New Toy
 

I bought an Akorn Jr today to use on camping trips. Gonna be fun!!!

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Ooh, I want one. Aren't those things really heavy? I'm guessing you drive up to your campsite.

How big is it?

Oh, PM, that is a thing of beauty!

No it is not heavy at all. It is not a ceramic. It is insulated steel. Cooking grate is 14". It weighs about 15-20 pounds. Stands about two feet tall. I have the Regular size Akorn as well. It is the size of the large Big Green Egg. The Akorn weighs about 120 pounds and that is about half or less than the BGE. Both versions of the Akorn are very portable.

Best of luck with it.

I used to do overnight backpacking trips with a Lil' Smokey Joe straped to my pack. It was a way to better control the cooking fire when conditions were very dry in the Summer, and there were a bunch of drunks about (my buddies).
I looked like a hillbillie's truck when hiking out with the grill, pots and pans, and the garbage bag all hanging off my pack.

Please post pics as you get to use it.

Heh. When I went camping back in the day, I also took a little Smokey Joe, or something smaller.

When I finally moved to a place that had a patio, I started cooking out as often as I could. The first thing I learned was don't throw lighter fluid at the flames. My first steak was a little well done that night and one of the firefighters had to give me a quick grilling lesson. He was cute, but a little sarcastic. Can't imagine why.

With that temperature gauge on the Akorn Jr, you could almost use that as an oven.

:lol::chef:

Kamado cookers have been called outdoor ovens by folks for some time. But they are more than that. You can cook in heat ranges from 200* to 700*. Low and slow BBQ to 5 minute pizza. They are very miserly on charcoal and never need fluid splashes!:lol:

I hope you have graduated to a chimney starter and got away from fluid or match light type charcoal.:mrgreen:

I don't use a chimney starter. I load the cooker with lump charcoal and use one Weber cube in the center of the load. I use the chimney when I am running one of my two offset smokers or lighting a campfire.

How do you light when using the lump left from a previous cook? Are Weber cubes petroleum free?

I can usually get 2-3 cooks by just adding a chimney full of lump to the leftover lump in the Egg. I have to get rid of the ash from the last cook, but a vacuum and poker do a great job. I'll also use my air compressor regulated to 20 psi to blow ash to the bottom and then vacuum it out.

Cubes are mostly paraffin. I just set one down in the center as before and pull the left over lump to it. The Akorn has an ash tray on the underside.I only need to dump about once every 25 cooks or so. Takes about 2 minutes to dump.

I am assuming you have a dedicated vacuum for the ashes?
I was using my shop vac, but stopped. Was concerned it would ruin the vacuum?
I bought a pail with a tight fitting lid. This is where I dispose of the ashes now. Still a pain in the butt though.

Hard to get simpler than this. Just two latches, slide out , dump and return.

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Nope, my shop vac has a bag. I'd be worried if ash started coming out of the exhaust. For anyone reading these exchanges, the ash is cold and the vacuum has no safety pictures or warning labels so common sense must be applied about using the vacuum.:ohmy::rofl:

Very portable at 120 pounds? Yikes! How much do you bench press?

As compared to a ceramic cooker of similar size. I have carried the full sized Akorn afield many times. No, I can't load it on a truck bed by myself, however it is much easier to do than a 400 pound BGE.

This picture was taken by me of my Akorn at a deer hunt at Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge. Would have been near impossible to do that with a ceramic.

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Not much of a refuge, eh? :mrgreen:

Probably not. They kill between 250-500 deer on the refuge each year.

Its called Wildlife Management.:smile: When you eliminate predators and reduce space, you have to manage.:ohmy: Only so many individuals can be supported in a given space. Even though there may be massive amounts of land, you have to consider the "Edge Effect", food, shelter and water. If any of these three are missing, the area will not support wildlife. I guess I do remember something from my Hunter Safety Instructor days.

I just found that a funny contradiction. Actually, I now live on the edge of a 4000 acre wildlife management area. I think it's a more accurate term. Every fall you can hear the gunshots from just about a mile away during the deer and bear hunting seasons. Still, I see deer and turkey almost every day, even in winter. I'd rather see them culled than starving or frozen.

That's why having a garden up here is going to be difficult.

Very nice

Yep. I use a bag in mine as well. Still, the fine ash gets into the motor housing, on the ball and onto the inside surface.
The bag must allow air to pass through it. That's why some ash still gets past it.
I always blew mine out with compressed air when changing the bag. There were always fines inside. The cloud of ash was proof enough. It was quite obvious though, even before blowing it out.
If you say there are no fines in your motor housing, fines on the inside surface and all over the ball, you would not be honest.

I worked in a clean air production facility once and we used some of the finest filtering equipment money could buy. Vacuum was the method of material transport.
No matter how good it was, there was always some fines that got past the filtering medium. Always.

It weighs about 35 pounds with the grate in and fully assembled. It is 27 inches high and about 23 inches wide.
It is a beast. It can smoke for 12 hours at 225 on a small amount of lump charcoal and can get to 700 degrees to sear a ribeye. Many folks who owned the larger version and then bought the smaller, rarely use the larger anymore, unless they have larger cooking needs.

Oh, and this grill runs about $145 on Amazon with free 2 day shipping if you have prime. The larger Akorn costs about $300, both an amazing value. Compare to other kamado grills at an average of about $900.