New KJ Firebox Design

tjv

what I find interesting is how some of ya'll frown on egg for not being inventive.  Have you ever given any thought that egg is an open source platform when it comes to accessories, letting the market place provide value added resources.  

Back in the day, egg could have very easily slammed the door closed on us who had a passion for something different.  Then, the only real way to get the word out was the BGE forum.  Had egg dropped the hammer, very likely there would be no Ceramic Grill Store, Smokeware, KickAsh, Ceramic Grill Works, hiQue, Innovations by Chance, BBQ Guru, Flame Boss, PitMasteriq, Stoker, Rockwood.........hell, maybe no Kamado Joe.

And, very likely ya'll would not be haggling over if kamado joe copied someone else because there would not be a someone else or the hint of another option.

Plus, before you jump on the 'well someone would have eventually done it' bandwagon, consider this......check the list of companies above,  how many of them were actually a company before they jumped into ceramic grills......the answer is one, guru making thermal relays for train cars.

Egg gives you the option on how to accessorize your grill, a novel approach this day and age when all companies are chasing the bottom line............

t

blasting

Sunk

dgaddis1

tjv said:

what I find interesting is how some of ya'll frown on egg for not being inventive...

Egg gives you the option on how to accessorize your grill, a novel approach this day and age when all companies are chasing the bottom line............

t

They can't stop anyone from putting aftermarket stuff in their Egg, just like Ford/GM/Honda/Etc can't stop anyone from putting a different exhaust in their car.  The aftermarket exists to fill the void left open by the manufacturer.  Now of course they can deny a warranty claim if they decide the problem was caused by aftermarket stuff, but I don't see that really happening with a grill. 

Arguing over who has the best ceramics is dumb - none of us know who's is best.  There's even a (small) chance they're both made in the same factory.  Do either KJ or BGE actually own their manufacturing plant, or are they using a contract manufacturer?  

And saying goods from X country are better than goods from Y country is ignorant at best and xenophobic at worst.  There's fantastic, and really crappy, stuff made in every country on the planet.  In my industry (bicycles) most of the goods come from Asia, primarily from China, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia.  There's good and bad.  My main business is building custom wheels, I have one manufacturer I sometimes use who's rims are made in the USA...and the quality isn't as good as much of their competition from overseas.  Most of the stuff coming from Asia is better - the rims are rounder and flatter out of the box, the anodized finish is darker and more even, the seams are much better, the spoke holes are drilled much cleaner, and there's little (if any) metal chips/shavings inside the rim I have to shake out before building them up.

Photo Egg

tjv said:

what I find interesting is how some of ya'll frown on egg for not being inventive.  Have you ever given any thought that egg is an open source platform when it comes to accessories, letting the market place provide value added resources.  

Back in the day, egg could have very easily slammed the door closed on us who had a passion for something different.  Then, the only real way to get the word out was the BGE forum.  Had egg dropped the hammer, very likely there would be no Ceramic Grill Store, Smokeware, KickAsh, Ceramic Grill Works, hiQue, Innovations by Chance, BBQ Guru, Flame Boss, PitMasteriq, Stoker, Rockwood.........hell, maybe no Kamado Joe.

And, very likely ya'll would not be haggling over if kamado joe copied someone else because there would not be a someone else or the hint of another option.

Plus, before you jump on the 'well someone would have eventually done it' bandwagon, consider this......check the list of companies above,  how many of them were actually a company before they jumped into ceramic grills......the answer is one, guru making thermal relays for train cars.

Egg gives you the option on how to accessorize your grill, a novel approach this day and age when all companies are chasing the bottom line............

t

I agree that could be one side of the coin. 
But BGE has come out with a few add on things to compete with 3 party sales. They have not been a very good product in my opinion compared to other products. As far as innovations to the cooker it's self, many small changes have been made over the years. But as others have said, very few important changes except making the ceramics out of a high temp material.
BGE has had little reason to change because they had no real competition.
All the other ceramic grill popping up were very similar with no real advantage except a cost savings. So BGE had no reason to change.
KJ is the first company to really start pushing with changes. Until now BGE had no real reason to care about aftermarket products because they only enhanced a grill that they sold. You still needed to buy their grill to use the cool stuff. This made the BGE even more popular. A "Win-Win"...Both BGE and the third party companies selling products made for BGE were selling more stuff.
BGE could just sit back and make more cookers and raise the prices because of demand. Why would they want to venture into R&D.
Now that KJ is incorporating many of these new ideas into their base product it hurts both BGE "and" all the third party companies. How do you think this will affect the future? 
All of the new ceramic and kamado shaped cookers now come standard with raised and indirect options that don't rely on the 3 legged platesetter....Even the Summit Weber Kettle Grills.
I'm sure BGE has new stuff in the works now. They are going to have to make changes now to match the others.