Introduction
Mark has written a couple of fantastic reviews for the website now. Last year he did a great review of the SNS Grills Kettle BBQ, which was one of the contributing factors that inspired me to go out and buy one recently.
This latest one is a review of the SNS Grills Kamado.
A Growing SNS Collection
I took delivery of my SNS Grills Kamado from Totally BBQ around 4 months ago and have used it excessively since. It has quickly become my go-to grill, it has really exceeded my expectations. This seems to be a similar trend when people get their first kamados.
It is no secret that I am a huge SNS Grills fan, having used their products for a number of years. So much so, that as a former Weber Fan Of the month, I am now a 100% SNS Grills fan. It is a company run by people who BBQ and it really shows in the clever design of their products and continued innovation.
I had been researching the Kamado for over a year, having watched numerous Baby Back Maniac videos and other great YouTube reviews, the SNS Kamado was an easy choice for me.
Rather than wax lyrical about all of the design features of the SNS Kamado, I am going to focus on 3 features that I feel sets the SNS Kamado apart from the competition.
Grill Size
This doesn’t necessarily come across in the pictures, but it is really big. It has a 22-inch cooking grate, the same size as a standard kettle bbq grate.
Most standard Kamados have 18-inch grates, so it is closer to a Big Joe and BGE XL at 24 inches in size (luckily it is not close in price, coming in at nearly £1k cheaper).
One of the main benefits of this is that your kettle grates are interchangeable with the kamado, even the Weber GBS grates and accessories fit in this grill. So you can utilise your kettle accessories in the kamado and the kamado accessories in the kettle.
SNS Accessories
This really impressed me, as standard the SNS Kamado comes with their Easy Spin Grate, their Elevated Grate, their Drip’N’Griddle and their Slow’N’Sear deluxe. All of which are made with 304 Stainless Steel, so they’re built to last. That’s around £200 worth of accessories included. Even the fuel grate is 304 Stainless Steel, that’s the level of quality we are looking at here.
What this also means is that you get 3-tiers of cooking as standard, without having to purchase any other accessories. As mentioned above, you can even use them all in your Kettle BBQ too, so it opens up a host of options there also.
Turbo Slow
In my opinion, this is the real genius behind the SNS Kamado design and I do not think it is talked about enough.
Kamados are tremendously economical with fuel and can maintain low temperatures for very long durations. Now the criticism of this is that the fuel smoulders rather than burns, so the smoke that is given off is towards the bitter and acrid side of the spectrum.
The designers at SNS Grills found a solution to this. The fundamental issue they identified was with the heat of the fire and its location at the bottom of the chamber.
So they found a way to make an ‘inefficient fire’ in a Kamado, that still lets you cook at low and slow temps.
The SNS Kamado comes with two fuel grates. One that sits on the bottom of the chamber and has a deflector plate that sits above it. The other is made from stainless steel and sits on top of the firebox. To set up Turbo Slow mode, you remove the traditional fuel grate and deflector plate, then just use the stainless-steel grate, with a Slow’N’Sear located on it.
Now this serves two functions, by raising the fire up into the chamber, you create actual two-zone cooking and it enables you to hold the fire at a higher temperature, so the fuel and wood burn at a higher temperature and you can achieve that coveted clear blue smoke.
Due to the location of the Slow’N’Sear, some of the extra heat is bypass heat that will escape straight out of the dome vent, the rest of it circulates the smoke around the chamber, achieving a very stable low cooking temperature.
The result is a fantastic smoke profile on the food, aided by the moist atmosphere from the inbuilt water reservoir on the Slow’N’Sear. It isn’t bitter or acrid and is incredibly palatable. It’s the nicest smoked food I have ever cooked. So much so, I had to repeat my first cook the very next day to see if it was a one-off or not.
Having the raised fire, also means you can easily refuel or add more wood if needed, without having to dismantle all of the cooking grates, deflector plates and remove your food. This set up also allows you to reach very high temperatures. I rarely use the traditional kamado set up now.
Finally
I could write pages and pages of reasons why I think the SNS Kamado should always be in the conversation of which Kamado you should buy, even down to the true two-zone cooking. AmazingRibs.com gave this Kamado its highest Platinum rating, it is that good.
The Kamado market in the UK is growing quickly, with lots of brilliant competition and innovation. I am definitely a kamado convert and look forward to using it each time.
If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch anytime on Twitter or Instagram
Great review interesting read looks like a great option at that price. Thanks
Thanks for the feedback Dave.