175-180° internally with the ChefsTemp FinalTouch X10 instant read thermometer (Get 25% off with code "BBQLAB25"), and our drumsticks were officially done.

This is what the chicken looked like on the Big Green Egg, Blaze, Everdure, and Kong.

And this is what it looked like on the New Age, Primo, Saffire, and Kamado Joe.

For the most part, all of the grills handled this cook exactly the same. The only thing we noticed was that the Saffire grill appeared to somehow allow more radiant heat around the deflector and over the meat, because even with the grill running at the same temperature as all the others, the drumsticks on that grill looked a little more done on top.

Low and Slow Smoking

A couple of weeks ago we asked the question of whether our followers considered kamado cookers as grills first or smokers first and an overwhelming majority of you said smoker. What's intriguing to me is how many of these manufacturers don't include a heat deflector in the box, allowing the kamado to actually function as a smoker.

For this last cook, we're going to test these grills as smokers with a low-and-slow smoked chuck roast.

While the grills heated up and settled into a low and slow temperature of about 250° we got the meat ready for the cook. We got some beautiful chuck roasts from Porter Road and seasoned them with a layer of Bartlow's Barbecue Dust Bowl seasoning, followed by a layer of Sweet Red Dirt. We inserted a ChefsTemp ProTemp Plus (Get 25% off with code "BBQLAB25") probe in each roast and were able to monitor the temps from my phone inside, which is a good thing because it rained today, so the fewer trips I had to take outside the better. By the way, if you want to learn more about the ProTemp Plus you can check out our video review.

We put the chuck roasts on each kamado smoker with a water pan, or in the case of the Everdure, the included water cup, and after 5 hours of smoking, this is what the chuck roasts looked like on the Big Green Egg, Blaze, Everdure, and Kong. 

And this is what they looked like on the New Age, Primo, and Saffire.

Next we wrapped the roasts in foil and returned them to the grills until the ProTemp Plus told us they were done. After about a 30 minute rest, we tore them open and this is what a cross section of the chuck roast looked like from the Big Green Egg, Blaze, Everdure, and Kong. 

And this is what it looked like on the New Age, Primo, and Saffire.

Overall, the results were fairly inconclusive to be honest. They all produced pretty much the exact same quality of food, which means that it's really going to come down to user experience in the end, which I'm going to talk about in just a minute.

While all 7 of the roasts were moist and delicious, and my small group and neighbors were all huge fans of this test, none of the grills produced a real smoke ring to speak of, in spite of the cherry wood chunks added throughout the cook. But the question is, can a smoke ring actually be achieved in a kamado smoker? Those of you who have one, let us know in the comments.

Cooking Grates & Capacity

Cooking space varies considerably between all of these grills. With only an 18" diameter, the large Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe Classic III large, and the Everdure 4k have the smallest cooking surface area.

The Saffire Platinum large is just a hair bigger with a cooking grate diameter of 19".

The Blaze aluminum has a 20" diameter primary cooking space and the cooking grates are impressive! The 304-grade stainless steel grates are 12 mm thick and have a hinge on both sides where the grate can partially lift to add fuel.

The New Age kamado has a grill grate diameter of 22", and the Grilla Grills Kong and Primo XL are the largest at 24" (Kong) and 25 x 18" oval (Primo). Primo has an advantage over the Kong, I think, in that the cooking grate is oblong rather than round, making for more usable cooking space. The Primo XL would have no trouble at all smoking a full packer brisket or several racks of ribs.

Ease of Cleaning

Cleaning the leftover ash between uses is important for optimal airflow in your kamado grill. Some of these grill brands have added certain features that make this dirty task a little easier.

Kamado Joe grills, and the Saffire Platinum both include a kick ash basket that allows you to lift up the charcoal and shake it a little to allow the spent ash to fall through to an ash pan below. This is the best way of separating the lump charcoal that can be used again from the ash that needs to be removed.

While the New Age, Everdure 4K, and Blaze don't exactly have the same shakeable charcoal basket, they all have removable ash pans that help with cleanup.

The Grilla Kong, Big Green Egg, and Primo XL all require ash to be removed through the bottom vent of the grill which requires an ash tool. Grilla Grills and Primo have both included an ash scraping tool in the box with the purchase of the grill. Big Green Egg offers a variety of different accessories to aid with ash removal but none of them come with the grill itself outside of a bundle.

The Results of Our Best Kamado Grill Testing

Is a kamado grill right for me?

With the right accessories, kamado grills can just about do any kind of outdoor cooking you're interested in. Low and slow smoking? Yes. Hot and fast cooking? Certainly. Direct heat grilling? You bet. Can it cook a pizza? Sure it can.

So if they can do it all, why don't more people have kamado grills on their patios? Well, for a couple of reasons, probably.

First, charcoal grills can be more challenging to manage, leading many to prefer the ease of a gas grill or pellet grill.

The next obstacle for many would be the cost. Kamado-style grills are notoriously more expensive than other types of grills, particularly if you have to purchase your desired accessories separately.

On the flip side, the life span of ceramic kamado grills far exceeds any gas grill or pellet grill on the market.

How Do Kamado Grills Work?

Kamado grills are ceramic grills that use lump charcoal as fuel for the fire. Unlike other charcoal grills, a kamado grill uses significantly less charcoal than a standard kettle-style grill.

Kamado grills excel at both direct heat and indirect cooking, using a heat deflector for slow-cooking tough pieces of meat.

Heat retention is the name of the game with a kamado grill, and keeping the cooking chamber closed as much as possible really helps with temperature control.

Airflow is controlled by managing the top and bottom vents. Keep the top and bottom vents all the way open for high heat, and close them most of the way down for low and slow temperatures.

To start a kamado grill, just place a small lighter bundle or a lighter cube into the charcoal on the bottom of the grill, light it up and leave the lid open for about 5 minutes.

While the grill operates the best if the ash pan is cleaned before every use, we find that we can get away with 2-3 cooking sessions without limiting the oxygen supply to where it's noticeable.

Most kamado grills are purchased by people who want to move away from gas grills. The biggest complaint is that gas grills don't impart any additional flavor to food, and kamado grills bring copious amounts of flavor to the party.

Is It Worth Getting A Kamado Grill?

Kamado grills can be a big investment but we believe they're worth it for a couple of reasons.

They are built to last. These grills will last decades while many other types of grills are lucky to last 5 years.

Sure you may have to replace a gasket or small part here and there over the lifespan, but barring a tornado tipping it over and causing the ceramic to crack, these grills are in it for the long haul.

Kamado grills can serve the function of multiple grills. Rather than having a charcoal grill, smoker, and pizza oven taking up space on your patio, one single kamado grill can serve all 3 functions.

What are the benefits of Kamado grills?

There are many benefits to owning a kamado-style grill over any other, but it can best be distilled into seven main benefits.

How To Use A Kamado Grill

1. Clean out the ash and grill grates. Ash is the #1 cause of fire management problems on a ceramic grill, since ash will limit the airflow in through the bottom air intake if not cleaned out.

2. Fill with lump charcoal. Lump charcoal is the preferred coal of choice since it can be relit and used again after your previous cook. 

3. Light the charcoal. Pro Tip: don't light all of the charcoal in the grill. Use a fire starter like the RocketFire and just light a small section of the charcoal. How far open you set your vents will determine how much charcoal the lighter will ignite. Light too much, and temps are hard to keep low. Here are our some of our favorite ways to light a kamado grill.

4. Decide if you're cooking direct or indirect. Direct cooking is cooking directly over hot coals. Indirect cooking is using a heat deflector to deflect the heat around the meat and up into the dome of the grill. If you're cooking indirectly, now is the time to position the deflector in place.

5. Adjust top and bottom vents. The most open your vents are, the hotter the fire will be. Lower temperatures call for smaller openings on the intake and output vents.

6. Optional: Utilize a pit controller fan. A pit control fan is like autopilot for your smoker. Just insert the fan in the intake port, set the controller to the temperature you want, and it will control the kamado for you. Thermoworks , Fireboard, and Flame Boss all make great pit controller fans that fit most kamado grills.

What To Look For When Buying A Kamado Grill?

When deciding which kamado grill to purchase, there are three main considerations that I like to help people think about. Whether you're looking at a Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, or an Akorn kamado charcoal grill, it all comes down to functionality, durability, and accessories.

The first question I always ask is, "Will this grill fit the largest crowd that I expect to invite over?" If the answer is no, and this is the only cooker you plan on having available, you probably need to go a size up. A small kamado grill may be ideal for the family, but cooking for a crowd, you'll be disappointed with the lack of cooking space.

Secondly, I want to know what accessories are available with this grill. Does it come with the accessories I think I'll eventually want, or are they available from the manufacturer?

Often people who buy kamado grills will want to start cooking pizzas and brisket, each completely different kinds of cooks on the same unit. The pizza needs a pizza stone while the brisket needs a deflector plate for indirect cooking. Check what comes in the box so you know what you'll have and what you'll need in your kamado cooking journey.

Can you cook comfortably on this grill? How heavy is the lid and will you be able to lift it easily? How high is the cooking grate when you're using it on the stand? Height of the cooking surface can vary, so it's important to look into.

How is the warranty on this grill? Kamado grills will last for decades if you take care of them, but it's always good to know that you have a warranty to back you up in case of the unexpected.

The best kamado grill is the cooker that you'll use, not just another pretty backyard patio ornament. The best kamado grills in the world are the ones that are used multiple times per week.

Kamado cooking is one of the most versatile cooking methods on the planet, and I think everyone needs to try it for themselves. Robust temperature control and using heat zones for anything from hot and fast to low and slow cooking makes a strong case for a kamado in every backyard.