Since Chargriller and Kamado Joe are owned by the same company it seemed ok to post.
I bought a Chargriller egg this past summer and it is completely different than cooking on my old Weber Summit gas grill (Yes, I know y’all know that already)
It has taken some time to work out some kinks that really shouldn’t exist with a mature product. The Chargriller equivalent of the firebox doesn’t sit well in the body. In fact, it will slide around and one of the firebox legs will fall onto the hole for the ash drop. Then everything you have on the grate is at risk of rolling/sliding off and feeding my hungry dogs. Never an ideal situation. Some of you reading might wonder, that can’t be right. He needs to reach out and have the company send you new parts and fix this. I can assure you it is how it is and I have. In fact I have a second firebox in my garage and thanks to the miracle of mass production, it is exactly the same.
So rather dwell on the past and all that, I reached out to my local Amazon subscription to see what they had in the way of a solution. I found me a 13.8” cast iron grate that fits perfectly in the bottom of the body and a charcoal basket that fits really well in the bottom of the firebox and Oh MY! It is a new and improved Chargriller egg.
Hey Middleby, if you’re reading this, I’ve done the leg work. Presenting the Chargriller Egg 2026 ed. (Redditors! Up vote this post and get their attention!)
Ran my egg last night and did a brisket at 275 for hours. When I pulled it off, I opened up the top and bottom vents and it cranked up to 700-800 degrees. So no airflow issues that I notice.
Keep posting great cooks. I’m learning loads!
by Dry-Commercial-1413
6 Comments
I cut my teeth on a chargriller egg. Could be fussy at times but the snake method seemed to keep it in control. When it rusted out, I upgraded to the kamado big joe and couldn’t be happier.
I have the baby Acorn because I thought getting the KJ jr. was too expensive. I’m really happy with it and think it works quite well.
I love mine especially after adding some extra grill gasket I can leave it alone for a few hours without much fuss. I started with an akorn jr a few years ago then got the big one a year ago and live in FL not far from the coast and only have a little surface rust on a few bolts they do stay out of the rain though.
I’m rocking an Akorn jr and an Akorn like the one in this thread. The mods I’ve found was using a ceramic deflector initially for the large BGE and found that it fits in the Akorn after some ceramic filing down
Kudos for finding the 13.8” cast iron base
That is what I had first, biggest annoyance is once it got over temp it would take forever to go back down
Oh hey Akorn brother (also where is OUR Reddit page!? 😅) – saving this post, I have an Akorn waiting at my in-laws that I bought for a steal off marketplace, couldn’t lug it home at the time. Summers comin!! 🇦🇺🍻