Anyone have any experience in building or using a clay pot smoker. I have
read some specs on Kamado cookers and DIY, e.g. building one from ceramic
clay pots for small trees. Any input or ideas. I was going to build a
brick smoker but this sounds like a fun as a small weekend DIY
project/hobby. I have an old gas (LPG) burner from a burned out smoker I
can utilize for heat control and to ignite my wood chips. Any ideas guys,
or should I buy more bricks and finish building my smoker. We may sell the
house in the next year and I have a small grave yard of smokers and gas
grills out here waiting on heavy trash day, but still have that bond with
them that they may heal themselves some day....rust, clogged burners,
leaking jets, leaking burner lines, just from overuse...LOL. I have won two
competition cooking awards with a couple of them, hence you can see my
endearment to my old fossils.

I should mention I am halfway through building my brick smoker, but it would
make a great flower bed if I went with a Kamado style clay pot
cooker/smoker. I saw this link as a reference point:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/200...iy_smoker.html

One gentleman in our group suggested the Kamado cooker (two weeks ago) as an
idea, but I had poured the concrete foundation for my smoker by that point.
Well once I started to lay the bricks my wife mentioned our school district
sucked and after ten years of me saying lets sell the house, she said OK.
Hence the Egg or Kamado cooker looked better...then the physicist in me said
build one to your own specs.

As my wife said if I buy an Egg, Kamado cooker, or build my own I can take
it with me on my competitions. Our past two awards were in shellfish at the
Texas Gulf Coast Grilling Cookoffs, so no need for large smokers since we
are just cooking for the judges. We make five gallons of gumbo for the
guest and clients, plus two of my team mate bring trailer smokers for just
fun, and to feed our team(s) brisket and sausage while we cook our seafood.

The trailer smokers have won in the Galveston County cookoffs so that aspect
is covered, it is my personal entries in the seafood competition that has
taken second place twice now and I want to keep that on a small and personal
level. As mentioned in my past post, with six kids, three of which in
college (with friends) I feed a small tribe at least twice a week. My
grills and smokers at best give me three or four years before they die a
slow death in this Gulf Coast environment Houston has to offer.

Respectfully,

John H. Carrillo
Senior Health Physicist/CEO
JHC Environmental Group, LTD.

NOTICE: This e-mail message is covered by the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act 18 USC 2510-2521, and is legally privileged. The information
contained in the e-mail is intended only for the use of the individual or
entity to whom addressed above. If the reader is not the intended
recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to receive and deliver it to
the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination,
distribution or copying this communication is strictly prohibited. If you
have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify us by email at
or return the e-mail and then delete or
destroy the original message and all copies.

wrote:
> Anyone have any experience in building or using a clay pot smoker. I
> have read some specs on Kamado cookers and DIY, e.g. building one
> from ceramic clay pots for small trees.

The commercial kamados are temperature adjustable from 50F to over 800F.
They have a tremendous flexibility of function. The flower pot mimic might
be a way to do some cold smoking or maybe an extremely cumbersome way to
make small amounts of barbecue, but it is not the same as the BGE or Kamado
in terms of function. You have no practical way to use wood or charcoal,
which is what you want to use for bbq, not chips or sawdust.

I say stick to the brick smoker and use the flower pot for cold smoking
salmon or making jerky.

--
Dave www.davebbq.com

What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan

On Apr 21, 10:32*pm, "Dave Bugg" > wrote:
> wrote:
> > Anyone have any experience in building or using a clay pot smoker. *I
> > have read some specs on *Kamado cookers and DIY, e.g. building one
> > from ceramic clay pots for small trees.

> I say stick to the brick smoker and use the flower pot for cold smoking
> salmon or making jerky.

And if you do choose to purchase, the Kamado company seems to be
getting worse and worse in regards to quality and customer service.
You might want to look at the "Komodo Kamado" which has received
pretty good consumer feedback.
http://www.komodokamado.com/KomodoKamadoNew/

If you are just looking for a project to have a little fun with, I
think this is where most of the whole terra cotta smoker business got
started:

http://tinyurl.com/4wnqet

It was the buzz of several forums for quite some time.

But with the money you will put into that (checked the price of brand
new, clean terra cotta pots lately?) I would still buy the WSM if you
are just looking for another smoker.

Robert

wrote:
> If you are just looking for a project to have a little fun with, I
> think this is where most of the whole terra cotta smoker business got
> started:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4wnqet
>
> It was the buzz of several forums for quite some time.
>
> But with the money you will put into that (checked the price of brand
> new, clean terra cotta pots lately?) I would still buy the WSM if you
> are just looking for another smoker.

I agree.

--
Dave www.davebbq.com

What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan

Tutall wrote:
> On Apr 21, 10:32 pm, "Dave Bugg" > wrote:
>> wrote:
>>> Anyone have any experience in building or using a clay pot smoker. I
>>> have read some specs on Kamado cookers and DIY, e.g. building one
>>> from ceramic clay pots for small trees.
>
>> I say stick to the brick smoker and use the flower pot for cold
>> smoking salmon or making jerky.
>
> And if you do choose to purchase, the Kamado company seems to be
> getting worse and worse in regards to quality and customer service.

Although I have a Kamado #7 that has never had a single problem, I would
never recommend purchasing a kamado from Kamado (the company).


> You might want to look at the "Komodo Kamado" which has received
> pretty good consumer feedback.
> http://www.komodokamado.com/KomodoKamadoNew/

It's a great pit, with a great company to back it. The Primo and the BGE are
a lot less expensive and do a good job.

--
Dave www.davebbq.com

What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan

On Apr 21, 8:34 pm, > wrote:
> Anyone have any experience in building or using a clay pot smoker. I have
> read some specs on Kamadocookers and DIY, e.g. building one from ceramic
> clay pots for small trees. Any input or ideas. I was going to build a
> brick smoker but this sounds like a fun as a small weekend DIY
> project/hobby. I have an old gas (LPG) burner from a burned out smoker I
> can utilize for heat control and to ignite my wood chips. Any ideas guys,
> or should I buy more bricks and finish building my smoker. We may sell the
> house in the next year and I have a small grave yard of smokers and gas
> grills out here waiting on heavy trash day, but still have that bond with
> them that they may heal themselves some day....rust, clogged burners,
> leaking jets, leaking burner lines, just from overuse...LOL. I have won two
> competition cooking awards with a couple of them, hence you can see my
> endearment to my old fossils.
>
> I should mention I am halfway through building my brick smoker, but it would
> make a great flower bed if I went with a Kamadostyle clay pot
> cooker/smoker. I saw this link as a reference point:
>
> http://blog.makezine.com/archive/200...iy_smoker.html
>
> One gentleman in our group suggested theKamadocooker (two weeks ago) as an
> idea, but I had poured the concrete foundation for my smoker by that point..
> Well once I started to lay the bricks my wife mentioned our school district
> sucked and after ten years of me saying lets sell the house, she said OK.
> Hence the Egg orKamadocooker looked better...then the physicist in me said
> build one to your own specs.
>
> As my wife said if I buy an Egg,Kamadocooker, or build my own I can take
> it with me on my competitions. Our past two awards were in shellfish at the
> Texas Gulf Coast Grilling Cookoffs, so no need for large smokers since we
> are just cooking for the judges. We make five gallons of gumbo for the
> guest and clients, plus two of my team mate bring trailer smokers for just
> fun, and to feed our team(s) brisket and sausage while we cook our seafood..
>
> The trailer smokers have won in the Galveston County cookoffs so that aspect
> is covered, it is my personal entries in the seafood competition that has
> taken second place twice now and I want to keep that on a small and personal
> level. As mentioned in my past post, with six kids, three of which in
> college (with friends) I feed a small tribe at least twice a week. My
> grills and smokers at best give me three or four years before they die a
> slow death in this Gulf Coast environment Houston has to offer.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> John H. Carrillo
> Senior Health Physicist/CEO
> JHC Environmental Group, LTD.
>
> NOTICE: This e-mail message is covered by the Electronic Communications
> Privacy Act 18 USC 2510-2521, and is legally privileged. The information
> contained in the e-mail is intended only for the use of the individual or
> entity to whom addressed above. If the reader is not the intended
> recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to receive and deliver it to
> the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination,
> distribution or copying this communication is strictly prohibited. If you
> have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify us by email at
> or return the e-mail and then delete or
> destroy the original message and all copies.

I absolutely love my Kamado. The more you cook with it, the better the
Kamado gets. Not to mention your talents! I have never had a problem
with customer service! Considering that they have been in business for
10+ years you may have heard of some bad experiences but which
business hasn’t? With that being said I am a very happy Kamper! I
truly enjoy cooking on my K7 and do so about 5 times a week.

Denny Wheeler wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:49:07 -0700 (PDT),
> wrote:
>
>>
>> I absolutely love my Kamado. The more you cook with it, the better
>> the Kamado gets. Not to mention your talents! I have never had a
>> problem with customer service! Considering that they have been in
>> business for 10+ years you may have heard of some bad experiences
>> but which business hasn't? With that being said I am a very happy
>> Kamper! I truly enjoy cooking on my K7 and do so about 5 times a
>> week.
>
> And how long have you had the K7? From all I've read, the older
> Kamados were well-made, but the last 2-3? years' products have been
> made very shoddily and the company's service & customer relations have
> been atrocious.
>
> Note that Dave Bugg has had no problems with his K7--but would not now
> deal with Kamado Corp.

Absolutely correct. Johnson is a scum-bag music-man con-artist. He left his
Indonesian investors and workers and factory and equipment vendors holding
the bag. He was involved in illegalities concerning the ownership of a boat.
He tried re-working the Kamdo line using cheaper concrete instead of ceramic
clay. And he has left honest and hardworking consumers without product or
warranty service.

This might interest some folks: http://www.kamadofraudforum.org/index.php

Please note to texaschampaine: I have @gmail.com filtered so I don't see
posts from gmail users unless posted as part of a reply from someone else.

--
Dave www.davebbq.com

What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan

On Apr 27, 8:21*pm, "Dave Bugg" > wrote:
> Denny Wheeler wrote:
> > On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:49:07 -0700 (PDT),
> > wrote:
>
> >> I absolutely love my Kamado. The more you cook with it, the better
> >> the Kamado gets. Not to mention your talents! I have never had a
> >> problem with customer service! Considering that they have been in
> >> business for 10+ years you may have heard of some bad experiences
> >> but which business hasn't? With that being said I am a very happy
> >> Kamper! I truly enjoy cooking on my K7 and do so about 5 times a
> >> week.
>
> > And how long have you had the K7? *From all I've read, the older
> > Kamados were well-made, but the last 2-3? years' products have been
> > made very shoddily and the company's service & customer relations have
> > been atrocious.
>
> > Note that Dave Bugg has had no problems with his K7--but would not now
> > deal with Kamado Corp.
>
> Absolutely correct. Johnson is a scum-bag music-man con-artist. He left his
> Indonesian investors and workers and factory and equipment vendors holding
> the bag. He was involved in illegalities concerning the ownership of a boat.