Great presentation, thank you. The metal work is stunning and the tongue & groove fit is brilliant. The biggest weaknesses of many kamados is failing seals and continual need for adjustment of steel bands around ceramics. After discontinuing this product a while back, I am very glad that Blaze has brought it back on the market.
Excellent choice, glad to see your appreciation of this awesome grill. I've had mine for one grilling season and have found it to be a joy to cook on. (To the point of preparing our family's Chistmas roast on it confidently). Good luck with it, here are some "the missing manual"-type tips: For starting out, the photographs in the manual depicting the vent positions work perfectly. The bottom vent's adjustment tolerances are nicely engineered, I have found 1-2mm adjustments reliably register in temperature modulation. The bottom part where ash collects is pretty small, I empty it after every 2nd use and without exception before any type of smoking. Ash cleaning never takes more than 2 minutes. Safety: Be mindful of the center of gravity of the grill while you have it in its temporary setup. Good grill gloves and a grill grip tool are a must. A narrow long poker helps a lot for adjusting coal through the grill grates. A place for hot grill grates to be outside of the grill will help you more comfortably move through cooking setups in a single firing (grilling steak over hot coals and then slipping the middle grate in for a heat deflector for bbq'ing chicken etc.)
Great video, you should do a follow up review now that you've had it for a while and share your thoughts. If someone asked you now, knowing what you know now...would you buy it again? Cheers!
Well frankly. Its brilliant. Absolutely love it. Its incredibly efficient on fuel. It cools for hours on very little charcoal. The lighting and cleaning are easy. Yes it isn't cheap. But its not going to suffer ceramic cracks or needing new fire boxes every four years like a Kamado Joe or Big Green Egg.!
@@tgates811 I considered purchasing this a few years ago, but I decided to go a different route after investigating. I'm fairly confident it performs comparably to ceramic, and that it's apt to last a long time. However, its small size for the money turned me off. I ended up buying the Weber Summit, and I've got to say I'm super happy with it. Regarding the size of the Blaze, I owned a "large" Big Green Egg long ago that was a bit smaller than the Blaze at 18.25" diameter, and I found it quite limiting. My weber summit kamado has a 24" diameter, which is much more flexible (more/larger food, two-zone cooking, etc.), and it performs at least well as ceramic in my experience. It's also quite a bit lighter (easier to move) and quite robust. Weber's ash clean-out system is also much better than BGE's original system, and probably still a bit easier than most of the newer systems from BGE and Big Joe. In theory, ceramic can last a long time (if you baby it and never move it), but in practice, I don't think it lasts longer than the Weber's alternative because ceramic is quite breakable (impact or heat shock), it's super heavy (high center of gravity, harder to move, etc), and the paint applied to the outside degrades much more readily than Weber's high-quality porcelain-enameled coating. Blaze's ~all aluminum construction (save for the grates?) should hold up much better there. If they made a 24" version for similar money without a corresponding increase in weight, I'd probably give it real consideration. Your needs or preferences may vary, of course. Just my two cents. .
Alas have entry of photos of cooks but no videos. I determined I needed a better camera and mic for outdoor filming. I will try and do some videos of cooks. Its a brilliant bit of kit. Absolutely love it.
I think a three year followup would be awesome. I'll definitely watch.
Great presentation, thank you. The metal work is stunning and the tongue & groove fit is brilliant. The biggest weaknesses of many kamados is failing seals and continual need for adjustment of steel bands around ceramics. After discontinuing this product a while back, I am very glad that Blaze has brought it back on the market.
Excellent choice, glad to see your appreciation of this awesome grill. I've had mine for one grilling season and have found it to be a joy to cook on. (To the point of preparing our family's Chistmas roast on it confidently). Good luck with it, here are some "the missing manual"-type tips:
For starting out, the photographs in the manual depicting the vent positions work perfectly. The bottom vent's adjustment tolerances are nicely engineered, I have found 1-2mm adjustments reliably register in temperature modulation. The bottom part where ash collects is pretty small, I empty it after every 2nd use and without exception before any type of smoking. Ash cleaning never takes more than 2 minutes.
Safety: Be mindful of the center of gravity of the grill while you have it in its temporary setup.
Good grill gloves and a grill grip tool are a must. A narrow long poker helps a lot for adjusting coal through the grill grates. A place for hot grill grates to be outside of the grill will help you more comfortably move through cooking setups in a single firing (grilling steak over hot coals and then slipping the middle grate in for a heat deflector for bbq'ing chicken etc.)
Great overview chap, cheers
Thanks for sharing. Will you be posting any cooking or follow up videos?
Great video, you should do a follow up review now that you've had it for a while and share your thoughts. If someone asked you now, knowing what you know now...would you buy it again? Cheers!
Oh definitely. It's simply brilliant.
Hi mate were did you buy that from I'm struggling to find them in the UK.
Not sold in UK yet. No dealers. Only Solid Kamado EU sell in Europe at this time. They supply UK
How do you like it so far? Have you done many cooks on it?
Well frankly. Its brilliant. Absolutely love it. Its incredibly efficient on fuel. It cools for hours on very little charcoal. The lighting and cleaning are easy. Yes it isn't cheap. But its not going to suffer ceramic cracks or needing new fire boxes every four years like a Kamado Joe or Big Green Egg.!
How does it retain heat compared to the ceramic counterparts?
@@tgates811 I considered purchasing this a few years ago, but I decided to go a different route after investigating. I'm fairly confident it performs comparably to ceramic, and that it's apt to last a long time. However, its small size for the money turned me off. I ended up buying the Weber Summit, and I've got to say I'm super happy with it.
Regarding the size of the Blaze, I owned a "large" Big Green Egg long ago that was a bit smaller than the Blaze at 18.25" diameter, and I found it quite limiting. My weber summit kamado has a 24" diameter, which is much more flexible (more/larger food, two-zone cooking, etc.), and it performs at least well as ceramic in my experience. It's also quite a bit lighter (easier to move) and quite robust. Weber's ash clean-out system is also much better than BGE's original system, and probably still a bit easier than most of the newer systems from BGE and Big Joe.
In theory, ceramic can last a long time (if you baby it and never move it), but in practice, I don't think it lasts longer than the Weber's alternative because ceramic is quite breakable (impact or heat shock), it's super heavy (high center of gravity, harder to move, etc), and the paint applied to the outside degrades much more readily than Weber's high-quality porcelain-enameled coating. Blaze's ~all aluminum construction (save for the grates?) should hold up much better there. If they made a 24" version for similar money without a corresponding increase in weight, I'd probably give it real consideration.
Your needs or preferences may vary, of course. Just my two cents.
.
Any cook video’s to share?
Alas have entry of photos of cooks but no videos. I determined I needed a better camera and mic for outdoor filming.
I will try and do some videos of cooks. Its a brilliant bit of kit. Absolutely love it.
How has it been for you so far?
I’m on the fence getting this guy…