Keeping your backyard classy and functional is a big task. The Kamado Joe Classic and Big Joe will help you attain that feat with their features and amazing cooking prowess.
Having an outdoor grill is fun; you can cook any food you want while basting in the sun. The grill will bring you all the satisfaction to your cravings for any recipes you want that day.
While conventional grills can cook with precision and great finish on the food, Kamado grills do it better.
These are very versatile types of grills that bring enough heat for any type of food.
It is an ancient style of cooking that originated in China thousands of years ago.
However, with the Kamado grills that we have today, you cannot complain about the modernization.
They are far better than most grills that we have been used to cooking in.
Kamado Joe is a company known for its grills.
They produce Kamado grills that are unique and powerful for any kind of recipe you want.
The Classic Joe is a Kamado grill that is considered a pioneer of the new grills that we usually see. It can go up to high temperatures and has many useful features included in the product.
Features and unique systems are the key selling points of Kamado Joe, so the Big Joe is no different when it comes to that. This grill is a part of the Kamado Joe Big Joe grill series.
So if you want something more than just a grill, read on as we take a look at what these grills can bring to the table. We will see all the similarities and differences between these two grills.
Table of Contents
Significant Differences Between The Classic Joe and Big Joe
One of the most important things that you need to know and consider before purchasing or choosing between two grills is the difference between the two according to your preferences.
While the company follows a standard of making their grills as powerful as possible, they make some unique features to a single grill which you need to know.
See, not all people have the same preferences or lifestyle. Some might like having friends over and have a small meal and then play games right after eating the food you cooked.
Others have a more social life that wants to bring in the best and largest grill to cook with speed and quality. Such are things that you need to consider when buying your grill.
There are no major differences between these two, so the differences will be brief. Let’s get right into it and see which Kamado Joe grill is better for you with the following differences.
Size Difference
Of course, the most obvious difference between these two grills is the size.
They have two separate grill series, so you should know by the name alone that they are different in size.
Yes, at first glance, you will see that the Big Joe grill is larger than the Classic Joe.
However, the appearance is not the size that we would be talking about, which is hardly important.
We will take a look at the actual cooking size or cooking area of each grill. Kamado Joe puts effort into designing these grills to cook larger portions of food than other same-sized grills.
Classic Joe
While this Kamado grill may seem like a small grill, it packs many features that allow it to have one of the bigger total cooking areas in any grill of its size, which is a huge advantage.
The Classic Joe has an 18-inch diameter which means that it has somewhere over 250 square inches of total cooking space. It iss amazing already, but you can still expand it.
The cooking area and grill grates of the Classic Joe combine for around 300 square inches of total cooking space. It is made possible by a feature that we will be talking about later on.
With that total cooking space, the Classic Joe can cook multiple steaks and burgers at a time. This is amazing since you will not tell that it can cook many foods by looking at it.
Big Joe
Many Kamado Joe users waited for this grill series to come out.
That is because some complained about the size of the grills that Kamado Joe produced being too small.
Once the Big Joe came out to the public, it was easily sold out in pre-orders and was immediately followed by the successors name the Big Joe II and the Big Joe III grills.
The Big Joe cooking grate spans 24 inches which means that it has a main total cooking area of 452 square inches which expands like the Classic Joe.
This will allow you to cook steaks and even whole chickens on the grill.
The Big Joe grill is perfect for parties where you have many people coming over to your house with its large capacity.
Now that you know the sizes of the grills, you should have an easier decision to make.
Do you party with many friends or do you just want to have a grill that can cook a meal for the family?
The Firebox
Kamado Grills from Kamado Joe use ceramic for insulation, and these grills are thick. That means that once they heat up, they will stay hot to cook for long periods of time.
The firebox, where you put your charcoal in, is also made with ceramic.
These are heavy grills that you will need to find a solution to set them up or lift out of the place when you need to.
Kamado Joe made the fireboxes with six parts that you can disassemble.
That way, you can carry them one by one to remove a little bit of the grills’ weight.
While Classic Joe and Big Joe have this same feature, they have different features within the firebox itself.
That is the divider that allows you to cook at different temperatures.
The Big Joe grill has a firebox divider, which means you can put the charcoal on one side of the firebox while leaving the other side empty. The heat will then be more on one side.
With this feature, you will be able to sear meat on one side while keeping the other food warm on the other side. This will help you cook many foods at the same time for large gatherings.
Similarities
Now that you have seen the major differences between these two grills, it is time to move onto the similarities. These are the reasons why so many users love the company.
We will be talking about the significant features of the grills from Kamado Joe unique to them. The best features that all grills have in the Kamado Joe line and series of grills.
Kamado Joe Airlift Hinge
As I have mentioned, the Classic Joe grill and the Big Joe grill are all-ceramic.
That includes their lid, which is a little smaller than the main body, so it still packs a lot of weight.
These grills are prone to accidents such as getting your hands or fingers slammed between the body and the grills’ lid.
That is why you need to suspend them.
Kamado Joe made a unique feature that you will never find in other grill brands.
That is the Airlift Hinge, a hinge that helps you lift the lid and reduce the weight.
See, the Airlift Hinge is a very powerful feature that pulls and locks the lid in place.
With this kind of suspension, Kamado Joe could reduce the weight of the lid of their grills by 96%.
That means that a kid can easily open the lid of the grill, or you can do it with just two fingers.
The lid also locks in place wherever you want it to stop so you can adjust the height of the lid.
Divide And Conquer Cooking System
So aside from the main grates included in the Kamado Joe grills, they also have a feature that expands the total cooking space so you can make multiple recipes simultaneously.
The Divide and Conquer Cooking System is layered or tiered grates.
The Classic Joe and the Big Joe have two-tiered grates to expand the total cooking area in the grill.
With this feature, you will be able to cook other recipes at different temperatures as well.
These grates also have half-moon options to create a smaller expander if you need a smaller space.
You can also purchase the other accessories, such as the cast-iron heat deflector, and it will fit right into the cooking grates. This allows you to cook with indirect heat simultaneously.
Temperature Control
One thing you cannot do with these grills is to control them digitally.
You have no options for controlling the temperature with buttons as they stick to the authenticity of the cooking style.
To control the temperature, you will need to adjust it with the vents in the grill.
There is bottom ventilation and a top vent that allows for temperature control.
You can control grills from Traeger digitally or even through your phone, but you cannot control these charcoal grills when you are away from them.
If you are just starting the fire and you want to speed up the process, you can open the bottom vent to get as much air as you need. This is the temperature control for higher increments.
Once the Kamado grills reach the desired temperature, you can then close the vent at the bottom or leave a little bit of opening. The top vent is for smaller increments in temperature.
You will be able to see the temperature inside the grills without actually opening and measuring it, as these Kamado grills have built-in thermometers on the lid for accurate measurements.
Performance
These Kamado Grills from Kamado Joe are great in cooking.
These Kamado grills can reach up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, perfect for cooking and searing meat.
This also means that you will be able to cook pizzas in just 5 minutes.
With that high temperature, you can cook anything you want and make it lower if you need to.
The lowest controllable temperature of the grills is 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
That means that you can also smoke ribs or any meat that you want in these grills.
I love the grills because you can even grill a pizza or cook a frozen pizza on these grills, making it multi-functional. You are going to like everything about them.
Joetisserie Option
If you want another cooking style with these Kamado grills, you can switch to the rotisserie option. There is an included accessory on these products that you can use for this.
The Joetisserie is a feature that spins food in the grill to create an even finish on your food.
The durable spit rod is very reliable, and it can turn chickens or pieces of meat of up to 50 pounds.
The wedge shape of the spit rod allows you to put the food and the skewer in without letting heat escape. It seals the heat inside the grill, which makes it great for cooking evenly.
I usually like to cook chicken this way, and it makes the chicken more juicy and tender.
Overall, chicken tastes so much better, and if you have not tried using this feature while cooking a chicken, you are seriously missing out on a lot.
Conclusion
Cleaning is not a problem with these kinds of grills. Since they can get up to high temperatures, you can just fire them up and let the food residuals burn, and then brush them away.
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The grills also have an ash catcher underneath for the firebox. You can just clean the grill grates with soap and water separately, no need for you to damage the ceramic parts inside the grill.
Both the Classic Joe and the Big Joe are amazing versatile grills from Kamado Joe. If you want to cook anything, you can buy one of these; just know the size that fits your lifestyle.
With just a few cooking sessions, you will get used to these grills, and you will never be going back to the usual common grill you are using!
In my opinion, the food tasted almost the same on both grills, so you are left to decide which grill is better based on the features and the price point!
So which one would you choose? Let us know in the comments below!
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