Costco promotion Kamado - Updated

Bowhunr, that about states it all.  My pool had great tile, they all started falling off - didn't look so nice then.  Had to get the whole thing redone - and I am a much poorer man for it.  

John, I agree with that, and up your 2-3K cost for the gas grille setup to $10K for many I know.  Funny thing, most of the people that get this do it all for look and are more than happy to cook me the best tasting hockey puck I have ever had.   

I could be wrong but Kamodo.com is no longer a working website. I read where Richard Johnson sold to Kamado Grill Co. Could be wrong, I prolly should got my facts straight b4 posting, but w the exception of the typo on their website meme, I think that's what I said...

Interesting, and I see your point; http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2.  Naked, very impressive, you certainly know what you are talking about.

How much are they? Save us from all having to go look.

John,

Don't know about traffic, but essentially from very early on, it's been called a "ceramic charcoal cooking" web site.  While most of my expertise has been with Eggs, I've tried to generalize things for anyone who has a ceramic cooker where possible.  I've never been about one brand.  I also have a Kamado Joe that I like very much.  I use them all.

The L BGE is plenty of ceramic cooker for me...although I do already have my eye on a little sister for her.

I don't think that Grill Dome will be taking to much business with the know paint peeling problem.  This was my first ceramic grill.  I have to say that it cooked as good as my BGE XL that has replaced it, however the customer service IS NOT what people on GD forum say it is.  Unless you consider arguing with TK the owner.  By the way this grill was 6 months old when this happend.

I love the way that those guys on the internet market the GD is twice as thick as a BGE.  Though they are partially right they are also misleading.  The only place that a GD is twice as thick as a BGE is in the area of the bands where the base meets the lid.  Otherwise there is no discernable difference between wall thickness between the two grills.  I can post pictures to prove anyone wrong who says different.  Again, I'm not trying to say that the GD is a bad product, is it has produced BBQ just as good as my BGE.  It's just that some marketing tactics don't tell teh whole truth. 

Yeah, I would agree with you there, as I was saying, I wouldn't have bought it for $769, but for $499, couldn't pass it up, and btw, $800 for a lg KJ with stand? They are still significantly less than BGE. I thought their prices had gone about even with BGE, apparently not...

Congratulations, John Ross.  I think you are the first troll on this forum.  Hopefully, the last.

for me, what this illustrates is that BGE never had the foresight to trademark the profile and texture of the BGE.  the older kamados had a hand applied slip which gave it a raised dimpling.  Patted on (i'm guessing) to provide a pleasing finish, but also to smooth over any casting issues.  That texture is OBVIOUSLY important to BGE, because now, although the eggs are manufactured differently, that pattern has been reinterpreted by them as a negative impression pressed (cast actually) into the ceramic.  That is now a conscious design decision, made to give the egg a texture. Prhaps paying homage to the older tradition. But it's certainly not needed for production like the other texture was. Previously, it was part of the manufacture process. It's a design decision, for looks. And yet primo and a few others have the same pattern.

Perhaps it wasn't possible to trademark the hand-applied pattern (which was ancient, part of traditional casting), but they must have been able to trademark the new surface texture, color, etc.  Even the general appearance of the  BGE, the side tables being canted forward a bit, the daisy wheel (temps were formerly controlled only by the ceramic rain cap), the design and appearance of the nest.....  all these things can be trademarked (this is different than copyright, and different than patenting. don't conflate the three).

It just seems they didn't.

Primo was the first to rip-off the BGE.  and no, i don't mean the idea.  kamado cookers have been around for a coupla-few thousand years.  But the improvements, the profile, texture, even the color...   seems to me BGE let things slip.

Sure, you can go after someone (former employees were involved, lore has it) for stealing trade secrets or for other reasons, but if the thing had been trademarked, they'd have had a massive head start. 

I don't begrudge anyone improving on an idea, but even those who buy a cheaper version of something should be able to see that they are trading off the success and publicity of those that went before.  That's all well and good, sure.  There will always be knock-offs.  Just saying, it doesn't appear to me like BGE did anything proactively to protect their trademark. And it's cheaper to be proactive than to run around chasing variants after the fact.

Thanks to all the EGGheads for being very loyal and passionate about their EGGs. Lifetime warranty...theres a reason the others can't say that!

Lit, that's a pretty good price.  I think the MSRP on all that is over $1000.