Kamado Joe sells the Big Joe II twice. One version arrives on a cart and carries the model number BJ24RHC. The other arrives without a cart, as BJ24NRHC, and lists for $100 less.
Everything that cooks is identical across the pair. Same 24 inch grate, same 450 square inches, same published 225°F to 750°F range. Take the cart away and nothing about the cooking changes.
So this is not really a review of a ceramic grill. It is a review of a frame, four locking wheels and two folding shelves. The question is what $100 buys on a cooker that weighs 407.4 pounds.
First Impressions of the Kamado Joe Big Joe II
Nothing about the arrival is casual. Kamado Joe publishes 407.4 pounds for the built weight. Most of that number is ceramic.
The cart comes flat and the body comes crated. Getting the second onto the first is the job. How that lift happens is left entirely to the buyer.
Standing, it changes the shape of a patio. Width reaches 58.3 inches with the shelves out, against 53.5 inches of height. Depth is 35 inches, a figure the specification block never prints. That is the footprint of a small table rather than of a kettle.
The dome is the part people touch first. It lifts on the Air Lift hinge. The reason that hinge exists becomes obvious with one hand on it. A ceramic lid this size has no business feeling light.
The shelves are the other early impression, and a more mixed one. They swing up into slatted work surfaces and drop away again afterwards. They are HDPE. At close range they read as plastic.
Key Features of the Kamado Joe Big Joe II
Strip a kamado back and it is a ceramic pot with a lid. Everything Kamado Joe adds sits on top of that. The Series II gets most of the brand’s named parts.
- Cast iron cart with locking wheels: The series artwork calls the frame cast iron. The specification block just says cart. Four wheels lock, and this assembly is why BJ24RHC exists at all.
- Folding HDPE side shelves: When a cook ends they hinge down out of the way. They ship only with the cart version. The cartless page confirms it by omitting them.
- Kontrol Tower top vent: The tower is cast aluminium, powder coated, and it takes two separate adjustments. Kamado Joe states it holds its air setting while the dome moves.
- Air Lift hinge: The hinge carries most of the dome weight so your wrist does not. On a lid this heavy that is safety, not just convenience.
- Two tier Divide and Conquer system: Half-moon grate sections sit at more than one level. You can hold food high and sear low without swapping anything out.
- Stainless steel: Kamado Joe uses stainless for the grates and for the band latch. Both take heat, moisture and a wire brush in turn.
- Patented slide-out ash drawer: Ash leaves through the front of the base rather than the bowl. The ceramic stays where it is, which is the point.
- Double-thick wire mesh fiberglass gasket: The seal between dome and base is what makes a low setting hold. Kamado Joe doubles the mesh rather than relying on felt.
- Built-in thermometer, AMP firebox and ash tool: All three ship in the box. Nothing about the first fire needs a trip back to the shop.
One absence is worth knowing before ordering. The SloRoller and the charcoal basket both belong to Series III. Kamado Joe’s own comparison chart says so plainly.
Kamado Joe quotes a heat range with a great deal of daylight in it. The published figures are 225°F at the bottom and 750°F at the top. Most cookers are built to do one of those jobs well. Ceramic mass is what lets a single body do both.
The part that makes the span usable is the top vent. Every setting on a kamado is an air setting. Lose the air and you lose the heat. Kamado Joe states the Kontrol Tower keeps its setting while the dome moves.
Lifting the lid to turn food therefore costs less here than it does elsewhere. You stop chasing a number and start holding one. Ceramic punishes an overshoot slowly and patiently.
Divide and Conquer is the other half of the argument. The 450 square inches arrive as half-moon sections at more than one level. That is not extra area. It is one circle split so a sear zone and a rest zone coexist.
Build, handling and durability
The materials tell you where the money went, and where it stopped. A cast iron cart, stainless grates and a stainless latch make a serious list. The top vent is cast aluminium. Then the shelves arrive in HDPE.
At $2,299.99 list that is the one obvious drop in specification. It is not a fault so much as a choice. The cart carries weight and the shelves carry a tray.
The cart has one claim left to answer, and it concerns moving. Four locking casters under 407.4 pounds work on flat paving. Grass ends the trip, gravel ends it sooner, and a step ends it immediately.
So the casters are not for moving it. They are for moving it once.
Running costs, upkeep and value
The pricing is worth doing slowly, because every part of this decision is priced separately. List for the cart version is $2,299.99. The cartless one is $2,199.99. That gap covers a frame, four wheels and two shelves.
Amazon showed around $1,935 when we last captured the listing, on 20 September 2026. Roughly $365 separates that from the maker’s own figure.
After that the additions begin. A cover is not in the box. The maker’s cover bundle runs $60 above the grill alone. Big Block lump charcoal is $34.99 a bag, though any lump will do.
The charcoal basket for a Big Joe costs $229.99. The series chart shows it included with the model above.
Upkeep is genuinely light for a cooker of this mass. The patented drawer pulls ash out of the front. The firebox and the grates stay put.
The gasket is the wear part. Kamado Joe covers it for two years rather than for life.
The warranty divides this grill into four separate terms. Ceramic is covered for as long as the original purchaser owns the grill. Metal parts carry five years, heat deflectors three, and the thermometer and gaskets two. Kamado Joe applies none of it unless the product was registered.
None of that follows the grill to a second owner. On a body built to outlive its first patio, that is a real limit.
Possible Kamado Joe Big Joe II Complaints
- The wheels promise more than the weight allows: Four locking casters read as mobility on a product page. Under 407.4 pounds they deliver one careful relocation across smooth paving. Anyone picturing a grill that follows the shade should choose a permanent spot.
- The ceramic cover ends with the first owner, if it was registered at all: Lifetime sounds absolute and is not. It runs to the original purchaser only. Register the grill or the cover never starts. A second-hand Big Joe II therefore carries nothing.
