KnockOffs Kamado are they worth it? My Newbie Experience and first post!

First post Guys... well...what can I give out here to compensate the great info I draw from this place...just a personal opinion and short experience with the Kamado world introduced  in my culinary  life.

For the background junkies I can say that I have been a barbecue guy since the age of 10 but got serious about it 35yrs ago (I'm past 55)... then with my wife we got into making pizza from scracth (as well for creating our own yeast) and baking over refractory stone and the reason for being such a freak about it might go back to the fact that we are Southern Italians and live in Florida for the past 8yrs.

As far as meat goes Beef, Pork & Chicken are Top in the USA while Veal, Goat, Lamb & Rabbit are the other way around.
Now when it comes to Pizza this is a planet of its own where if you get serious then you need to do more than just plain homework... IN MY WORLD PIZZA MUST BE CRUSTY AND READY IN BETWEEN 90 TO 180 SECONDS!

So...let me get back on track...owning regular grills as charcoal & Gas always worked fine for me as far as Grilling & Smoking...but when I started looking into building a pizza oven things got more complicated... so I ended up coming across kamados and saw the potential of having the best of both worlds.

At this point I had to only figure out a way to compose a refractory pizza setup into the Kamado and at the same time get along with my budget. After days of researching through videos and internet information I came across  what claimed to be the real deal so in my immaginary world expectations were meet...  every detail seemed to have all the necessary specifics to be the Kamado I was searching for Price/Size/Materials/Great Reviews so I pulled the trigger and after 2 weeks it sure was in my backyard and smaller than I expected (close to a Lg BGE) so price wise it was a $100 off... so there goes my big saving idea in smoke

I started running only charcoal in it just to cure & gradually test how it would hold temperatures at low/medium/high (when I say low mean 180/205 for medium I mean 325/375 for high 750/900).
That's when I found out that at low temperatures I was having leaks or fire going off...  at medium temperature I was having wide range oscillations not holding temp and a high temperature I was burning coil like a Ferrari!!

Okay I thought... no problem said my educated ego buyer consciousness You can make this work its just a simple project.. and of course... had to research all remedies & materials adding more time & money...
So I sealed the vents believing then I was in business... meanwhile no grilling or Saturday night pizza going on
Results: could not keep low temperatures under 230...only achieved improvment for medium-range....  at high Temps still burning a lot of fuel as well the gasket!

On the other hand at first attempt of medium heat... the outer shell enamel presented Cracking and the Fire Bowl went into 3 pieces. After 60 days the stainless steel  rack started to rust ....
Now the "Good news" after a intense documented correspondence the company refunded the full amount.
Now someone might get offended... so Please don't get me wrong I do not mean to put anyone down... because for this brand I'm sure there must be out there a market of happy buyers  but it just happened to not be my cup of tea!!

So after spending time, work and extra dollars finally the light bulb came on and I ended up buying the extra large big green egg which besides having to line the upper Dome occasionally  and deal with overheated squeaky stiff hinges I finally get the job done my way with cooking results that are better than going to any restaurant or pizza place in my surroundings... plus my BGE is as new.

Moral of the story...
 if you are loosing sleep at night over making the "best first buy decision"...., be aware when you enter dedicated Forums or Facebook pages or else..  most likely you will come across scientific marketing and enthusiastic fans motivated by Masterminds which most of the time are behind the product itself.
Me... at the end of the day learned a fine lesson... afterall in my opinion  we all must go through our own experiences to  what are the true limits of our personal knowledge versus the expectations when closing the lid....