Is the Akorn a worthy purchase/upgrade if I already have a Gravity 1050?

[MooseSpectacles]

I love my gravity but it eats charcoal so I'm hoping to buy a second smoker and want to go with a Kamado. The Akorn is tempting with its low price and great insulation, but I've also seen people mention that the smoke flavor isn't strong because of how efficient it is. Is this accurate? Anyone able to compare the taste with the gravity series?

Do you guys think this is a worthy purchase?

 

[Brokenhandle]

No idea but I'll bump your thread so maybe someone that owns one can help. My opinion is you can't have too many smokers lol!

Ryan

 

[MooseSpectacles]

No idea but I'll bump your thread so maybe someone that owns one can help. My opinion is you can't have too many smokers lol!

Ryan

Lol I'm right there with you. My only concern is the lack of smoke flavor that's been mentioned. I'm not trying to sacrifice quality of my smokes and I'm hoping to achieve more, if not the same smoke flavor as my gravity, without eating up my charcoal, like the gravity does. I guess another option would be mods, but those are pretty expensive and doesn't let me get a second smoker, lol.

 

[Smokin Okie]

I'll take a stab at this, but I've never cooked on a Kamado . So , take this in that context.

I highly doubt you'll get any smoke flavor close to your MB1050. I owned a MB560 . And it produced smoke flavor as close to my stickburner as anything I've found. My 560 also had great airflow, which contributed to that clean smoke it produced.

With the Kamado, its charcoal chunk smoke flavor ( and btw, I've not heard of anyone complaining about their Kamado smoker not producing smoke flavor ) . But its gonna be very low airflow. Those cookers are insulated so well, and are so tight, it doesn't take a lot of air input.

But , that's why they don't burn very much charcoal and why my 560 burned a lot. I'm guessing,. the 1050 creates similar airflow.

I sold my 560 when I bought an Assassin GF. Its very well insulated and air tight. It doesn't burn near as much charcoal. But it has low air flow also. There's not much convection in the cook chamber.

Again, take all this in context of someone whose never cooked on a kamado. I could be all wrong.

 

[clifish]

get a kettle?

 

[babydocsmoke]

I have a 1050, a KJ classic and KJ jr. I freakin love the kamado. As far as efficiency goes, it really can't be beat. Use minimal charcoal, it retains heat like nothing else.

Smoke flavor will not be close to your gravity fed smoker. Or even your pellet grill for that matter. I use the kamados for hot and fast stuff. Small roasts (tri tips), chicken wings....that kind of stuff. I have a flat griddle for the kamado too, but honestly I actually use the 1050 for burgers.

You can try to split the charcoal basket in half on a kamado with 50/50 charcoal/wood and get some more smoke or put wood directly on the charcoal. Some people try that but understand that even though the unit itself looks big, inside there isn't a ton of space inside. That puts the fire very close to the meat and that causes its own issues. Plus if you split the basket, that smoke tends to be really dark dirty smoke.

Others try to put wood inside the kamado under the charcoal basket where the air inlet is, which kind of works like putting wood in the ash basket of your 1050. Again the smoke travels through that high temp charcoal basket and doesn't really make it to the food.

The kamado is an awesome grill designed by the Japanese forever ago as an oven. Not as a smoker. Just like you would expect from that culture it is precise and efficient to do exactly what its designed to do.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Others try to put wood inside the kamado under the charcoal basket where the air inlet is, which kind of works like putting wood in the ash basket of your 1050. Again the smoke travels through that high temp charcoal basket and doesn't really make it to the food.

I was told that tip at Kosmos Q store recently. Same concept as a GF. The inventor of the GF, Walter " Stump " McDowell says GF smoke is clean, because the smoke " is cleaned by traveling through the superheated coal bed " .

I've tried that on my WSM. I put chunks of wood below the charcoal grate, so the smoke would have to go through the coal bed. I got mixed results in the three times I tried it, and gave up.

In the WSM, Harry Soo buries his wood chunks at the bottom of the charcoal. I'm guessing he may be attempting the same thing. He also cooks at 275*, I think the chunks burn a little cleaner at higher temps.

The chunks I put in the ash pan of my MB560 combusted into flame. I suspended them in the pan on a small piece of expanded metal, to get them up out of the ash. That produces a clean smoke.

 

[babydocsmoke]

I've heard the cleaned smoke idea too. I think its less "cleaned" and more "burned more completely" leaving less compounds that make it into your food. I'm honestly not 100% sure about the physics of it all.

I think the best way for smoke flavor from a GF smoker (which flavor can be amazing, btw) is actively hot burning wood in the hopper burning along with the charcoal.

 

[Smokin Okie]

I've heard the cleaned smoke idea too. I think its less "cleaned" and more "burned more completely" leaving less compounds that make it into your food. I'm honestly not 100% sure about the physics of it all.

I think the best way for smoke flavor from a GF smoker (which flavor can be amazing, btw) is actively hot burning wood in the hopper burning along with the charcoal.

I use small splits in the ash pan of my Assassin and they combust in flame. That's what Assassin recommends. They don't recommend putting chunks in the hopper.

And yes, it produces clean blue smoke, at times, its hardly visible. But my offset stick burners can do the same. There are times, all I see is heat waves coming out of the stack. If I put my hand over the stack for a few seconds, I can smell smoke on my hand.

On the MB560, I put wood in both the hopper and the ash pan and replenished the wood in the ash pan during the smoke

What I found about wood in the hopper, was that it was turned into charcoal. I cleaned out the hopper and started with fresh charcoal for every cook when I emptied it, I found the chunks higher up in the hopper were always charcoal. Which to make charcoal, takes a high heat/ low oxygen environment, exactly what is in the hopper.

 

[babydocsmoke]

I use small splits in the ash pan of my Assassin and they combust in flame. That's what Assassin recommends. They don't recommend putting chunks in the hopper.

And yes, it produces clean blue smoke, at times, its hardly visible. But my offset stick burners can do the same. There are times, all I see is heat waves coming out of the stack. If I put my hand over the stack for a few seconds, I can smell smoke on my hand.

On the MB560, I put wood in both the hopper and the ash pan and replenished the wood in the ash pan during the smoke

What I found about wood in the hopper, was that it was turned into charcoal. I cleaned out the hopper and started with fresh charcoal for every cook when I emptied it, I found the chunks higher up in the hopper were always charcoal. Which to make charcoal, takes a high heat/ low oxygen environment, exactly what is in the hopper.

Exactly. I get the same. So I typically don't run a full hopper, especially when I'm getting close to the end of a cook.

Would you say flavor is the same on your assassin as in your offset? Just easier to run the GF?

 

[fxsales1959]

Had a second hand Akorn and wasn't successful with it. It rusted and i gave it away.
From what I remember temp management was a B#$tch.I wasn't smart and a bought a ceramic Kamado "Lifestyle" Egg knock off. Temps had to be managed carefully cause once you go past and its heated takes forever to lower. I finally got a weber smokey mountain, and still love it.
Had another genius attack and bought a vertical pellet. Doing my best to get used to it. Same issue. trying to get smoke like my old offset, which I'm told I'll never do.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Here's a YT vid of an Assasin 24, mine is a 17, but the exchange between firebox and cook chamber is the same. He has open flame shooting into the cook chamber. I've seen mine do the same at times.

The coal bed is even with this exchange. And the problem with air flow on a GF, is there's too much this ash will go up into the cook chamber.

This vid will start with flames going into the cook chamber .....

 

[Smokin Okie]

Exactly. I get the same. So I typically don't run a full hopper, especially when I'm getting close to the end of a cook.

Would you say flavor is the same on your assassin as in your offset? Just easier to run the GF?

Its not near the same as stickburner. The MB560 came closer. But its not charcoal/chunk either. I don't know how to describe it, its a lot lighter smoke compared to stick burner.

 

[dr k]

I've had the Akorn 10 years+ and it's in great condition. I prefer to use Kamados for 350F + to bbq, or high heat to grill or pizza on a stone. A 17"coal grate for a weber 22" kettle grill sits on the three smoke stone holders in the pic for an elevated grill grate vs grilling with coals down low. It holds a pizza stone to put a drip pan on for indirect cooking with the cooking grate over it. Building grates and drip tray in a five step vertical stacking setup is a pita so I prefer to not smolder raw charcoal briquettes or lump with wood and prefer pellets for consistent smoke which you can get with a 6" tube but I use an electric vertical modded smoker. The Akorn has a great removable large ash pan for the more ash content of briquettes. I use lump as well. I have a steel 10" dia 3" high ring that holds charcoal right under the food grate for searing and zone cooking. I'd get the Akorn again. It was $248.00 at Menards when I got it. Uses very little charcoal for the same results being insulated and light weight to move it. The 17" upper charcoal or grilling grate is a game changer. A medium fire in the lower bottom and a pizza stone on the food grate makes nice pizzas. The pic shows the bottom coal grate on the 17" grate in the opposite grid direction to keep small lump etc from falling through to the ash pan and the ring that is 28 gauge galvanized steel with the zinc burned off and scrubbed in vinegar to remove the zinc powder so no off gassing of it onto the food. This pic is my grilling setup and bbq is lower grate for charcoal and pizzas. You can get the coal grate from the 18" little joe weber kettle for a replacement bottom kamado grate with the original grate on it like the pic to hold small pieces. It may be 11" vs 9" stock that came with the Akorn that slides down inside the removable insulating wall. This is a very versatile cooker with box store grilling accessories. The cooking grate is 20 or 21"cast iron in diameter.

 

[Colin1230]

Do you guys think this is a worthy purchase?

Yes, it is a worthy purchase. But it won't impart more smoke flavor while burning less charcoal. I've owned an Akorn and liked it enough to purchase a KJ Classic II. What you have heard about the Kamado being efficient but with less smoke flavor is accurate. My recommendation for what you are trying to achieve is a WSM 18. More Smokey flavor than a Kamado and less charcoal usage than 1050 GF.