BGE versus the others? Comparisons?

nlsteve

Does anyone know of a fairly objective place to find comparative information between the BGE & the competitors? I'm talking about the Grill Dome, Primo, Cypress, & so forth.

It seems like the BGE large has a few very direct competitors with 18" grills, but I am not finding any really objective comparative reviews. I checked Naked Whiz.

Clearly, BGE is at least a "good" product and has good customer service and the widest variety of accessories. But I'd like to know if it is the best-made in its class (sub-$1000, 18" grill ceramic cookers).

Thanks.

Steve

Bacchus

Well most everyone here owns Egg's. Most are intelligent folks who did product research before buying, and are more concerned with quality and support than price.
You might try the BBQ Brethren Forum which is not a brand specific site.

Capt Frank

I don't know if such a place exists. Folks on here are obviously prejudiced toward their EGGS. Eggs are not only an extremely well made product, they are backed by an excellent warranty and a strong dealer network. These things are very important and I imagine a little research on your own will shed some light on how competitors stand up.

Capt Frank
Homosassa, FL

edg1

Hi Steve,

In addition to the $$ out the door, another set of things to keep your eye is options & community.

Options: Do the other brands offer OEM and/or aftermarket goodies for your BBQ? Grills, thermometers, temp control, what have you. There are a number of companies that offer the above mentioned items, and more, for the BGE. They may, or may not, be available for other brands.

Community: We have eggheadforum.com, a place where you can ask questions about how to use your egg. Do other brands offer such a place? If you have a question, is your only resource your dealer?

Just a few other things to think about.

edg

fishlessman

grill dome has no dealer base, never heard of a cypress :laugh: there is only two i would consider and you should be able to figure it out from your list, and i have eggs. dealer base is really important with ceramic grills

RRP

if you check there are many of us who own multiple BGEs - that also has to tell you something. This is a lifetime purchase and hope you decide to join our family.

deepsouth

go ahead and get the large big green egg and stay on the forum. you'll learn tons and put out excellent food on the regular.

i said it earlier... i thought i was a decent cook and i was without my egg for a weekend and everything i turned out was disappointing to me.

Grandpas Grub

 
I am in the camp that thinks BGE is 'at least' as good as the others.

Check out which ones have the lifetime warranty, that my help you in your decision.

GG

chrisnjenn

Before I decided to buy a BGE, I researched the other ceramic grills on the market and when I added all the pro's and con's, the BGE beat the competition by a mile(Lifetime warranty, huge network of dealers, build quality, Eggfests, a great community of users on this site, largest selection of accessories, BGE company has been in business a long time, etc.). I have a few friends who own them, so I had the luxury of actually eating and cooking on them before I bought one. We have a local dealer who cooks on their BGE's twice a week, so people interested in them can experience it (I'm sure some dealers throughout the nation do this--if not, they should).

SubVet

In the many years I've had my egg now, I've had one problem, the firebox insert cracked. Brought it up the street to my local dealer and it was replaced Free of Charge without a single question. Never had to replace another part except the lid seals and I'm thinking about my lid seals again. It's just not "Whooshing" when I seal it off anymore. No leaks, mind you, just the sound of it drawing a vacuum when you shut it down.

I've seen the wannabes at some big box stores but they sure don't look nearly as good. I've also never seen such a wildly-enthusiastic bunch of people as you'll find here!

When I was first shopping I posted some questions and was actually being invited to people's homes to "show off" the ability of this magic cooking machine. I am SO GLAD I went for the real thing. It must be about 7 years now and I'm still addicted...

vidalia1

The BGE is the best...stop looking and buy it..you will never regret it.

Mainegg

the only negative as far as I found is that I waited to long to get my first egg and then I gained a tiny bit of poundage..... LOL and a TON of new friends here on the forum. this place seals the deal for the choices out there I believe

Carolina Q

She says "first" egg. What she didn't say was, she now has SEVEN (I think it's seven). That ought to tell you something too, hmmm?

NC-CDN

vidalia1 wrote:

The BGE is the best...stop looking and buy it..you will never regret it.

This says it all. Well worth it.

chrono

Go BGE, you'll never look back. I looked at several competitors but nothing came close to BGE support, retail outlets, accessories and most importantly this community! I've learned so much from here. That in itself is priceless ..

cookingdude555

My experience is first with Weber (charcoal, not the gassers), and then Kamado cookers like the BGE and then the Bubba Keg. There are some features I liked in each, but I already have four eggs, so I think I am an egghead now. I have found that food from my WSM, my BGE's and my brothers Bubba Keg was similar that I wasnt sure if there was a difference. The difference lies in a lot of what has been said. My pluses with the egg are heat retention, easy cleanup, low fuel consumption, flexibility, and the 'coolness' factor. The cons would be the price, lack of portability (compared to other products), and how fragile they are.

I would recommend the BBQ Brethren forum for an honest comparison. Its a forum that is focused on cooking, and not the cooker. There are several egg heads over there, but many of them have multiple cooker brands and can give a very good comparison. Good luck and enjoy whatever brand you get. If you get another Kamado brand, a lot of what is discussed here will still apply, feel free to hang here and post either way! Good luck.

deepsouth

yep, bbq-brethern is a great forum. you'll hear varying opinions over there, where over here, we're all biased.

highpress

Seriously, i never considered any other manufacture. It's not just about the ceramic cooker, to me it was the total package. With the egg you get a lifetime warrenty, excellent forum with fantastic people who provide 24/7 support and tips, eggfests where you can go and share with other eggheads, etc.. .. Well worth the price of admission, wouldn't think twice about it...
I'm fairly confident BGE will be around as long as I am, not sure if the other guys will be. Just my .02.

Unknown

Ummm? Check out to see which ones actually HONOR that Lifetime Warantee.

I have a couple of NON-BGE models WITH the lifetime warantee, but no-go on actually using it.

I own a Mini-BGE, needed a small part replaced, hadn't actually thought whether it should be warantee or not. Received the part with NO CHARGE, even for shipping

I am posting a nonny mousely because I am still trying to get my warantee repairs on the "other" smokers, and if they find out I post here, I'll be sheet-binned

[Deleted User]

Steve-
I'm sorry I can't answer your question, but I can tell you of my experience.

I'm cheap and I shelled out the $ for a large.
Never regretted it.
Later on I bought a mini.

these cookers are not cheap but I am and I still chose BGE over the competition.

Something I have noticed is the competition always compares themselves to BGE, but not to each other. I believe this is because of the standard of excellence for which BGE has become known.

at the end of the day, I want to do something once and I want to do it right. The BGE has not disappointed me.

The Naked Whiz

You could register as A Nonny Mouse and then we could send you private messages to ask which ones they are, :woohoo: !

ibanda

Sorry, wrong place to ask, we lost our objectivity a long time ago!! There's no one on here that's impartial, we love the BGE!!

If you want someone to help make your decision, I will pile on and say, just go get a large BGE and start cookin!

Unknown

I believe that YOU can figure it out with your sleuthing skills.

You possibly know who I am. It's been a while.

Nonny
california, somewhere on the other side of the world :unsure: California, mexico, california, mexico, etc etc etc

ResQue

.

ResQue

To be honest when I was looking at kamado style cookers I did some research and narrowed my choices down to two brands. BGE and Primo. From what I have read, both are excellent cookers. I researched further and decided on the BGE. If you read any of the other replies here, that is the reason I went with BGE. This forum is a HUGE part of the reason I chose the BGE. You have so many people with different pieces of knowledge willing to help you with whatever you need.

*One word of advice, if you have a question use the search function before you post your question. More likely than not, you will be able to find your answer.

---

RRP

and for the uninformed of which came first the BGE or the Primo - it was the BGE! Primo, started by a fellow who previously worked for Ed Fisher, founder of BGE, even tried to duplicate the color of green!

Carolina Q

I didn't know that... makes me even happier that I bought an egg!!!

Unknown

All ceramic forum...

http://www.ceramicbbqforum.com/ceramic/public/

PhilsGrill

That forum is dead.

GregM

I have spent a fair amount of time researching this question over the last few months. After a lot of reading old post and posting myself, I decided to go with an Egg. I am currently talking to the distributor about what to get with it since he gives package deals if you order all at one time (for example, table or nest?). I have not cooked a meal on an egg, but I have had food off the Egg and messed with it a little during a cook.

For me, after market service and durability were a huge deal. If you go to any of the other forums you will see lots of complaints about customer service and quality issues. For example, paint peeling on the domes, vents rusting on others and even just banged up new units out of the box. I can accept sometimes things get screwed up, but when people talk about having to call multiple times and still no resolution, operators who have trouble speaking english etc. it really becomes an issue. If you want some examples, the Bubba Keg board has several recent threads on quality issues and customer service. I should say the guys there are very nice and they seem to mostly love their Kegs, but I would be pretty frustrated if I were them.

This board is the other equally important reason to buy a BGE. Again, nice guys on all boards, but there is just so much more activity here. Also, the other boards tend to not have as many people with a long run of experience. Thus, they are all figuring out their grills together.

We can all tell you this stuff, but if you are like me the best thing to do is surf around the other boards. Primo, Grill Dome and Bubba Keg all have them. You can get a pretty good sense from there. In fact, the Bubba Keg board has a couple of recent post talking about Eggs vs. Kegs that seem pretty level headed. They actually helped convince me the Egg was the right choice for me (there is a lot of feeling it is better for long low and slows).

Good luck.

Greg

GregM

I have spent a fair amount of time researching this question over the last few months. After a lot of reading old post and posting myself, I decided to go with an Egg. I am currently talking to the distributor about what to get with it since he gives package deals if you order all at one time (for example, table or nest?). I have not cooked a meal on an egg, but I have had food off the Egg and messed with it a little during a cook.

For me, after market service and durability were a huge deal. If you go to any of the other forums you will see lots of complaints about customer service and quality issues. For example, paint peeling on the domes, vents rusting on others and even just banged up new units out of the box. I can accept sometimes things get screwed up, but when people talk about having to call multiple times and still no resolution, operators who have trouble speaking english etc. it really becomes an issue. If you want some examples, the Bubba Keg board has several recent threads on quality issues and customer service. I should say the guys there are very nice and they seem to mostly love their Kegs, but I would be pretty frustrated if I were them.

This board is the other equally important reason to buy a BGE. Again, nice guys on all boards, but there is just so much more activity here. Also, the other boards tend to not have as many people with a long run of experience. Thus, they are all figuring out their grills together.

We can all tell you this stuff, but if you are like me the best thing to do is surf around the other boards. Primo, Grill Dome and Bubba Keg all have them. You can get a pretty good sense from there. In fact, the Bubba Keg board has a couple of recent post talking about Eggs vs. Kegs that seem pretty level headed. They actually helped convince me the Egg was the right choice for me (there is a lot of feeling it is better for long low and slows).

Good luck.

Greg