Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this grill from Lowes in 2012. The fit and finish was very good and assembly took approximately one hour. The unit came in a sturdy box and was well protected from damage with styrofoam and cardboard blocking. Upon completion, I noticed that the unit was tightly built and generally well designed. The lid fit tightly and had an "oven like" seal with a positive flip latch to hold closed. The two side tables fold down for storage and flexibility. The dust catcher has an interesting design that includes a pin and notch that stops the pan from falling to the ground when it is unlatched for cleaning. Nice touch. The cooking grate is cast iron with a removable center which allows adding additional charcoal during cooking. What is great: The unit is well insulated and remains cool on exterior services during cooking. Once hot coals are introduced to the firebox (using a starter chimney) the unit gets up to operating temperature in about 10 minutes. Heat is we distributed over the entire grill (I covered the grate with hamburgers and all cooked uniformly). Temperature regulating is okay, better than most charcoal grills. The main feature of all Kamado style grills is that you can extinguise the coals when you are done cooking and reuse a large porting of these coals in your next use (assuming the use of chunk hardwood charcoal). This process worked well. Generally, I was able to reuse about 50% of previously used coals. Due to using hardwood chunk charcoal, meals were very tasty and full of smoke flavor. As should be expected. What was not so great: The unit was stored outside most of the time. I purchased a cover at the same time as the grill. The cover fit very tighly and prevented water from penetrating, but for some reason the unit still started to rust around the dust collected and lower vent. In fact, the pin that I mentioned earlier rusted off after one year. The vent at the bottom is easily blocked by coal dust if not cleaned after every use. In fact, there is a double wall on the dust trap that is used by the vent. This area is not easily cleaned and results in poor ventilation. The top vent is not water tight. If you cannot cover the unit before it rains, water easily seeps through the top vent and along the side seem and will fill the dust trap, Not Good! No matter if the unit is covered or not, the cooking grate will turn bright red with rust between cooks. In addition, in year two, the cooking grates had large chunks/flakes of metal popping off. I really enjoyed this grill while it lasted. In my personal opinion, it has a 2 yr lifespan. Based on the pricepoint this is what should be expected. To increase the lifespan, the unit would need to be more like the Green Egg and have more expensive components. This is a great entry product to Kamado style grilling, just don't expect a long life