Why BGE?

IT'S GREEN!!!

I'm a new egghead, and my purchase came down to 3 things.
1. Warranty  KJ and BGE are lifetime primo is 20yrs
2. Availability, hard to get the KJ big joe no one sells them near me. Tried to get from firecraft and they ended up  canceling my order do to lack of units. 
3. Reliability, BGE Has been around for a long time, and I trusted they will still be here in the event I need them.  The number of dealers in my area is amazing, and they are all easy to talk to and deal with.  The same can not be said about the others, in fact the two Primo dealers in my area closed out the product and switched to BGE.  They said the choice to switch came down to how easy it was to get replacement parts for customers.  
Just my experience,  and I'm sure it varies depending on where you live. 

badinfluence said:

I chose BGE first because when i got my 1 st egg KJ was not even a company yet and there were no primo dealers to be found around me either. So there you have it.

Highlights sig line, drops mic...

Why I chose the BGE....Hmmm....

At the time that I bought my BGE, the choices were a huge Komodo smoker or something by BGE.  The komodo was beyond budget.  I was using a Weber kettle grill with lump, not briquettes, so I was used to the idea of cooking with lump charcoal.  I really didn't want gas, so the BGE was a fairly obvious option.

I think that I did what you did, lurked on the forums for a bit, and asked a few questions.  I found the folks on-line quite helpful, so I decided that there would be help available.

I spent more time worrying about the size as opposed to the Brand.  At the time, BGE offered the Small, Medium, and Large, and the mini had just come out.  I went with the Large and I've been pretty happy with that.

Problems ( 15 years worth ) - 

1) I've gone through a few covers.  The new black one looks to be more heavy duty than the green ones, so I think I'll get some more time out of that.  The egg lives outdoors, so that's sort of expected.

2) Cracked firebox.  I had an old style firebox, pre slit, that gave out.  The dealer that I now use replaced it with no issues or hassles.  He wasn't the dealer who sold me the egg, either, so I'm pretty impressed with the service he was willing to give a non-customer.  I don't know if that's typical of all BGE dealers, but I'm actually trying to figure out how to toss a little money in his direction.

3) I'm about to put on gasket #3.  I get anywhere between 3-5 years on a gasket and I just put on the felt BGE gaskets.   I suppose I could switch to something more permanent, but these seem to work.

4) I'm on my second cast iron fire grate.  I think I got 5 years out of the first one, and I used the ceramic grate that came with my BGE until I got the new one.

5) Once in a while, I wish for some more cooking grate area, but having seen the XL, I don't think that the extra grate is worth the extra weight when it comes to moving it around.  Our family is also small, so the 18" diameter works, say 95% of the time.  Our egg lives on the deck, so I was concerned about weight as getting the egg on the deck involves stairs.

All in all, that list is pretty minor stuff.  I view gaskets, covers, and fire grates as consumable items, so nothing went wrong that I didn't expect to go wrong.  The cracked firebox was unexpected, but BGE and the dealer made it right with a minimum of hassle and time.

Annette and I are about to become empty nesters so we are kind of toying with the idea of getting a small BGE for day-to-day cooking and keep the large for guests, overnight smoking and that sort of thing.

Obviously, we wouldn't be considering this if we were unhappy with the product.

3 LBGEs here. Only ceramic cooker to buy IMO.

We were in Chattanooga this winter and one day my wife mentioned they were having a sale at one of the dealers and said lets stop by... Said I showed interest a year ago (don't recall, but battling my gasser for quite a while). Went and looked- picked her off floor when she saw price but got magazine one them anyway. She said I didn't cook enough to warrant one.  Had cousin from Wyoming visit.  I made steaks and salmon on gasser that night- fresh off 18" snow 2 days before.  Wife mentioned I wanted egg, cousin said she had one and would not have anything else, and she lives by herself on ranch.  We visited her 6 weeks later, cooked on egg, that was it.  Bought one 2 weeks later.  Researched and put hands on them all.  Lit up at least 5 days a week.  Good retirement hobby.  

SGH said:

The simple truth is that they are all great units. Each offer something just a little different than the other as far as setup. Short of this and their color, they perform identical. The end result as far as quality food will be the very same. The debate about the big 3 ceramic manufactures follows on the heels of many other similar debates. Examples: Jambo vs Lang, Pitmaker vs Spicewine, Chevy vs Ford, Stihl vs Husqvarna, Remington vs Winchester and so on and so on. In the end you will be satisfied with which ever you choose. What I have found to be very helpful after the initial purchase is dealer support and location. Why? You will always need service and parts after the purchase. Stuff breaks, plain and simple. With that said, it makes more sense to have a dealer close by than many miles away. If dealer location is not a issue, then just pick the one that catches your eye. Among the 3 named, they are all good choices and they all turn out quality food. You can't really go wrong with any of the forementioned choices. For the record, I have a large BGE, mini BGE, MM BGE and a Kamado Joe Jr. I personally like them all.  

I agree with what @SGH has says.  I looked at all three and the dealer that had both Primo and KJ was almost an hour away from me, their prices were a lot more and they didn't seem to be very nice or helpful.  My dealer is about 3 miles from my house they delivered my assembled XL and placed it on my patio.  I go there at least once a week sometimes more.  They have classes, rubs, sauces and are very helpful when you have questions.  They are great to deal with.  They also had the best price on a packaged deal that beat the other dealer.  

I am not sure, but I believe that the Primo was started by someone who used to work for BGE.  I may be wrong on that.  I believe it is American made, KJ I think is made in Asia and the BGE I think is made in Mexico, but non of that really matters.  I think that all 3 are great to cook on, it to me was first the dealer, the price and the warranty.  I think you will put out great food no mater which one you get it.  I have a mini sized knock off of the BGE mini and it is ok for what I paid for it, but I would have rather had the mini, but SWMBO said not because of price.  My wife does not understand why I want medium to go with my XL, but I am leaning toward a GoodOne Marshall for my next smoker if get into doing any kind of catering.  

Good luck and enjoy the food.

Bentgrass said:

She said I didn't cook enough to warrant one. 

This was the biggest change for me.  I would grill maybe once a month (often less) on my "regular" charcoal grill, but the cleaning and maintenance made it a PITA.  Now with the egg, I cookout several times a week.  I agree that all of the brands will do what you want, but I have been very happy with the egg, and especially with the accessories that are available for it (I'm looking at you, CGS).

And after well over a year of ownership, I don't see any sign of stopping.

Long time, first time...

I had been interested in the BGE for several years now. I see them at BBQ cook-offs competing with $2.5K-$10K smokers, I've gone to profession chef's houses and seen them in their back yard. I have a friend with a KJ that finally sold me on the value vs the cost. He really pushed toward the cost of the KJ (save $100?) but after looking around, I decided on the BGE.
I looked around and got my hands on a couple of them.

I actually started looking at the Vision Kamado Grill. Has a couple of interesting features, but I wasn't that impressed with the quality, especially after reading a few reviews. I looked at the Kamado Joe next. The people at Ace Hardware didn't know much about them other than the price. The guy at Conn's didn't know much either, all he wanted to do was try to get me to do a credit check to see how much I could spend. I don't need credit, I need a grill. Then I went to Backyard Grilling Company to look at the BGE. Granted, this is a store that specializes in grills, but they weren't trying to sell me the biggest grill they had or push me toward the XL when I was trying to think about what size to get. They asked me questions about my uses and told me what all they fit on their own BGEs and then let me decide what I needed. They also showed me a few other grills when I asked about comparing it to a big stick burner. I waited to buy and looked at everything I could online for 2 months.

Now, KJ seems to have a great customer service. My buddy left the lid on his Big Joe (24") open one day and a gust of wind pushed the whole thing over, cracking the lid. He called up KJ and told them what happened. They decided to cover it under warranty, but they didn't have the same color lid (black vs red). So what they did was they sent him a black lid right away and then sent him a red lid when those went back into production. They told him to keep the black lid. All under warranty. I know BGE would NOT do that if you called them up and told them the same story. My buddy does hit the various BGE forums for info on cooking in his KJ.

In the end, I chose the large BGE. Right size for me, good warranty and service through the local dealer, and knowledgeable salesmen at the store I bought from. Heck, one guy has his personal cell number on there and said to call anytime if there's a question while cooking. He said he's gotten calls at 1 am before. I don't plan to do that, but that's some dedication by the salesman and he's not a store owner.

@Toxarch I've read similar stories of BGE replacing eggs under that kind of circumstance.

I have also seen guys give their personal phone numbers to posters here, hell I had a bunch HVAC questions and a fellow egger gave me his personal number to talk about it.  And said egger is 3k miles from me, he wasn't trying to get a sale. I decided not to post the eggers name, he can chime in if he wants.

badinfluence said:

@theyolksonyou huh? 

@badinfluence  ... it's awe inspiring! 

aukerns08 said:

johnkitchens said:

2 pages of helpful replies to the OP's question on this forum. 3 total replies on the KJ forum.

I am not sure about the Primo forum. 

Help when I need it from fellow eggers is worth a lot to me. 

I found the primo forum but it appears you have to register just to see the posts inside the message boards...  What do they have to hide that I need to register for?

I noticed that as well. Everything is labeled as "Private" on that forum. 

@BYS1981 What's even more Cray Cray is one egger is a Raiders Fan and the other a Broncos Fan & getting along LoL.  Eggheads helping eggheads. That's what it's about IMHO. 

I have a Large Green Egg, Small Green Egg, KJ Jr,and Vision Kub.  If I could do it all over again, I would still get a Large Green Egg as my first cooker.  KJ would be a close second, but, I would still get a Large Green Egg first.

1) Lifetime warranty
   It's only good if the company is around, BGE has a longer history and will likely be around long after I'm gone.

2) Customer support.
   BGE - never had a problem.  Reading the forum, looks like I won't have a problem if I ever do.
   KJ - My jr had an issue with the bottom vent, they help me and even offered to send another vent out to me.  After some bending, it's all good.
   Vision - I do not like their customer support (long story).

3) Track record.
   Although BGE has it's issues (the band & bolts have known issues with rust), Kamado Joe is a relatively new product.  It's the UNKNOWN issues that KJ may have in the future that worries me.  I work in software development so version 1.0 software scares me.