Pit Boss Kamado Grill Review

The Pit Boss Kamado is one of the most widely available kamado charcoal grills in the United States. Pit Boss offers two kamado models, and they come in 22” and 24” varieties.

As a competitor to other ceramic charcoal grills like the Kamado Joe and Big Green Egg, the Pit Boss kamado charcoal grill has all of the main features that you've come to expect in a ceramic kamado grill.

With all ceramic grills, there are a plethora of accessories that you can add at the time of purchase. Certain brands add every item with the grill, and others sell each item separately.

Pit Boss K24 Kamado Charcoal Grill

Grill Specifications

The Pit Boss K24 weighs a hefty 221 pounds and measures 53 inches wide, a little over 47 inches high, and the manual says a little over 30 inches deep. 

In our real life tests though, we measured the depth including the hinge and the handle to be about 33 and a half inches. When you open the lid though, you need a bit more room since the hinge pivots backwards a bit, which gave us a measurement of around 35 inches deep in case you're thinking about adding this to an outdoor kitchen or kamado drawer.

The grill surface is two tiers. There's the main grate that measures 20 inches wide and an upper grate that measures the same for a total cooking capacity of 662 square inches. There's 4 inches of height between the main and upper racks.

For a temperature range with this grill, you can do everything from cold smoking to high heat grilling, so as low as burning a pellet tube for just a little over 100 degrees all the way up to grilling in the 600's. 

Assembly

We assembled our unit with the help of friends, and it took us right around 20 minutes. It was pretty simple, just build the stand, drop in the grill, screw on the handles and side shelves and you're good to go.

Build Quality

This grill is ceramic, so the outside and inside of this grill is all made up of ceramic parts.

The heavy duty ceramic exterior is painted and glazed while the interior is raw and unfinished, just like you'd find in any other kamado ceramic grill.

The side shelves and the handle are made of poly, which is nice because they won't weather as bad as wood in the rain and moisture. The down side is that if you set a hot pan on a poly shelf, you can melt it, so be careful with hot pans and sparks.

There's a spring on the back of the unit that aids in lifting and lowering the lid, and it's adjustable depending on how easy you'd like that operation to be.

The cart is made of strips of metal instead of hollow metal tubing, and I prefer it this way. I find that hollow tubing will rust and the wheels will fall off over time, so I like this stand over some of the competition.

There are 4 wheels and two of them are lockable to make sure it doesn't slide off the back patio and into the yard, which for a kamado charcoal grill can be a very bad thing. 

Cooking Low and Slow

We started off by cooking a chuck roast from Porter Road for some Mexican pulled beef. I started the grill with some premium hardwood lump charcoal and used my grill gun to light it up and get it to temperature.

My goal for this cook was to settle the grill in between 275-300 degrees, and let the grill do the work. We let the roast smoke for 4 hours before we put it in an aluminum pan with some beef broth to braise the meat until it fell apart and we could pull it. Simply delicious low and slow kamado cooking.

Cooking Hot and Fast

For a hot and fast cook, we did some orange chicken lollipops that have quickly become favorites of the kids.

We sourced the chicken legs from Porter Road, and if you haven't checked them out as your online butcher, give them a look.

We cooked the chicken legs until they hit an internal temperature of about 160 degrees, and then glazed them and put them back on to set the glaze.

Kamado charcoal grills are great to cook hot and fast on still using the deflector plate to keep heat indirect, and the Pit Boss K24 did great with this recipe. 

Grilling

We took the deflector plate out and set the grill up for direct grilling next, and we picked up a whole beef tenderloin at our local Gordon Food Market and cut it into filet steaks for Melissa's parents' 50th anniversary.

We fired the grill up to about 500 degrees, and put some steak on both the factory stainless steel cooking grates and a GrillGrate panel to see the difference between the two. We use GrillGrate panels on almost all of our grills here at The Barbecue Lab, so we like to see the difference when we're testing. 

We turned and flipped the steaks every two minutes to get those good grill marks that everyone loves, and we pulled them at 130 internal.

Beautiful steaks, better grill marks on the Grill Grates, but more charring on the factory grates. Slicing into them, both looked a perfect medium rare which is how we like them around here, and the Pit Boss K24 did a beautiful job.

Cleaning the Pit Boss K24

Cleaning a kamado is something that needs to be done every cook, with a deeper cleaning every couple of cooks, but here's how that shakes out.

Every time I start up the grill, I'll put on a pair of insulated grill gloves and push the charcoal around the fire ring to knock off the ash of the charcoal that can be reused from the previous cook.

I'll then add in some new lump charcoal to the level that I'm looking for based on what I'm cooking, and then I'll open the air intake and clean out all of the ash from the previous cook. I just use this tool with a small hook on the end to grab the ash and small bits of charcoal that might inhibit airflow, and pull that into an ash bucket before I light up the grill.

For a deeper cleaning, I'll pull out all of the charcoal and sweep out the ash and the firebox with our Shop Vac. I'll take a damp cloth and wipe down the outside, and that's about all it takes to clean the Pit Boss K24.

Warranty

Pit Boss offers a 5 year warranty on both Pit Boss kamado grills, and you can learn more about what's covered and how it works over on the Pit Boss website. 

Kamado Charcoal Grill FAQs

What Is a Kamado Charcoal Grill?

Kamado charcoal grills are known for their ability to hold a consistent temperature for an extended period of time. The heavy duty ceramic exterior of the grill is made up of a glossy coating that makes cleanup easy, but the real magic is located just under the lid.

The grill is shaped like an egg, and the heart inside the grill is a ceramic egg shaped insert that lines both the lid, sides and bottom of the interior of the grill.

The thick ceramic walls of this charcoal grill allow it to hold and control heat unlike any other charcoal grill.

The kamado lets air in with a small damper vent on the bottom front of the grill, and is the primary way that heat is controlled within the unit.

There is also a top damper vent on the lid that controls how much heat and smoke can escape the grill. This top setting is rather sensitive, and even small changes to the opening can change the temperature of the grill by 20 degrees or more.

Are Pit Boss and Louisiana Grills Kamados the Same?

Pit Boss Kamados and Louisiana Grills Kamado models are manufactured by the same parent company Dansons, Inc. 

What are the benefits of a Pit Boss Kamado?

The Pit Boss kamado style grills are made of ceramic materials unlike some of the common competitors like the Akorn jr. by Char-Griller. Another difference on the Pit Boss grill that you’ll notice is stainless steel cooking surface.

Both the main grate and the top grate are made of stainless steel so food won’t stick. The Akorn jr. uses cast iron grates which makes for a different kind of backyard grilling experience.

This egg grill by Pit Boss is out to show that not every ceramic charcoal grill is made the same. There is a distinct difference between a classic Weber grill and a kamado grill. The way they hold heat is dramatically different.

The Weber kettle grill dome is made of a thinner metal that allows heat to escape more quickly while the kamado charcoal grill uses the internal ceramic and dampers to hold the heat in.

What is the difference between a kamado charcoal grill and a gas grill?

Gas grills use tanks of propane for their fuel, and kamado charcoal grills take natural lump charcoal.

You’ll find a distinct taste difference when you’re cooking with lump charcoal instead of propane. Propane might be easy to use, but it won't give the best results.

Natural lump charcoal is really wood, and you can taste the authentic charcoal flavor that it imparts to all your favorite recipes. Propane is a heat source that gives no taste or flavor, and serves strictly as fuel.

Pit Boss Kamado Grill Buying Guide

The Pit Boss K24 edges out the Ceramic 22” as the better value in our opinion. The slightly larger cooking surface for just a few dollars more is what tips the scales in favor of the Pit Boss K24.

When you purchase the Pit Boss K24, you get 662 square inches of cooking area to work with. With more than 330 square inches of cooking space on the main stainless steel grate, you get enough room for a full packer brisket wrapped in butcher paper or a pair of pork butts.

The cooking grid can also be set up for indirect cooking with the optional heat deflector plate. The fire bowl holds the charcoal on the bottom of the grill, and the heat diverter is set up between the fire and the cook grate.

For all of the benefits of a kamado grill there is one massive downside. The cooking space is quite a bit less than other models of ceramic charcoal grills. The dual layer cooking surface of the Pit Boss K24 is a necessity if you’re looking to cook or BBQ in any quantity.

The Pit Boss website claims that you can fit a total of 38 burgers on this grill when utilizing both layers of cooking surface.

Unless you’re cooking sliders, I wouldn’t count on this grill handling 38 adult sized burgers worth of cooking space. The drippings alone coming off that much cow at one time are guaranteed to spike the temperature inside the grill since this is setup for direct grilling over lump charcoal.

Attempting 38 burgers is only recommended if you need the extra smoke coming off your pit to send smoke signals to an adjacent neighborhood.

There are plenty of competitors to the Pit Boss Kamado grill on the market, and Vision Grills, Broil King, Oklahoma Joe offset smokers are looking to garner your attention while you’re browsing the aisles at a big box store near you.

Remember that the benefits of a kamado style grill is that they retain heat for a long, long time. In comparison to their offset smoker brothers, they take very little fuel for a cook. Two or three handfuls of lump charcoal may be all you need to cook dinner, and superior temperature control is a breeze.

One of the ways that a kamado grill uses very little charcoal is that you can reuse the charcoal that’s left for the next cook. Just close the intake and output dampers, clean out the ash and you’ll have charcoal left to use the next time you want to put some smoke in the air.

If you’re thinking that the Pit Boss Kamado is a portable grill design, allow us to throw this into the fold: The K22 product is pretty heavy at 260 pounds, so if you’re looking at this grill to take to a tailgate, you better find plenty of strong friends to join you and share the burden.

You can grill mini food all you want, but that won’t change the fact that this BBQ smoker is a very heavy design. If you don't get anyone willing to join you, it'll be a tough grill to haul to your tailgates from home.

Thankfully, the grill is more mobile when it's on a hard surface. It has easy to use wheels with swivel casters that will move in any direction that you want. The heavy-duty swivel casters make for easy mobility on a hard surface, but the wheels definitely struggle on soft surfaces.

As far as BBQ pits go, the kamado style has one of the smaller footprints available.

Should You Buy A Pit Boss Kamado?

If you’re looking for a ceramic kamado for your grill arsenal, the Pit Boss is a solid entry in the ceramic egg space. The Pit Boss is available at most major big box retailers, and it’s known to go on sale at the end of the season for a significant discount.

If you are in the market for a ceramic charcoal kamado and don’t have the budget for some of the more expensive brands, the Pit Boss Kamado is a perfect unit to find out if kamado style grilling is right for you.

About Pit Boss Kamado Charcoal Grills

Pit Boss Ceramic Kamado Series grills are manufactured by Danson’s, which is also the parent group to Louisiana Grills pellet grills and smokers.

We here at The Barbecue Lab have had our fair share of experience working with Danson’s customer support. We found them to be very responsive and helpful with the issue we were having with another one of their grills not featured in this review. The issue was taken care of with expediency and care and that level of customer service is worth noting.

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