The Big Green Egg is expensive but seems very high quality. I’ve had mine for over 10 years and the only parts I’ve replaced are (1) the lid gasket (and that was my fault I drank too much wine and the ribeye steaks really caught fire), and (2) the little vent at the bottom.
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Ha ha… Being Dutch I obviously miss the suave English diplomacy but after - what is it, 2 months? - that list reads like a sh*tty Kamado to me? 
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Got some last year from Big K. Only used once - couldn’t see much difference.
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I use Monolith’s own brand lump-wood charcoal in mine. You can get it for around £20 for 8kg and it seems to burn really well - easy to light, and a full load in my Monolith Classic Guru Edition is good for around 14 hours at 120C…
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The reviews for it on the Aldi site are generally very favourable, and I was close to buying a Big Green Egg or Kamado Joe until I accidentally found the Aldi one in stock after a long hiatus - just went for it as it had been sold out for a long time.
I don’t think I ever thought it would match the quality of the more expensvie ones but we’re talking maybe 1/4 or 1/5 of the cost of a premium brand. So in that respect I think it is pretty good vfm to give a taste of the Kamado experience.
The money has clearly gone into the ceramics/wheeled base and the ‘egg/lid/fire bowl’ seem fine with a decent lid hinge.
The coated finish of the ceramic ‘egg’ is flat and shiny but there were minor imperfections I suspect would not be present with a premium brand, but in my hands anything is likely to be grubby/messy within days so this was not a concern.
From the off I realised the bottom vent was flimsy and I’m sure corners were cut to meet the price point.
The main gasket seems quite airtight though I think I’ll look to replacing with a better one. I have accidentally got ash/fat/juices on this so possibly partly my fault.
The top vent inner edge is lined with the same kind of gasket material and the fit was very snug initially but there is more play now, but no visible smoke leakage so I assume it still works as intended.
I’m probably overthinking getting the temperature constant, adjusting too oftenm coupled with still experimenting with the charcoal load to start off.
The temp gauge has failed with the pointer I’d guess heading for absolute zero when the kamado is cold. Maybe a bad gauge (which might explain errors keeping temp correct), maybe it just failed, maybe I overfired the unit and damaged it when trying to run a high temp clean? No idea really it just stopped reading correctly a few days ago and I noticed it was dropping well below zero with n internal temp via an IR gun of around 80-90C.
Plan is too look for a new dome thermometer (or wireless internal one) from a better brand and see if it’ll fit.
Will also look to see if there’s better easy to apply gasket material.
So for 20-25% of the cost of a premium brand equivalent it’s given us a taste of Kamado cooking.
Knowing the bits I don’t like as much will be valuable in buying a better one in the future as features I never knew I wanted will be on the list 
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£30 for 2 x 8 kg of this stuff is my current ‘go to’ local option:
The Big Green Egg branded thermometer is pretty good. A wifi enabled one is very nice however.
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Agree, that makes perfect sense. I’d be hesitant to invest too much in it though.
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I can probably get one of those for £40 or so.
Looking at the pictures on the Aldi site less convinced the thermometer is broken, but no way to calibrate it I can see.
Just removed the thermometer and that hasn’t helped as at ambient temp, the ‘hand’ is now at 5 o’clock rather than 7 o’clock before, can’t see any way to calibrate it but definitely not measuring 100C in boiling water.
A Kamado without a proper dome thermometer is very difficult to work with. It probably sits in an 8 mm (ish) hole? Then you should be able to fit another decent meter that can be calibrated. Should cost that much.
You don’t need a dome thermometer - in fact it’s not the best option as it shows the temperature at the dome, and not at the grill. A better solution would be to get a thermometer with a remote sensor that can clip to your grill
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Not necessarily a good plan.
A grate probe is inconvenient. Most of them have a wire, are iffy to work with and/or can’t stand high(er) searing/pizza temps. It’s much more practical to measure the average temp difference between the dome meter & grate.
Measured the hole earlier and it’s around 10mm - just glad I didn’t order something from Amazon last night in a rush as just realised it would have been for a thin steel BBQ dome not a ceramic one! 
I think I’d often be sceptical of the accuracy of these thermometers but if one is consistent you’d at least get a feel for the temp based on experience with the gauge.
I wonder how often these things fail - read earlier than Kamado Joe only offer 1 year on their dome thermometers.
Not sure either but I’ve never had one fail in 10+ years on 3 different Kamados. Not a thing of much worries imo.
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I’ve been wondering about some kind of wireless sensor for the grate, rather than probes for meat, but as with most things there are many mixed reviews and I’d be concerned about high temps with some kind os smart sensor.
Any suggestions of the kinds to look for?
I actually think knowing the temp accurately is probably best for low temp slow cooks as if I want to sear a steak that’s pretty easy to know if the thing is hot enough just from general experience whereas it’s far harder to judge small differences at lower temps.
Probably overcooked some beef short ribs the other day as I followed an online recipe and later realised I’d probably interpreted the temp as C not F which the originator probably used. They weren’t bad either way!
You do need a probe for the meat for most low & slow cooks. That’s the thing Kamados are particularly good at.
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I’m sure they’re very helpful for that, definitely something I need to get more experienced at though I’ll confess I probably don’t have the patience to do those kind of recipes that often, at least not currently.
Ha ha… well, for quick grilling stuff there a better and easier options than a Kamado but L&S might come later. 
