Inability to do 2 zone cooking on a round kamodo?

GoldenQ said:

I hace the ceramic grill store ang-l brackets for this      check their website

I have an XL and use this quite a bit.  It's a great tool to bank the coals for making two zones.

Very rarely do I "grill" and not use the dual zone method on my XL.  The lump reducer sits in the middle for direct cooking and the edge of the grid acts as the indirect area for things like potato wedges, corn, etc.

Previously I mentioned Kamado Joe's Divide & Conquer set-up, and TurboStream's fire bowl divider and alternative 2-zone set-up (half-circle basket for hot coals). You Tube has both, I believe. I'm at the point where if it isn't delivered right to my door, I'm not going to go to different places looking for fire bricks, charcoal rails, different size grids, etc.

@Carolina Q: Don't believe it, HD charges a lot for shipping. You have to spend a minimum to get it free, beyond what I'd be spending. And they don't carry a lot of these toys on the website.

Two zones on XL is no problem at all, and with no extra equipment needed.  Just push all the coals to the back.  The idea that the Primo oval is better because it has two zones is inaccurate if comparing the big Primo to the XL.  XL has more surface area too.

That's a good article and a decent assessment of the kamado cookers.

I get why they like the Primo, but personally, I'd rather have an egg and a weber than a Primo, the only real advantage of which is the two-zone fire. Several in this thread have already mentioned the reason; the ambient temp on ceramic grills is too high to create a true hot side-cold side situation like you can get on a thin-walled aluminum kettle. 

Serious Eats recently put out an overview of kamados, and Kenji echoed a lot of what Meathead said. But I took exception to this subtle dig at non-primo owners; "Most round-kamado aficionados concede that their best way of creating different heat zones is by moving foods closer to or farther from the fire. This is done with various deflectors and rack systems that can be costly and awkward to manipulate."

Changing the proximity to the coals is a super effective way to control the char if not the temperature; I count it among the most important advantages of a kamado. I love cooking wings raised direct and finishing with a sear on the lower grate. It's easy to blister corn in the husk right near the coals, then let it cook through and pick up just a hint of color farther away from the heat. 

And am I alone in feeling that popping out a heat deflector isn't all that difficult, provided you have a decent pair of gloves? The platesetter is a bit bulky, but it still takes about a minute to yank it out. And that's a worse-case scenario. I often use just a small pizza stone to dampen the direct heat. Works great for reverse sears and to calm things down if the bottom side of your spatchcock (I do mine raised direct) is picking up a bit too much char.