The weeks of research that led me to the Monolith TWO S55
Don’t buy the BBQ I bought. Buy the BBQ that’s right for you.
That’s the conclusion I eventually reached after weeks of researching ceramic BBQs.
If you’ve landed on this article because you’re trying to decide between a Kamado Joe, Big Green Egg, Monolith, Primo, or something else entirely, you’re exactly where I was a few months ago. And I know how overwhelming that spot can be.
One website tells you Brand A is the best. Another says Brand B is unbeatable. Watch enough YouTube videos and you’ll convince yourself that every manufacturer builds the perfect BBQ.
The reality is different. There isn’t a single “best” ceramic BBQ. There’s only the one that’s best for the way you cook.
This isn’t a review of my Monolith; that will come later. Instead, this is the story of how I went from owning several different BBQs to deciding that one ceramic cooker could replace almost all of them and the process I followed to choose it. If you’re shopping for a kamado, I hope it helps you avoid some of the mistakes I nearly made.
Why I Started Looking at a Kamado
Like a lot of outdoor cooking enthusiasts, I had grown my collection over the years, one problem-solving purchase at a time. A kettle for flexibility. A smoker for proper low-and-slow. A gas BBQ for convenience. A pizza oven for Neapolitan-style pizza.
Individually, they were all excellent. Collectively, they’d become a problem, eating up patio space, each with its own maintenance needs, accessories scattered across multiple cupboards. Every cook started with the same question: “Which BBQ should I use today?”
At first, that sounds like a nice problem to have. After a while, it becomes genuinely frustrating. I noticed that I kept reaching for the same one or two cookers while the others sat idle for weeks. That’s when I started asking a different question: instead of adding another BBQ to the collection, could one exceptional BBQ replace several good ones?
That’s how ceramic BBQs entered the conversation.
Why Choose a Kamado BBQ?
A good kamado can grill steaks north of 350°C, smoke a brisket for 12–16 hours, roast a whole chicken, bake bread, cook pizza, handle delicate fish, and even turn out desserts. In theory, one cooker could replace almost everything else on my patio.
That’s an appealing pitch, but it’s also a serious investment. Depending on brand and accessories, it’s easy to spend well over £2,000. I wasn’t willing to hand that over on the strength of marketing alone. So I started properly researching, expecting it to take a couple of evenings.
It took weeks.
The First Mistake Most People Make When Buying a Kamado
I started the way almost everyone does: comparing brands. Kamado Joe, Big Green Egg, Monolith, Primo, Kama Gear, YNNI. I built spreadsheets. I compared specs. I watched more YouTube reviews than I’d like to admit.
Then it clicked: I was asking the wrong question. I’d been asking, “Which is the best ceramic BBQ?” when I should have been asking, “What do I actually need my ceramic BBQ to do?”
It sounds obvious. It isn’t. Most buying guides jump straight into comparing manufacturers. I now believe that’s the wrong place to start. The right place is with yourself: how many people do you normally cook for? How often do you cook outdoors? Do you entertain regularly? Is low-and-slow your real passion? Will this replace another BBQ, or sit alongside it? It’s no different from buying your very first BBQ..
Once I answered those honestly, the list of realistic options got a lot shorter.
Research tip: Don’t start by choosing a manufacturer. Start by understanding how you cook. It’s surprising how many options disappear once you’re honest about your own requirements.
What Size Kamado Do You Need?
I assumed the hardest decision would be choosing between brands, which is where much of the online debate lives. Big Green Egg vs Kamado Joe. Kamado Joe vs Monolith. Monolith vs Primo. Every forum has passionate owners convinced their choice is the only sensible one.
But somewhere along the way, I stopped comparing brands altogether and became fixated on one question instead: what size ceramic BBQ do I actually need?
Bigger isn’t automatically better
My instinct, like most people’s, was to buy the biggest one I could justify. But a larger kamado generally takes more energy to bring up to temperature and will usually use more charcoal for an equivalent cook. It also occupies more patio space and is considerably heavier to move. If you’re mostly cooking for two or four people on a Wednesday evening, a huge cooking area may be unnecessary. I wasn’t buying a BBQ to impress anyone; I was buying one to cook on regularly.
How many people do you really cook for?
The important question isn’t “How many people could I cook for?” It’s “How many people do I actually cook for most of the time?” For me, the answer is two people, sometimes four and occasionally six to eight. The big summer parties happen only a handful of times a year. It made no sense to size my everyday cooker around those exceptional occasions.
Why grate diameter can be misleading
Manufacturers advertise grate diameters of 18, 21 or 24 inches, and at a glance the differences don’t sound dramatic. But you’re not scaling a line; you’re scaling an area. An 18-inch circular grate has an area of roughly 254 square inches, while a 24-inch grate has roughly 452 square inches, around 78% more. That isn’t a modest upgrade.
Here’s what genuinely surprised me: many premium manufacturers cluster their popular models around 13, 18 and 24 inches. There are far fewer choices in between. I spent weeks convinced that more brands must make something around 21–22 inches. Discovering how limited that choice was became one of the biggest turning points in my search.
My Goldilocks moment: 21–22 inches
Eighteen inches felt a touch small for the way I cook. Twenty-four felt like more than I needed. Somewhere around 21–22 inches seemed just right: big enough for family and friends, but still sensible to light on an ordinary Tuesday. It would accommodate brisket, pork shoulder, pizza and rotisserie cooking without feeling excessive.
I’ve also owned a 57cm Weber kettle for years, so I already knew that a cooking surface of roughly that size suited me. I had settled on the size before choosing a manufacturer. For me, that mattered more than the badge on the lid.
Research tip: Don’t choose your kamado around the biggest cook you might ever do. Choose it around the cook you’ll do most often.
My advice: before you even look at brands, write down how many people you usually cook for, the largest gathering you regularly host, how often you cook outdoors, and whether this BBQ will replace other cookers or sit alongside them. That single exercise eliminated a significant number of kamados for me.
Comparing Kamado Brands: Which Is Right for You?
With size settled, I could finally compare manufacturers properly and quickly realised there are no bad ceramic BBQs among the premium brands. Every one has passionate owners, produces fantastic food, and has someone somewhere insisting it’s “the best.” That actually made things harder. I wasn’t trying to avoid a bad purchase; I was trying to find the one that matched how I cook.
Big Green Egg
The closest thing ceramic BBQs have to royalty. Big Green Egg has decades of history, an outstanding reputation and a strong UK dealer network. Its accessory ecosystem is enormous, although you may pay separately for items that some competitors include in a bundle. My hesitation was the size gap: the jump from Large to XL left me choosing between slightly smaller and considerably larger than I wanted.
Kamado Joe
If Big Green Egg represents heritage, Kamado Joe represents innovation. Divide & Conquer cooking, the Air Lift Hinge, the JoeTisserie and the DoJoe pizza system are clever, useful ideas rather than novelty features. Generous accessory bundles can also make the packages look like excellent value. My hesitation was the same size gap: Classic Joe or Big Joe, with nothing between them. If Kamado Joe made something around 21–22 inches, my search might have ended much sooner.
Primo
An oval cooking surface instead of the traditional round shape, which makes genuine two-zone cooking easier and gives more flexibility for direct and indirect setups. Loyal following, especially among people cooking large quantities. My hesitation was UK availability, fewer dealers, fewer accessories, fewer owners to learn from.
Kama Gear
One I initially dismissed as “another imported ceramic BBQ”, which turned out to be unfair. It offered good ceramics, strong accessory bundles, competitive pricing and, importantly, a model close to the size I wanted. My hesitation was about long-term ownership: would spare parts remain readily available, and would the hardware age as well as that of the more established brands?
Monolith
This wasn’t the brand I expected to focus on and was probably the one I knew least about at the start. The more I researched it, the more it appeared to be driven by practical engineering. The smoke chip feeder, for example, sounded slightly gimmicky until I realised it allows smoking wood to be added without lifting the lid. The gasket, hardware, accessories and multi-level cooking system all appeared thoughtfully designed. By this stage, my shortlist was becoming fairly obvious.
Key Things to Look for When Buying a Kamado BBQ
Size was the decision that reshaped my whole search, but it wasn’t the only thing I ended up scrutinising. Once I started digging into owner forums rather than marketing pages, a handful of other factors kept coming up again and again. The details that don’t sell a BBQ in a glossy brochure, but matter enormously once you’ve owned one for a few years. Here’s what I’d tell anyone to actually check.
Build quality and ceramic construction
Ceramic quality quickly became one of those topics where the more I read, the more I realised there was a lot going on beneath the surface. Wall thickness, firing processes and glazing all play a part in how well a kamado retains heat, copes with repeated temperature changes and stands the test of time.
Monolith TWO S55: One thing that gave me confidence with the Monolith was that the company is very open about how its ceramics are manufactured and the warranty that backs them up. When you’re making an investment like this, knowing the manufacturer is prepared to stand behind the most expensive part of the BBQ says a lot about the confidence they have in their product.
The hinge and lid mechanism
This is one of the most-used parts of the entire BBQ, and one of the least talked about. Some kamados use a simple friction hinge; others use spring-assisted systems (like Kamado Joe’s Air Lift Hinge) that make the heavy ceramic lid easy to open one-handed and hold at any angle. A poor hinge doesn’t just make lid-lifting annoying, it can also affect how evenly the lid seats, which affects your gasket seal and temperature control. If you can, physically open and close the lid before buying.
Monolith TWO S55: Fitted with a stainless steel, smooth-running hinge built to make handling the ceramic lid easy despite its weight, with reinforced tensioning straps designed to keep the lid seated evenly over years of use.
Vents and temperature control
Your top and bottom vents are how you control temperature, so their design matters more than it sounds. Top vents come in a few styles: daisy wheel, slide, or dial. Each offers different levels of fine control. Bottom vents should move smoothly and lock in place without shifting on their own. If you’re planning to do a lot of low-and-slow cooking, precise vent control makes a real difference to how much you’re fiddling with the fire versus letting it run.
Monolith TWO S55: The Monolith’s cast iron top vent struck a nice balance. It felt solid, held its position well and gave me confidence that I could make small adjustments without constantly chasing the temperature. I also liked the fact that it already includes a port for a temperature controller. It’s not something I needed immediately, but it’s reassuring to know the BBQ is ready for that upgrade if I ever decide to automate overnight cooks.
Gasket material and replacement
The gasket is the seal between the lid and base, and it’s a wear item. Expect to replace it every few years depending on use. Felt gaskets are common and effective but can wear faster with heavy use; silicone and hybrid gaskets tend to last longer and handle moisture better. What matters most is whether replacements are cheap, easy to fit yourself, and readily available, not just what the gasket is made of on day one.
Monolith TWO S55: One of the things I liked about the Monolith was its move away from traditional felt gaskets in favour of a fibreglass seal with a stainless steel mesh. It felt like another example of practical engineering designed to improve long-term ownership rather than something created purely for the sales brochure.
Accessory ecosystem and compatibility
As I mentioned earlier, this is about buying an ecosystem, not just a cooker. Beyond the core accessories, check how easy it is to add multi-level cooking systems, plate setters for indirect heat, rotisserie attachments, and pizza stones, and whether they’re proprietary to that brand or work with generic kamado-sized parts. A brand with a smaller but well-designed accessory range can be a better long-term bet than one with a huge catalogue of accessories you’ll never actually buy.
What appealed to me about the Monolith TWO S55: The Smart Grid System gives useful cooking levels and zones, while the built-in chip feeder lets me add smoking wood without opening the lid. More importantly, these are features I can genuinely see myself using.
Two-zone and indirect cooking setup
Almost everything beyond a basic sear, like roasting, smoking and indirect grilling, depends on how easily you can set up two-zone cooking (direct heat on one side, indirect on the other). Round kamados typically achieve this with a plate setter or heat deflector; oval designs like Primo’s build it into the shape of the cooking area. Whichever design you choose, it’s worth understanding how the two-zone setup works before you buy, since it’s central to most of what a kamado is good at.
Monolith TWO S55: The S55 uses a divisible charcoal basket together with deflector stones and drip trays to create up to three temperature zones at once, so you can sear, roast, and cook indirectly in the same session without swapping accessories in and out mid-cook.
Warranty and long-term support
Warranty length varies significantly by brand and part. The ceramic shell is often covered separately from hinges, hardware, and consumables like gaskets or thermometers. Look for clear terms on what’s covered, for how long, and whether you’ll be dealing with the manufacturer directly or through a dealer. A shorter warranty from a brand with excellent UK dealer support can be a safer bet than a longer one from a brand with no local presence.
Monolith TWO S55: Monolith’s warranty structure felt sensible and transparent, giving me confidence that the ceramic, hardware and other major components were all supported appropriately. Combined with a growing UK dealer network, it reassured me that I wasn’t just buying a BBQ for today, but something I’d still be able to maintain many years down the line.
Weight, portability, and where it will live
Kamados are heavy, often 70–150kg depending on size, once you include the trolley or stand. This isn’t a BBQ you casually wheel in and out of a shed each week. Think about where it will permanently live, whether the trolley has locking caster wheels, and whether your patio or decking can take the weight. It’s a decision you’re making for the location as much as for the BBQ itself.
Monolith TWO S55: The standalone Monolith TWO S55 weighs approximately 74kg, even before adding a trolley or building it into an outdoor-kitchen setup. It’s very much a “choose its permanent spot” purchase rather than something you’ll want to move regularly. I didn’t have to worry about the cart as mine was going to be freestanding in my new outdoor kitchen.
Budget: what does your money actually buy?
Ceramic BBQs are usually sold in tiers, and it’s easy to underestimate the real cost of getting started. Roughly speaking:
- Base unit only: the kamado itself, with minimal accessories. Often the advertised “from” price.
- Starter bundle: typically adds a cover, basic tools, and sometimes a side shelf or basic heat deflector.
- Full package: includes the trolley, multi-level cooking system, pizza stone, rotisserie, and other core accessories, which is realistically what most people end up buying within the first year anyway.
Budgeting for the full package from the outset, rather than the base unit price you see advertised, gives a far more honest picture of what you’ll actually spend.
Monolith TWO S55: UK retailers list the stand-alone grill (body only, no cart) from around £1,499, with cart-and-accessory bundles priced higher on top of that. As with any kamado, it’s worth pricing up the cart, Smart Grid accessories, cover, and charcoal together before comparing headline prices between brands. The “from” price rarely reflects what you’ll actually spend to get cooking.
What I Learned Comparing Kamado Brands
I never once thought “Brand X is rubbish.” Instead I kept thinking: “That’s an excellent BBQ… but it isn’t quite right for me.” That’s a very different conclusion and it reframed the rest of my research. I stopped trying to crown an overall winner and started looking for the BBQ that consistently ticked my boxes.
Eight Things to Know Before You Buy a Kamado
Weeks into my search, with spreadsheets built and forums scoured, I still didn’t feel close to a decision. I eventually realised that most comparisons focus on specifications, while the ownership experience depends on less obvious things.
- You’re buying an ecosystem, not just a BBQ. Today it may be burgers and sausages; before long it could be brisket, pizza, rotisserie chicken, shawarma, cast iron and plancha cooking. Check that the accessories you are likely to use are well designed and readily available.
- The hardware matters. The hinge, handle, bands, vents, gasket, shelves and trolley are the parts you interact with every time you cook. Their quality has a huge influence on whether a kamado still feels premium after years of use.
- Long-term owner experiences are invaluable. Manufacturer websites explain features; owners explain what those features are like to live with. One complaint proves very little, but a recurring pattern across many owners deserves attention.
- Dealer support matters more than you might expect. You may need spare parts, gaskets, accessories or advice for years to come. The cheapest online deal is not automatically the best long-term value.
- Bigger isn’t always better. There is little point buying the BBQ equivalent of a minibus because you occasionally take the neighbours’ children to football. Buy for your normal life, not the exceptional day.
- Don’t pay for features you won’t use. Rotisseries, woks, pizza attachments, planchas and soapstone are brilliant if you use them and expensive clutter if you don’t. My test was simple: can I picture myself genuinely using this?
- The community adds value. Recipes, troubleshooting, accessory advice and cooking inspiration all make ownership easier. Some brands have huge communities; others have smaller but fiercely loyal ones.
- There is no perfect kamado. Every manufacturer makes compromises. The moment I stopped hunting for perfection and started looking for the best match for the way I cook, the decision became much easier.
My Kamado Buying Checklist
By the end, my own research had quietly built a checklist I hadn’t set out to write. My ideal ceramic BBQ needed to:
- Be around 21–22 inches
- Be capable of replacing several other BBQs
- Feel like a premium product
- Have accessories I would genuinely use
- Have a strong reputation for reliability
- Offer thoughtful engineering
- Be supported by knowledgeable dealers
- Feel like something I would still enjoy using in ten years
That list looks long. In practice, it eliminated almost everything, narrowing six manufacturers down to two. One represented outstanding value. The other represented everything I’d come to value through months of research. Neither was a bad choice; this had stopped being about cooking performance and become a question of ownership.
Why I Chose the Monolith TWO S55
It wasn’t the biggest cooking area, the cheapest option, or the loudest marketing. It simply kept coming out on top every time I added another requirement to the list. The size was exactly what I’d been searching for. Large enough for family and friends, compact enough that I’d happily light it on a Wednesday evening. The engineering impressed me, the accessory range made sense, the smoke woodchip feeder wasn’t a gimmick, and the hardware felt like it had been designed by people who actually cook on these things.
People often ask what finally convinced me. Honestly, there wasn’t one moment. No single review, video, or conversation with a retailer. It was quieter than that. I noticed I’d stopped trying to convince myself, and every time I went back to my shortlist, I was comparing everything else against the Monolith. When that happens, I think you’ve already made your decision, you just haven’t admitted it yet.
Have I bought the perfect BBQ? No, because I don’t think it exists. Every manufacturer makes compromises, and every owner has different priorities. Someone cooking for twelve people every weekend, or chasing the best possible value, might reach a completely different conclusion and that’s fine. The Monolith TWO S55 isn’t the best ceramic BBQ. It’s the best one for me. That feels like a far more honest place to land.
Kamado BBQ FAQ
What size kamado BBQ should I buy?
It depends on how many people you cook for day-to-day, not the biggest gathering you occasionally host. Most premium brands offer roughly 13″, 18″, and 24″ models. If you’re cooking for two to six people most of the time, a size in the 18–22″ range is usually the sweet spot — large enough for a brisket or a few pizzas, without the extra heat-up time, charcoal use, and patio space a 24″ model demands.
Is Monolith better than Big Green Egg or Kamado Joe?
Not objectively, all three are excellent, well-engineered ceramic BBQs with loyal owner bases. Monolith stood out for me because of its engineering-led approach (the smoke pellet feeder, gasket quality, and hardware detailing), and because it offered a size close to what I actually needed. Big Green Egg and Kamado Joe are equally strong choices depending on your priorities around dealer network, accessory ecosystem, and budget.
Do I need a big kamado for entertaining?
Only if entertaining is what you do most of the time. A larger kamado can still handle big cooks, multiple joints, and several pizzas, even in a mid-size model, just with a bit more planning. Buying based on your normal weekly cook rather than your one big summer party each year usually leads to a BBQ you’ll enjoy using far more often.
What’s the biggest mistake people make when buying a kamado?
Comparing brands before figuring out what they actually need. Starting with “which is the best ceramic BBQ” instead of “what do I need mine to do” tends to lead people toward the biggest, most feature-packed model, which isn’t always the one they’ll enjoy using the most.
What I Hope You Take Away From This
Don’t buy the BBQ with the biggest following. Don’t buy the one with the cleverest marketing. Don’t even buy the one I bought. Buy the one that fits the way you cook. Be honest about how many people you normally cook for, where you’ll actually use it, which accessories you’ll genuinely buy, and how you’ll feel lifting the lid in ten years’ time. Do that, and you’ll make the right decision, whether it matches mine or not.
What’s Next: My Monolith TWO S55 Review
Buying the Monolith TWO S55 wasn’t the end of this journey, it was the start of a new one. Over the coming months, I’ll be documenting the build quality, accessories, first cooks, the mistakes I’ll inevitably make and which extras genuinely earn their place.
Anyone can write a first impression. The real test of a ceramic BBQ is whether you’re still excited to cook on it years later.
I have a feeling I will be.
Looking for more kamado inspiration? Check out the ALDI Kamado review for a budget-friendly starting point.