Dennis Linkletter, Creator Of The Komodo Kamado, Shares Design Process Behind The Award-Winning Oven, Smoker, And Grill

Komodo Kamado: The Goldilocks 

Grilling and smoking food may seem incredibly simple on the surface, but proper equipment and technique play a huge role in the quality of the end result, especially when it comes to low and slow cooking that allows the rich smoky flavor to permeate the food, creating tender, fall-off-the-bone goodness. Few people know this better than Dennis Linkletter, designer and founder of Komodo Kamado, a maker of high-quality kamado ceramic grills. Recently, Komodo Kamado's Big Bad 32 was recognized by Newsweek magazine as the best BBQ smoker among a list of 10 candidates compiled by the publication's panel experts and voted upon by the readers.

But first, what is a kamado? Also known as a ceramic grill, it is an oval-shaped Japanese-style earthenware cooking vessel that is better at keeping heat inside than metal barbeque grills. This makes it more fuel-efficient, perfect for low and slow cooking for 12 hours and up. The kamado was brought to the West by US servicemen after World War II, and it has gained a cult following among grill geeks for the great degree of control it gives over cooking temperature – a crucial part in getting the best grilled, roasted, or smoked food. 

Unlike other kamados that are simply glazed pots, Komodo Kamado improves on this design by using refractory cement and a physical layer of insulation, creating an overbuilt and overengineered refractory grill, smoker, and oven, which creates better BBQ with less effort. It is available in eight different sizes, ranging from portable tabletop cookers to full-size grills, with the largest able to roast three to four whole turkeys side-by-side. 

Linkletter, who initially moved to Indonesia for his teak flooring and furniture business, shares that he became interested in kamado grills in the early 2000s after reading positive reviews about them on the internet. He soon decided to design and manufacture his own kamados, seeking to correct design flaws while improving on strengths. The design process took around eight years, and one of the first things he worked on was the problem of other kamados' fireboxes being prone to cracking.

"I heard from other kamado owners that their fireboxes were breaking. The firebox is a cement cup that fits inside the grill to hold the heat, and the metal charcoal basket is inside it. I realized that when the charcoal was lit, the inside of the firebox would get hot very quickly and expand, but the outside wouldn’t. The heat was causing the inside to move while the outside was stationary, creating tension and causing them to crack over repeated use. I quickly came up with a solution to split the firebox into two pieces, resulting in no tension. That was my first design victory with the Komodo Kamado," Linkletter says.

Linkletter wanted the grill to be self-opening. However, the initial hinge design was unsightly and looked like a boat’s outboard motor. Another issue he tackled was the uneven heating and browning of the food. In a round grill, the exhaust port creates a hole of missing material. When baking a pizza, this can cause the outside of the crust to burn while the middle of the pizza undercooked. Ideally, the reflective surface of the ceiling should be a uniform distance from the food. Inspiration for the solution came from the most unlikely of places when Linkletter's five-year-old son asked him to buy him a heart-shaped balloon while on a trip to Bangkok. 

Dennis Linkletter founder of Komodo Kamado

"That was the ‘eureka!' moment for me," Linkletter says. "Adopting a heart shape allowed me to put the hinge back at the bottom of the tail and then place the exhaust right in front of the hinge. When I got back to my workshop in Indonesia, I built a model of the kamado's interior using sheets of styrofoam, chopsticks, and wood glue to tie them together, it solved both problems. The grill was designed from the inside out, we were pleasantly surprised at the outside shape because we had never envisioned it, it was shockingly beautiful. We knew it was something special and we had a home run,"

The Komodo Kamado ended up with a hot face made from a 1.25-inch-thick layer of high alumina refractory cement, the same material used to hold molten metals and glass in factories. After that, Linkletter worked on the insulation. He initially looked for an insulator material that was effective, durable, and lightweight, but that proved to be impossible here. He then realized that he needed to use multiple layers, which meant it needed to be cast twice. The first layer would be the dense refractory material which would be heat resistant and durable. The second would be cast in a new mold outside the original mold, made from vermiculite and a high-performance insulation called Aerogel, by Cabot. According to Linkletter, the Komodo Kamado's insulation is so efficient that briefly touching the external non-metal parts of an operational grill at 750°F will not lead to burns. Additionally, all the models can be used effectively outdoors even in sub-zero weather.

Testing the Komodo Kamado's ability to retain heat, Linkletter loaded the largest model, a 42-inch grill, with a dense coconut shell charcoal he had developed. The grill stayed lit for 215 hours, or almost nine days, at 235°F.

Twenty-one years after setting out to create a better kamado, Linkletter says that Komodo Kamado's product line is "Pretty much mature," states Dennis. He is creating a library of videos on how to better use the grill. Despite significant interest in the product, he maintains that selling directly to the public is the only distribution method he will employ, as it is the only way to market something with the build quality and package that they want. 

"When we started, the only way to sell our kamados online was via eBay, and we had to use escrow companies to facilitate payment," Linkletter says. "While there are other payment methods available today, we still stand firm on keeping our products bespoke. It took me eight years to come up with a design for the Komodo Kamado, as I was trying to figure out how to solve the problems of older Kamado designs. We spared no expense in pursuing a better quality kamado, and we decided that we'd rather cut out the middleman than cut corners."

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