Vision Grills versus BGE

Does anyone have any experience with the Vision Grills versus the Big Green Egg?

Our local Costco has this for $550:
http://www.costco.com/Vision-Grills-Classic-Kamado-Charcoal-Grill.product.11760270.html

This seems to be very close to the size of the XL BGE for half the price…

Other than the availability of accesories, its just a ceramic cooking vessel. I have a bge and am very happy with it, but I’m sure any kamodo style grill would work just as well. Just make sure it comes with a device – or that you can buy one – that allows for indirect cooking.

The fit and finish seem to justify the lower price. But as said above, ceramic cooking is elemental so I’m sure it will do the job. FWIW, come fall they close them out for a couple hundred less.

Mel, have you seen these at costco? I have and spent about 30 minutes futzing with one in naperville - I’d actually put the F&F ahead of the BGE.

To the OP - i think at the price point it’s by far a better deal than the BGE and I go back and forth each time they land here as to if I want to hump one home. The price online includes S&H IIRC so the spread is for that alone and depending on your capacity to get that home from a store it may be pretty close if you have to rent a truck. It’s a damn heavy product.

Thanks Guys - after another visit to take a closer look with the wife, SHE convinced me to get a new version of what we already have:

(with side fire box, it actually has a lot more capacity than the BGE)

And then save our money for one of these:
http://www.fornobravo.com/store/Andiamo70-Assembled-28-Wood-Pizza-Oven.html
flirtysmile

I have one of these with the sfb. It doesn’t hold heat like the ceramics do but once I smoked a turkey, duck, 3 racks of ribs and a pork shoulder – all at the same time. I also funneled the smoke from the chimney to another box where I cold smoked bacon.

Nah, had them last year at same price.

That sounds like a productive day.

I had a bunch of people over so it made things really easy. I also had the duck over top of the turkey. By the time it was done, the turkey was glowing as it had been basting in duck fat the entire time. That was maybe my favorite turkey of all time.

I’ve had one of these for years, and I think I’ve posted about it’s versatility here before. That said, I haven’t touched mine since I bought my BGE. I do miss the volume that the CharGriller provides, but I don’t think I needed the extra capacity that often.

Yup - I cook for large groups on a somewhat regular basis and no BGE can compare to it’s capacity - 8 racks of ribs or 2 turkeys or 2 picnic shoulders… I have access to all the barrel stave wood that I want - which makes it easy to control the heat. And at $200, it’s hard to justify paying more.

Nothing wrong with the lowes grill, but guys, there is no comparison to the BGE or any quality ceramic cooker. I would like to see the lowes model hold 180 for 10 hours or cook a pizza at 700. i have dont both on a grill dome (bge equivalent)

for cooking a large amount of meats or going primal nothing beats the oval Primo X/L grill (http://primogrill.com/primo-grills/primo-grills-ovalxl/)

I usually smoke at 225F – and have no problem holding that temp for 14+ hours. Now, the maintenance of the fire is a PITA. I guess that’s where the ceramic really shines? When doing a long smoke, how often do you have to check on it?

I use a digi-Q which is a small computer with a blower fan to maintain the grill fire temp and monitor the meat temp. this way I can sleep at night if doing an overnight.
During the day, I check every couple of hours or more often.

Rent a truck. You City folk crack me up! [snort.gif]