You can stop searching — after weeks of testing, I can confirm that the Kamado Joe Konnected is the perfect grill

The first time I tried a kamado grill, I added half a bag of lumpwood charcoal and a handful of firelighters to the ceramic body and watched helplessly as the temperature skyrocketed. And once you've overshot on a ceramic grill, it's tricky to bring the temperature under control.

That's not to say I don't love a kamado grill. These well-insulated, aesthetically pleasing eggs are some of the best grills on the market. But there's a learning curve, and if you're a beginner, you can expect to spend a lot of time poring over the instruction manual.

Enter: Kamado Joe's Konnected Joe. When I heard that this grill uses Wi-Fi connectivity to monitor and control its own temperature, and has an automatic fire starter that can even get the fire going completely hands-free, I couldn't wait to try it.

And a month in, I'm totally hooked on this grill. It's got the smarts, it's got the looks, and it's made some of the tastiest food I've ever cooked, period. If you're a charcoal newbie who wants to cook like a seasoned pro, the Konnected Joe is the ultimate grill for you.

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe review: Price and availability

You can buy the classic Konnected Joe for $1,999 direct at Kamado Joe, as well as retailers such as Home Depot.

It also comes in a Big Joe Konnected version for $2,999. The design is very similar, but with a larger capacity.

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe review: Design

Assembling the grill took me about an hour, and I (bravely) attempted it solo. The trickiest bit was assembling the stand, and I'd recommend laying something down as you do this. I attempted it sitting down on my gravel driveway, and it scuffed up some of the black paint on the metal legs.

Once you've finished screwing together the base (all nails and screwdrivers are included) it's time to lift the Kamado onto the base. I enlisted my dad to help with this, and although it's heavy, we didn't have any trouble positioning it.

You screw the grill onto the base, which means it's super secure once attached. I was able to move it around the yard with ease and the wheels lock into place to keep it secure when in use.

The interior of the Kamado Joe Konnected is made of five removable ceramic plates which are held together by a metal ring. On top of that you can stack a range of accessories which allow you to customize your cooking.

This includes a flexible cooking rack, half-moon cooking grates, and ceramic heat deflectors. When following recipes on the Kamado Joe app, it will talk you through the correct way to set up the grill depending on your recipe. After a few uses, I started to understand the right setup depending on what I was making.

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The grill switches on from the back of the unit. It does need to be plugged in if you want to use the smart features, but equally, you could leave it unplugged and use it like a conventional Kamado Joe.

At the front of the unit, there's a display that tracks your temperature throughout the cooking period and three ports to add meat thermometers. There was only one thermometer included with my grill, so you'd have to buy more to use all three.

There's a button underneath the thermometer ports that activates the AFS (Automatic Fire Starter), and once you've pressed it, you simply leave your grill to hit your pre-selected temperature, completely hands-free.

This feature is one of my favorites with the Kamado Joe Konnected, because it never overshot and always ignited my charcoal at the right level required. This also kept my temperature consistent, kicking into gear when I opened the grill and let heat out.

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe review: Grilling performance

For my first time grilling on the Kamado Joe Konnected Joe, I decided to cook some peri peri chicken, honey mustard salmon and asparagus.

I set up the grill with one ceramic plate to cook the salmon indirectly, while the chicken and asparagus was able to achieve a flame-grilled finish and a more smokey flavor.

This worked really well. I used my temperature probe to set up the grill for cooking chicken, left the lid closed and allowed the app to inform me when the chicken breast had hit the ideal temperature.

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I was impressed at how juicy the chicken was, and the salmon was incredibly soft with a buttery texture that I struggled to remove from the grill in one piece. It fell apart as soon as I stuck a fork into it and didn't take on any toughness throughout the cooking process.

The asparagus still had a great bite to it, and when it started to look a little charred I moved it over to the indirect cooking side of the grill to allow it to cook more slowly.

The next night, I cooked some thin-cut sirloin steaks and a couple of burgers. To do this, you need to remove the ceramic plates to allow the grill to cook directly, so be prepared with some BBQ-safe gloves and sturdy utensils if you plan on rearranging the grill midway through cooking.

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I followed the Kamado Joe recipe to cook this steak perfectly. After setting the grill up for direct cooking at 400 degrees, I left the grill to hit the perfect temperature.

The steaks sizzled as soon as they hit the pre-heated grates, and after a three minutes of cooking (with a flip after two) they were a perfect medium-rare.

The burgers needed a little longer, so I left them to cook while the steaks rested. This was a great test of how hot this grill really can get. If you're looking for a grill that can flame-grill and still slow-cook, the Konnected is a strong option.

With that being said, you can see from the photos that the cooking area is a little on the small side for large families. It's ideal for my family of four, but would struggle to fit everything if I were cooking for a party.

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe review: Smoking performance

I'll admit it: smoking is far out of my comfort zone. I used to be a vegetarian, and my family mostly eats veggies and fish, so I never really learned how to cook larger cuts of meat.

This is where I was grateful for the temperature probe and the Kamado Joe recipes included on the app. I was able to search by cooking method and the type of meat and select recipes that suited my ingredients and the amount of time I had.

I opted to cook some slow-cooked Memphis-style pork ribs, which I coated in a spiced dry rub. The recipe also called for a mop sauce, which required a container to sit underneath the ribs. I found that this didn't actually catch anything, or that anything it did catch immediately evaporated.

Thankfully, my finished ribs were super juicy anyway.

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Setup was simple. I added some chunks of applewood to my charcoal and left the grill to come to temperature.

I cooked my ribs on indirect heat at 250°F for 3 hours, then wrapped them in some foil so they wouldn't dry out while I slow-cooked some chicken and smoked some chicken wings.

The chicken was a spatchcock lemon garlic which I scored for a deeper smokey flavor. The Kamado Joe recipe called for a temperature of 350°F, but I didn't want to overcook my ribs, so I turned the temperature up to 300°F and laid my chicken down to cook with a meat thermometer.

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It took about 50 minutes for my chicken to hit a 175°F internal temperature. While it was cooking, I took off my ribs and laid on some buffalo wings to smoke for the final 30 minutes.

Despite my lack of meat-cooking prowess, I can't fault anything I made when smoking low and slow on the Kamado Joe Konnected. The chicken was juicy and had a deep smokey flavor, my wings were fiery and had a nice crispy skin, and the ribs fell apart as I sliced them, with a thin pink layer of bark that indicated how well they'd taken on the smokey flavor.

One thing to note is that, because of its incredible insulation, the grill takes a long time to cool down. I wanted to cover it up overnight to protect it from the rain, but it was too hot for me to touch, let alone put a cover on.

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe review review: App

I don't always enjoy using apps when I test appliances. Not everyone wants to download an app to use a product, and sometimes it's just easier to be able to use onboard controls.

However, I did enjoy the Kamado Joe app. Pairing was a breeze, it shows a bunch of recipes and allows you to set temperature preferences and targets hands-free.

The app doesn't tell you anything you can't find on the smart display, but the format is user-friendly and allows you to monitor your meals from the couch, which is especially useful for slow and low smoking.

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If you're someone who enjoys getting into the nitty gritty details of smoking, you'll enjoy the way the Konnected makes a graph that tracks your temperature over time. I've got friends who do this manually, and they were very jealous when they saw that my grill does it all for me!

How does it compare?

You can compare the Kamado Joe to its main competitor, which is Big Green Egg. But Big Green Egg has no smart version, which puts the Konnected in a league of its own.

In terms of smart offerings, the Spider Grills Hunstman has a kamado-style build but with a steel body. It's about half the price of the Kamado Joe Konnected, and we awarded it five stars due to its smart features and sturdy build quality. So if you're on a budget, this is a good alternative.

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe review: Verdict

The Kamado Joe Konnected Joe is hard to fault. It took a former vegetarian who's never cooked a rack of ribs before, and made me king of the grill. Seriously, my mom hasn't stopped raving about my spatchcock chicken.

Although it's well worth the extra effort and maintenance, you should be aware that you'll need to position this grill near a power socket in order to make the most of it. Like I said, you can use it without plugging it in, but it's worth it for the AFS function alone.

One other minor downside (finding fault with this grill requires some nitpicking!) that I found a slight discrepancy between the temperature reading on board the smart display and on the grill's temperature gauge.

I found its capacity ideal for four people, but it might struggle to cater to a crowd. For that, you should check out the Big Joe Konnected.

But all that aside, I've never loved a grill as much as the Kamado Joe Konnected Joe. Looks? Check. Smarts? Check. Ease of use? Big check.

If you're looking for a grill that can do it all, look no further.