Kamado Joe Konnected Joe review: A highly versatile smart grill

Usually, sensible grills equal pellet grills. Whereas pellet fashions performed a key function in popularizing related outside cooking, there are many different choices for controlling and monitoring issues from the comforts of your lounge. After introducing a wise controller for its ceramic grills in 2018, Kamado Joe launched its personal related pellet model in 2020. Earlier this yr, the corporate mixed its add-on controller with its standard charcoal-burning crimson cookers, ensuing within the Konnected Joe.

At first look, the Konnected Joe seems to be like every other ceramic grill in Kamado Joe’s lineup. Nonetheless, the underside half is black the place a lot of the firm’s different choices are stable crimson. The show (or Kontrol Board) additionally units the Konnected Joe aside, and it’s located beside three meals probe jacks, the facility button and a temperature dial. Right here, you may see temperature graphs, choose a prepare dinner mode and obtain alerts. The grill can even advise you on the right way to regulate the vents primarily based in your chosen temperature. Buttons on the left mean you can set timers and reconnect to WiFi, along with adjusting the show to indicate grill or meals temperatures in massive numbers seen from afar.

The Konnected Joe retains quite a lot of the options that make the corporate’s ceramic grills nice on your deck or patio. The Kontrol Tower high vent, Air Carry hinge and heavy-duty cart all make utilizing the grill simpler. Inside, the corporate’s two-tier Divide & Conquer design permits you to prepare dinner totally different meals at totally different temperatures by altering the proximity of the stainless-steel grates to the fireplace. You may also arrange one facet for direct grilling whereas utilizing a warmth deflector for oblique on the opposite. Many of the parts for the grill are semi-circular, which makes the Konnected Joe simply as versatile as an everyday Kamado Joe. The folding facet cabinets are modestly sized, however they’re sufficient to carry a plate, tray or small chopping board.

Kamado Joe’s newest sensible grill is appropriate with the entire equipment for the Traditional Joe grill, aside from the charcoal basket. This implies you may add a rotisserie (JoeTisserie), pizza stone (DoJoe) and extra to increase the capabilities of the Konnected Joe. There’s a ton of choices right here, starting from the inexpensive half-moon reversible griddle ($70) to the dear JoeTisserie ($300), with some bundles going for much more. You don’t must buy something further to get began with the Konnected Joe, although. The grill ships with grates, warmth deflectors for low-and-slow cooking and all you want for that optionally available two-tier configuration.

Just below the three meals probe jacks is a devoted button for the Computerized Fireplace Starter (AFS). WiFi connectivity could get the majority of the eye on this Kamado Joe, however the AFS is the actual star. It’s primarily a heating ingredient on the backside of the cooking chamber the place you load your charcoal and wooden chunks. Once you flip it on, it runs for quarter-hour to mild your charcoal with none extra lighter fluid or fireplace starters. I’ve used this each time I’ve cooked with the Konnected Joe, even once I’m in any other case working the grill in Traditional Prepare dinner Mode with out the automated temperature management. It persistently, utterly lit up the charcoal. See ya later, charcoal chimney.

Along with built-in WiFi, one other key side of sensible grilling is a cell app. The Kamado Joe App permits you to regulate time and temperature with out being immediately in entrance of the grill. Throughout my exams, modifications had been sometimes fast though there have been just a few instances I needed to enter the specified temperature twice to get it to stay. These temperature graphs from the onboard show are right here as effectively, alongside the flexibility to browse recipes and monitor meals probe temps. Nonetheless, the place Kamado Joe at present lags behind the competitors is its library of recipes and the way they’re offered.

Proper now, there are over 150 recipes obtainable within the Kamado Joe app, organized by meals sort and cooking methodology. For comparability, the Traeger app at present homes over 1,000. The Kamado Joe app can be lacking just a few obvious gadgets, like pulled pork, however the firm says it repeatedly provides new recipes. It additionally stated it’s working to convey recipe movies and step-by-step steerage to the app someday subsequent yr. These are two extra gadgets that each Traeger and Weber supply of their apps and they could be a large assist once you’re attempting a brand new recipe or are a newbie griller. Nonetheless, the app does a stable job with the fundamentals of monitoring and controlling the grill.

One other space the Kamado Joe app may supply steerage is getting ready the grill to prepare dinner. There are some ideas in recipes, like ready for clear smoke once you add wooden chunks earlier than placing any meals on, however there aren’t any recommendations on how a lot charcoal so as to add within the first place. This can be a lesson I realized the laborious manner, because the Konnected Joe would persistently overshoot the set temperature throughout low-and-slow smoking in my preliminary exams.

After consulting with the corporate, I made up my mind I used to be utilizing an excessive amount of charcoal and the additional gasoline was igniting earlier than I wanted it in the course of the longer classes. Utilizing much less in the beginning mounted my drawback, however prolonged cooking instances could require you so as to add extra. This implies transferring your meals and any racks to the facet to entry the underside of the chamber. It’s not splendid, however it’s hardly a dealbreaker.

None of this implies a lot if the grill can’t produce great-tasting meals, and the Konnected Joe does a superb job in that regard. Since that is principally a Kamado Joe ceramic grill with some smart-cooking bits added on, its efficiency is just like these non-WiFi fashions. You get the flavour of charcoal, which has a extra pronounced smoky essence than pellet grills produce. Certain, you may impart loads of smoke with wooden pellets, however what you get from charcoal is simply totally different. And, no less than to me, it’s barely extra intense. You additionally get the flavour of charcoal by direct cooking for a real grilled essence versus hot-and-fast searing on a pellet grill.

Over the course of testing, I did a mixture of high-heat grilling and slow-smoked barbecue. This included quite a lot of steaks, a Boston Butt for pulled pork, child again ribs and extra. I used to be persistently impressed by the charcoal smoke taste current in all of my cooks, particularly within the longer classes for the pork shoulder and ribs. What’s extra, the Konnected Joe permits you a bit extra room to experiment with sorts of wooden as you add chunks to complement the charcoal. There are totally different sorts of pellets meant for various meals, however generally these aren’t a single sort of wooden even when they’re labeled as such. For instance, Weber’s Cherry pellets are 60 % Maple. With the Konnected Joe, you may seize a bag of a single sort of wooden chunks (I take advantage of Kingsford) and alter them up primarily based on what you’re cooking.

One other factor you want to concentrate on (and this is applicable to ceramic grills generally) is the lengthy cool-down interval. As a result of nature of the supplies, these fashions retain warmth much more effectively than a kettle or gasoline grill – and even most pellet choices. That is nice whilst you’re cooking, however it additionally means that you must plan for an prolonged time for the grill to chill off earlier than you may put the duvet on. For instance, I completed cooking ribs round 5PM at a temperature of 275 levels (a five-hour prepare dinner). After I locked up for the evening round 11PM, the grill was nonetheless heat to the contact, so I couldn’t cowl it but. Excessive-heat searing required much more time to chill off, and normally, I needed to depart the grill uncovered till the subsequent day.

One space the place the Konnected Joe surpasses WiFi-enabled pellet grills is the convenience of cleanup. You solely want to make use of the included ash device to scrape particles by the holes within the backside of the cooking chamber, leaving bigger items of used charcoal for the subsequent prepare dinner. A tray inside the underside vent slides out for simple disposal. If there’s a considerable amount of ash, chances are you’ll want to make use of the device to scrape that slot, however you shouldn’t must get out the store vac such as you do for a pellet grill. After all, the equipment could require a radical scrubbing after use, however that’s nothing some grill cleaner or soapy water can’t deal with.

For those who’re searching for a charcoal-burning various to the Konnected Joe, you don’t should go far. Mother or father firm Middleby Outside additionally owns the Masterbuilt model that has the Gravity Sequence sensible grills we examined in 2020. Whereas the Gravity Sequence 560 was the primary model, the corporate has since launched the bigger Gravity Sequence 800 that comes with a griddle insert and the Gravity Series 1050 with the biggest cooking capability of the trio.

The design is similar throughout all three fashions: a gravity-fed hopper on the correct facet funnels charcoal all the way down to a digitally-controlled fan to take care of temperatures. You may add wooden chunks to the ash bin to provide extra smoke. The Gravity Sequence is able to hot-and-fast searing, low-and-slow smoking and all the things in between, all with the flexibility to observe temperatures out of your couch. One key situation with these grills is they are often troublesome to mild when you could have used charcoal on the backside of the hopper, so it’s greatest to cycle by and have contemporary gasoline to mild, mixing any used bits mid-chamber.

If ease of use is your high precedence, a pellet mannequin is value contemplating when purchasing for a wise grill. Along with full-featured apps for monitoring and controlling the grill from afar, Traeger and Weber each supply easy-to-follow recipe steerage. Each corporations additionally offer you estimated completion instances of their apps (by way of Meater for Traeger) so you could have an concept of when to have the edges prepared (and to maintain hungry company knowledgeable of the state of affairs).

What’s extra, pellet grills don’t require you to futz with parts so as to add extra gasoline as you merely refill the hopper exterior of the cooking space should you begin to run low. Cleanup is a bit more concerned, however for longer cooks that don’t require any spritzing to maintain the meat moist or wrapping to expedite cooking, one of these grill is actually set it and overlook it. Weber’s most up-to-date mannequin is the SmokeFire Sear+, which gives over 1,000 sq. inches of cooking house for $1,599. One of the best new Traeger for most individuals is the lately redesigned Ironwood, the smaller version of which is $1,800.

At $1,699, the Konnected Joe could be very costly for a charcoal grill. Nonetheless, it’s extra inexpensive than the Classic Joe Series III, which gives the identical cooking space with out the connectivity and AFS igniter. A comparably sized Huge Inexperienced Egg is round $1,100, however once more, you’ll want a secondary gadget for any form of temperature monitoring. Once you pit it towards WiFi-equipped pellet grills, the Konnected Joe isn’t that far off. Actually, it’s barely cheaper than Kamado Joe’s personal Pellet Joe. A related grill and all of the comfort that it affords has by no means been low cost, however the Konnected Joe pairs all the flexibility of a ceramic cooker with some great benefits of charcoal and performs effectively. If the corporate can increase and refine its companion app, this grill shall be a whole package deal – even when it instructions a steep funding.