My first (and only) smoker so far is a Vision Classic Kamado that I bought from Costco about 8 years ago. I didn't really know what a Kamado was at the time, but I wanted a charcoal grille, and it looked cool, so that's what I bought. In the years since, I've taken up smoking (mainly pork butts and briskets), and I've been successful with it (I added a BBQ Guru DigiQ2 several years ago, and then more recently a FireBoard 2 Drive to get the wifi functionality). I also have a flat-top grille/griddle (Traeger Flatrock) which I love, so I mainly just use the Kamado as a smoker these days.
But while it still works fine, I haven't been super thrilled with the Vision quality (I had to replace the firebox and vent cap), and I'd like to have more real estate (the Vision is the same size as Big Green Egg size large - 18 inch diameter - pretty much limited to two butts or a single brisket). So I'm thinking about replacing the Vision with a larger, better quality Kamado (Big Green Egg XL or a Kamado Joe Big Joe). But I can't help but wonder if my smoking results would improve with a more traditional smoker - something like a vertical gravity charcoal smoker, or maybe even a plain old Weber bullet.
In short, I'm trying to figure out if I'm missing out on anything by just sticking with a Kamado (which I tend to gravitate towards since I've already worked through its learning curve).
But while it still works fine, I haven't been super thrilled with the Vision quality (I had to replace the firebox and vent cap), and I'd like to have more real estate (the Vision is the same size as Big Green Egg size large - 18 inch diameter - pretty much limited to two butts or a single brisket). So I'm thinking about replacing the Vision with a larger, better quality Kamado (Big Green Egg XL or a Kamado Joe Big Joe). But I can't help but wonder if my smoking results would improve with a more traditional smoker - something like a vertical gravity charcoal smoker, or maybe even a plain old Weber bullet.
In short, I'm trying to figure out if I'm missing out on anything by just sticking with a Kamado (which I tend to gravitate towards since I've already worked through its learning curve).
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