Brason said:

distanceman said:

Brason said:

I spoke to a KJ dealer in in SoCal. He told me that KJ is stopping the Costco Roadshows. According to him lot's of dealers complained and said they were going to stop carrying KJ and the company agreed to stop with Costco.

@Brason That’s interesting. One of the reasons I went BGE was because I didn’t agree with the way the Costco deal crushed the regular KJ dealer. 

Having done way too much research on both, an MSRP KJ is going to be as much, if not more, than a comparable BGE set up. Curious to see if no Moreno Costco prices affects sales or not. 

From what I was told KJ would not even let their dealers match the Costco price. That is what got everyone upset. I called every dealer around me. I would have bought from any of them if they could have matched the price. That's when I heard the story. 

We will see if stopping the Costco Roadshow hurts their sales. It may be better for them in the long run to just do the roadshows. Who knows only time will tell. Either way I am happy with my purchase.

Yeah, because it was near dealer price.....way below the MAP they imposed on the regular dealers.  Not that they couldn't sell them legally, they just couldn't advertise them at that (nor take the loss on the shipping.)

There is a dealer here in STL that sits across the street from Coscto.  They had KJ's on order, couldn't get them, and people cancelled their orders to buy them at Costco.  The store owner told me he would have bought them out at Costco just so he didn't lose these customers (and so he had some in stock.)

Heard the same thing for 3+ years now via the dealers here.....they won't have road shows if they have a dealer nearby, it's temporary / last year for it, it's just to build the brand up.  Whatever, I still see them every few months at Costco.  If it works for them, good.....just state it.

But BGE lets unauthorized dealers sell BGE charcoal and such in STL, so they're not without fault either.  BGE dealers are not allowed to sell to other resellers, thus preventing unauthorized dealers from selling BGE branded products.  Yet this is permitted and circumvents us dealers.

This XL was on sale at Sam’s this morning in Grapevine, TX.  $960 for an XL with Nest and Mates seems like a deal...

How much of a savings is it to buy through Costco vs dealer for KJ?

DoubleEgger said:

Hans61 said:

I knew a chick in college that could do that. A freak of nature. 

I too, but not whiskey, but tall boy beers! I swear you could see the side of the cans collapse as she sucked down that beer! Sad thing though she drown after challenging a guy to a swimming race across a lake. The sick joke was "why didn't she just suck the lake dry and walk out on dry land?"

I AGREE 100% with Gatraveler. Is there a KJ Forum.

As usual, @Lit makes a good point. 

I personally believe the focus of the hinge is safety. If a lid ever comes down on a finger your relaxing evening is over.

stlcharcoal said:

Dobie said:

KJ hinge punks BGE, have no idea about warranty claims. 

What's the appeal of this hinge??  So you can lift it with one finger......big deal......you can do that with the BGE too.  Unless you have a shoulder injury I fail to see why it was worth a $200 bump in the retail price.  I saw a guy who had it barely open (unlatched), the wind got under the dome, and nearly knocked the thing over (front wheels were off the ground.)  Plus, it sticks way the hell off the back of the grill, making harder to build a table for it or place it right up against a wall for storage.  I would rather have that $200 to spend on something else.  I don't buy into "improvements" that are not useful to me......at that point they're just "features" or "gimmicks" to me.

It’s well built, I don’t care about any table issues I use a nest. I can press 200 lbs overhead so there’s that. I was at Costco for the local RS recently, can get a better hinge, more standard grate options and the same size (XL size) for hundreds less. 
BGE isn’t keeping up. 

FearlessTheEggNoob said:

I personally believe the focus of the hinge is safety. If a lid ever comes down on a finger your relaxing evening is over.

I'd argue its worse on safety as the wind can fling it open or slam it shut.  The BGE is over center, so its either open or closed, and in netween your hand is on the handle.

Its seen it, I've played with it.  Definitely works as advertised, but I don't see why it's this huge improvement.

Next they should put a big spoiler on the back of the nest or a power lift dome.  Would those be better "improvements" than putting the stainless steel bands & hardware back on them?

DoubleEgger said:

I know it’s petty, but I will never buy the KJ because it’s red. It reminds me of UGA too much. THWG 

My friend just bought a KJ and he’s a Gators fan. The color is exactly why I want to buy one...Gooooo Dawgs! 

The new KJ gaskets are nice.  @stlcharcoal on one hand I agree the extra $200 for the hinge might not be worth it.  On the other, while not having a perfectly aligned dome and base together doesn't hurt the food,  I do get a little envious when my KJ buddies can close it and no smoke comes out the sides...

GoooDawgs said:

The new KJ gaskets are nice.  @stlcharcoal on one hand I agree the extra $200 for the hinge might not be worth it.  On the other, while not having a perfectly aligned dome and base together doesn't hurt the food,  I do get a little envious when my KJ buddies can close it and no smoke comes out the sides...

FearlessTheEggNoob said:

I personally believe the focus of the hinge is safety. If a lid ever comes down on a finger your relaxing evening is over.

Of the things to worry about when cooking with fire, a trapped finger comes pretty low down the list, especially when the handle layout means you are well clear anyway.

caliking said:

FearlessTheEggNoob said:

I personally believe the focus of the hinge is safety. If a lid ever comes down on a finger your relaxing evening is over.

Yet to hear of a dome vs. finger injury. There’s always a first though.

In which case I would strongly recommend a Traeger or sticking with cooking indoors. 

It happened,

Don't recall the number of stitches the unfortunate individual required, but the new hinge design prototypes did appear shortly afterwards.