Kamado Joe
Kamado Joe Big Joe III
The Kamado Joe Big Joe III is the 24-inch flagship of Kamado Joe's ceramic lineup - everything the Classic III does, scaled up to brisket-and-a-half capacity, with the 3-tier Divide & Conquer rack system, SloRoller smoke chamber, and a heavy-duty rolling cart included.
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Specifications
Features
Pros
- ✓The 24-inch grate swallows a full packer brisket or multiple rib racks flat with room to spare - the capacity headroom the 18-inch Classic never has
- ✓The 3-tier Divide & Conquer system creates up to 864 sq in across levels, letting you run different foods at different heights and temperatures in one cook
- ✓The SloRoller insert genuinely evens out heat and smoke circulation at low temps, producing more consistent bark than a plain deflector setup
- ✓Thick ceramic walls sip charcoal - a single load can run 12+ hour overnight cooks and the moisture retention keeps long smokes from drying out
- ✓The Air Lift hinge reduces the massive dome's effective weight by about 96%, so opening it is genuinely one-finger easy despite the size
- ✓The Kontrol Tower top vent holds its setting when you open the lid and gives repeatable temp control from 225°F smoking to 750°F searing
- ✓Stainless charcoal basket, half-moon grates, heat deflectors, ash tool, and the locking-wheel cart are all included - the accessory bundle costs real money elsewhere
- ✓Lifetime warranty on the ceramic body plus 5 years on metal parts is about the strongest coverage in the category
Cons
- ✗At over 400 lbs assembled it effectively lives wherever you first place it, and delivery/assembly realistically takes two or three people
- ✗The $3,000+ price is deep into premium territory - a Classic III plus a second cheap grill costs less than one Big Joe
- ✗The bigger firebox burns noticeably more charcoal than the Classic for small weeknight cooks, so it's inefficient as a one-steak grill
- ✗Ceramic can crack from thermal shock or a dropped deflector plate, and while the warranty covers defects, replacement logistics for huge parts are slow
- ✗A big ceramic mass takes a long time to come down in temperature, so overshooting your target early in a cook is punishing
- ✗The included aluminum side shelves feel light-duty compared to the rest of the build
- ✗Accessories like the JoeTisserie Big Joe size and extra half-moon grates are expensive, and Big Joe sizes cost more than Classic equivalents
- ✗There is no built-in temperature electronics at this price - WiFi fan control means buying an iKamand or third-party controller separately
Owner Insightssummarized from owner discussions
The Big Joe III is the 24-inch version of Kamado Joe's ceramic flagship, and owners who cook big meals on it are unusually happy. The capacity is the reason: five or six people with the whole meal going on at once fills it, a 12-inch skillet leaves room to work around, and owners who stepped up from an 18-inch say they cannot picture going back. The ceramic runs in any weather, holds a fire long enough to sleep through an overnight brisket, and does things outside the smoking brief entirely, from Dutch-oven stews to baked pies to pizza with real wood-fired character at 500F.
The honest counterweight is the most-read owner post about this grill, written a year after purchase, which concluded that kamado cooking takes far more effort than enthusiasts admit and does not replace a gas grill. That is the recurring caution rather than a lone gripe. Owners say it is not economical for burgers or a couple of steaks, that it wants a full load to be worth lighting, and that families who need dinner fast on a Tuesday should keep propane alongside it. There are build complaints too: shelves rusting within a couple of years under a cover and a rejected warranty claim, one unit arriving with a handle and firebox that would not align and ceramic flaking where it bound, and a Kontrol Tower vent that gums up. At over 400 lbs it goes where you first put it, and that decision is worth taking seriously before delivery day.
It suits someone feeding a crowd regularly who wants one charcoal cooker for everything and treats fire management as part of the fun. It does not suit someone who mainly wants convenience, where the digital Konnected Joe version comes up repeatedly as the better fit, nor someone chasing maximum smoke volume, where owners point at a bullet smoker, a drum or an offset instead. On price, patience pays: owners report clearance Big Joe IIIs under $1,800, a used one around CAD 1,000, and a used Big Joe with rotisserie, diffusers, pizza stone and cast-iron grate as a $1,300 bundle. Paying full retail plus a full accessory package can push past $3,500, and owners who did it generally suggest buying the grill first and the accessories after you know what you actually cook.
What owners like
- +The 24-inch grate is the point, and owners use all of it. People cooking for five or six report filling it when the whole meal goes on at once, and Big Joe owners who have also used an 18-inch Classic are blunt that they cannot imagine going back. A 12-inch skillet sits on it with room to cook around.
- +Ceramic makes it a genuinely all-weather cooker. Owners describe running it year-round in conditions that would defeat a thin-walled kettle or bullet smoker, including one who smoked a tri-tip during a thunder-snow storm.
- +Fuel economy on long cooks is excellent once you accept the charcoal price. Owners report a 40 lb bag of good lump lasting months, three or more cooks from a single load, and reusing unburnt charcoal from the previous session.
- +It is a real walkaway smoker. Owners who load the basket carefully routinely start an overnight cook and go to bed without a fuel top-up or a vent adjustment, which is the whole reason people leave kettles behind.
- +Heat-up is faster than charcoal's reputation. Owners report reaching 400F in 10 to 15 minutes, which one describes as just long enough to finish prepping and carry the food outside.
- +It cooks things a smoker has no business cooking. Owners run Dutch-oven stews, bake apple pie in it, and get a wood-fired character on pizza at 500F that they say the kitchen oven at 450F cannot touch.
- +Against a top-end pellet grill it wins on smoke. An owner who smoked two matched, identically brined turkeys side by side on a Big Joe III and a Traeger Timberline 1300 found the Traeger bird slightly moister but the kamado gave noticeably more smoke.
Common complaints
- −It does not replace a gas grill, and the most-read owner retrospective on it says exactly that. A year in, the writer's summary was that a kamado demands far more effort than enthusiasts admit and cannot take a gas grill's place for weeknight cooking. Others agree that when dinner has to happen fast, lighting charcoal and settling the temperature becomes a chore.
- −It is uneconomical for small cooks. Owners say straight out that burgers, hot dogs and a couple of steaks are not worth firing it for, that it wants a full family-sized load to justify the fuel, and that people with big families should keep a propane grill alongside it for exactly that reason.
- −Metal parts rust even when the ceramic does not. One Big Joe owner had shelves rusting within a couple of years despite keeping it covered and under a roof, and had the warranty claim rejected.
- −Assembly and quality control are a real risk on a unit this expensive. One owner's Big Joe arrived with a handle that would not line up with its bolts and a firebox that did not seat in the fire ring, with the ceramic flaking where it bound, and described support as unhelpful and condescending.
- −At over 400 lbs it is essentially immovable. A Big Joe I owner had two strong friends fail to lift the body into its stand, and people planning to keep one on a deck or roll it out of a garage are asking about load capacity and carts before they buy.
- −The Kontrol Tower vent draws complaints for gumming up and becoming stiff to adjust, to the point that some owners replace it with an aftermarket cap.
- −The accessories are not optional in practice, and they compound. Owners advise cast-iron or soapstone grates for the best results, and one dealer bundle of grill, cover, griddle, cast-iron grate, pizza stone, rotisserie and charcoal still came to about $3,600 with a 16 percent discount.
Common Questions
Big Joe or Classic?
Will it replace my gas grill?
Is charcoal going to cost me much more than propane?
How hard is it to move, and can my deck take it?
What accessories are actually worth buying?
Does it put out more smoke than a pellet grill?
Compare the Kamado Joe Big Joe III
The Kamado Joe Big Joe III is one of 3 sizes in this line.
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