Focker said:

Antique wood burning stoves were cast iron, used hard, and they still can be spotted out in the wild.

The high heat pitting you see on old CI pans from the stove eye, would be a concern for the high heat firebox.

Applaud their efforts.  Time will tell.

But they usually have a lot of cracks in them

dgaddis1 said:

HeavyG said:

nolaegghead said:

Yeah, they probably made a bunch of these and never tested it.....

I feel I could do a good job mocking the BGE using the Akorn as a benchmark.

I do like all the armchair quarterbacking attempting to point out the problems/flaws of a cast iron cooker made by a company that has been a cast iron foundry for well over a hundred years.

Just because they have manufacturing expertise doesn't mean they have komado grill design expertise.

Fair point.

What exactly is unique tho about a kamado? The firebox? The Shell? The shape? The material?

Cast iron has been used for fireboxes for various devices for a long long time. I give a century old foundry the benefit of the doubt that they know their material well enough to take into account the factors that might affect the longevity  of a cast iron firebox and design/mold accordingly. I know for a fact that Kamado Joe is working on and has developed prototypes of cast iron fireboxes for potential use in their kamados (no release date yet tho that I have heard) so I'm assuming that there is nothing inherently wrong with the material in that usage.

They may also be making their firebox out of something other than common cast gray iron. Ductile iron might be advantageous in a firebox application but I don't really know for sure. There are a few other types of cast iron but I don't know much about them. Again, I'll give a foundry with a century+ of experience the benefit of the doubt that they know and understand their mat


Kamado shells have traditionally been clay or ceramic but the Akorn, Caliber, Kamado Joe Pro Joe, Blaze, Weber Charcoal Summit (and some others I may have missed) have shells made from metal. They work fine. No doubt the Goldens' kamado will be hotter to the touch than pretty much any other kamado and that may be an issue for some folks. If one really wants a kamado that they can crank up to 800°F and rest their hand on indefinitely get a Komodo Kamado.

The shape looks kamado like to me.

Cast iron will radiate a lot of heat so it will be hotter to the touch and will also likely use more fuel than most other kamados. How much more? Beats me. Their firebox is huge so I'm guessing it will hold enough fuel for most cooks most people are likely to make but it would be interesting to see some real world experience in that regard.

Anyway, I think it's a pretty neat cooker. If I had room in my grill "corral" I'd buy one if only to check it out and compare/contrast with my "real" kamados.