Best Kamado Grills of 2025
Testing the Kamado Grill is an intense experience for the grill. Although it is a controlled and responsible way, it requires playing with fire (literally) and high temperatures. The most important factors for Kamado’s performance are heat, especially temperature control, and how well the grill holds at one temperature. Its magic is 225F to suck the meat slowly and low. Good smokers, Kamados, etc. will stick to this temperature for 12, 15 or 20 hours. This means that temperature gauges are important, as well as the ability to control airflow via air vents or dampers.
Monitor the internal temperature of the Kamado grill.
Place a thermocouple on each Kamado grill to capture temperature data. The thermocouple, a sensitive temperature sensor made essentially of wires connected to the probe, is suspended and suspended just one inch above the grille grating. It is connected to a data logger, and ultimately a computer that records changes in heat levels over time.
Then it’s time to activate each grill.
I’ll try to run temperature tests on all grills at the same time. Also, we use the same weight and brand Lump Charcoal (4.4 lbs or 2 kg), often from the same bag. That applies to fire starters too (one per grill).
A stable heat level is key to good performance for Kamado smokers.
Then we light them up as indicated in the manual if available. Usually it lets the coal catch for 15 minutes, open the lid and then close the grill. At this point, the vents remain wide open until the grill is within 50 degrees of the target temperature.
We carefully mess around with the vents to get there. Finally, let go of the control and observe.
Follow the same steps for high temperature tests on a 350 F target. The idea here is to simulate the thermal performance required to roast chicken and other poultry.
Smoke ribs along with other foods for anecdotal testing.
And speaking of food, we also perform a lot of “anecdotal tests.” Suck a rack of baby back ribs (225f) on each grill. We roast and roast chickens, aka Spatchcock. These, sourced from local Costco, each weighs around 5 pounds. Finally, bake a set of four 8 oz hamburger patees on high heat (600 F).
Hamburger, someone?
Need more options? Below are two other Kamado grill models evaluated in this test group: They didn’t make it on my pick, but you might want to see for comparison:
See this: Testing Gas Grills in CNET Smart Homes