The best kamado grills to buy in 2024, according to reviews

If you’re looking for a grill that offers high-heat retention, even temperature and can cook up a wide variety of tastey food, a kamado grill is your best bet.

Kamado grills are built to sustain even heat at temperatures that can reach over 700 degrees for better control when grilling. This allows for attractive sear marks, moist meats and flavorful barbecue without using extensive amounts of fuel to cook for longer periods of time.

But with so many different kamado grills on the market today, it can be a real challenge to decide which model to buy.

To help narrow down your decision, these are the most recommended kamado grills available, including models from Kamado Joe and Weber.

1. Kamado Joe Classic Joe III 18-Inch Ceramic Kamado Grill: “This 510-square-inch grill has the 3-tier Divide and Conquer cooking system, which provides more cooking space closer or further from the coals, as well as different cooking surfaces for different types of food. While testing, we experimented with multiple recipes from baby back ribs to pizza, and every time the temperatures remained consistent throughout cooking,” The Spruce Eats
2. Weber Summit Kamado S6 Charcoal Grill Center:“The design is more similar to Weber kettle grills than traditional Kamado grills, but it has modernized features. It has an adjustable charcoal grate for better temperature control while grilling and ventilation for smoking,” Carnivore Style says.
3. Char-Griller Akorn Kamado Grill: “Despite its lower price tag, this triple-walled grill boasts a wide internal temperature range—it can cook between 200 and 700 degrees—while its 314 square–inch cooking space on durable cast-iron grates can hold 15 burgers at once. The grill also has eight-inch locking caster wheels in case you prefer to move it around, plus side shelves that fold down when not in use,” Forbes says.
4. Big Green Egg Large Charcoal Grill and Smoker Green: “When cooking over high heat, the Egg reaches temperatures over 700°F, creating beautiful grill marks on steaks and burgers and becoming hot enough to create a restaurant-quality wood-fired pizza. Using the grill with indirect heat was just as successful, resulting in deeply smoky chicken drumsticks and super juicy, tender pulled pork and ribs,” USA Today says.
5. Primo Charcoal Kamado Grill: “On top of the dual-zone capacity, the Primo offers 300 square inches of cooking space, expandable to almost 500. It’s got a friendly hinge spring system that eases the pain of lifting the heavy ceramic lid and a reversible stainless steel grate system. Aside from the oval shape, the ceramic construction follows the traditional kamado design, providing convection and heat retention,” Food & Wine says.

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Dawn Magyar can be reached at dmagyar@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips/.