I don’t know anything about this brand, but for the price it is worth trying.
If you have never tried kamado cooking and you like to grill, give this a try. If you like the concept but not happy with the grill, you can get bigger more established brands for $600 and up depending on size. If it turns out do you not like it, your out a whole lot less than if you try one of the others.
There are also several types of electronic controllers you can add to these to make slow smoking a breeze. I have a Kamado Joe and a DigiQ controller. Lite the fire, set the temp to 225, and ignore it (except monitor temps with another remote thermostat) and 10-17 hours later a perfectly slow smoke butt. Best BBQ can get!!!
As a 15 year user of the Big Green Egg, I couldn’t agree more.
- Mobile cart with locking casters
Does this version actually include locking casters? It does not look like there’s any place for those to actually attach like the 19" or 22" versions.
Also, this size appears to be tiny. Just pointing out.
Just so you guys realize - while I agree with kmados being made of awesome, this is the small unit. At <120 sq. in., you can do roughly one small butt, several brats, or maybe a single rack of ribs, coiled. Don’t bother with any size brisket.
The pics are very deceptive as to perspective.
For comparison, the “standard,” large units hover around 5-600 sq. in. of cooking space, and are what most people consider workable for everyday use.
That said, as mentioned above, this is still a great deal. For comparison, the Big Green Egg, Vision or Kamado Joe small (mini) units are $250-350, all day. So this really is a good deal, but the operative word here is “portable.”
Just for clarity, for those who’ve never dealt with them before.
What makes this a “bundle”? The cover and the electric starter? Is the electric starter the thing shown in the third pic?
Also, the mothership shows only the 19" and 22" sizes with a “mobile cart with casters”, the smaller 15" model is shown only with legs and there is no mention in the 15" description of casters.
Clarity, please!
For what it’s worth, the Lonestar Kamado being sold here today is a compact model and does not have casters or side tables. In fact, they are mixing up some of the pictures - the photos showing the unit with the stainless steel bands around the lid are from the 19" and 22" models. Today’s unit has black painted bands. I purchased the 19" version here from Woot and love it. We use it as a wood-fired pizza oven and occasionally for grilling (usually when we know we will be grilling for a long time. For shorter sessions or a single item I still use my propane grill.). The 19" model is the smallest I would use as a pizza oven as it will accommodate a 12" or larger pizza, whereas the 15" model will only hold a small personal-sized pizza at best, but your mileage may vary. If you are limited on space, however, then this one might be worth a try.
For low and slow smoking the “bigger is better” rule applies to kamado grills. A small grill like this one will have more difficulty maintaining a constant temperature at the right level for the time required, and every time you open the lid it will take a longer time for it to recover and stabilize again. On the other hand, for grilling for two this one should be fine. Hope this helps!
Note - I don’t want to disparage the use of black-painted bands to hold the lid to the base! For those who pay attention, the Big Green Egg brand (which is considered one of the top brands) also uses them. I just wanted to point out that the photos showing the stainless bands are not from today’s offering but rather from it’s larger cousins. Also, if you hunt around on the mother ship looking at these types of grills you may notice that while there are literally dozens of different brand names it appears that there are only a few actual manufacturers, and many times the only differences would be the color, available size, and price.
I got one of these: https://tools.woot.com/offers/beacon-ceramic-grill-with-stand-red-or-black-6
It is pretty tiny, but works well. You can do a pork butt on it, or turkey breast, chickens, etc. but it’s too small for ribs or any other large chunk of meat, unless you chop the ribs up into half racks or smaller.
Even though it works well, I probably wouldn’t buy one again because it is incredibly tiny. I almost never use it. I have a vertical propane smoker that holds a couple butts and a couple racks of ribs simultaneously and works just as well. and doesn’t feel cramped.
This looks like it’s a similar size, and is actually $40 less, so if it works equally well, it’s not a bad deal, just be aware it’s very small.
I’ll just echo the comments on the size. I have a 13" Kahuna kamado grill in addition to an XL BGE. I got the 13" Kahuna at another discount site because I did not want to pay $500 for a small/“mini-max” BGE, and I use it for small cooks…a couple burgers, 2 small steaks or one large one, etc., when I don’t want or need to use the XL BGE. This one is a bit bigger at 15", with 13" of cooking surface diameter. Still, be aware that it will limit what you can do on it. Also, flare-ups are more common on the smaller grills due to the tight space/proximity of the coal to the grill grates. Aside from that, this is a pretty good deal, especially with the cover and electric starter thrown in.
“ * Mobile cart with locking casters”
Sorry, there’s no cart with casters.
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