new review on Slice for Weber Kettle pizza insert mod

[buceriasdon]

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/06/pizza-lab-in-which-we-get-the-kettlepizza-insert-working-and-meet-its-maker.html?ref=pop_slice

[Jet_deck]

"Most of our customers are dads who just want to cook a few pizzas with the kids in the backyard. They aren't the hardcore pizza guys, they're happy just to get decent results."

I say BS.  He didn't know how to make the insert correctly the first time, and after the results sucked, somebody had to make it work properly.

[scott123]

Gene, I'm not endorsing the product in any way, but I think, when he talks about 'decent results,' he's telling the truth, it's just that his definition of 'decent' and ours are about a million miles apart.

The changes he's made to the insert have been, from what I've seen, pretty minor and mostly just cosmetic.  In the wrong hands, the first iteration made incredibly mediocre pizza, and the most recent version still produces that same level of pie. In the right hands, great pizza is possible, but spending $130+ to achieve it is silly when there's DIY approaches that cost far less.

And his target demographic isn't us. There are mind boggling numbers of people who'd be happy with mediocre pizza from a grill. That's the problem with pizza- even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.

[dmcavanagh]

Yeah, just seems to be another guy trying to cash in on a fad. Throw together a mod which cost more than the grill it's being used on, it gets bad reviews, so he mods it a little more, raises the price and fishes for more suckers.

[Jet_deck]

....his definition of 'decent' and ours are about a million miles apart....

Many light years apart, Scotty.

[buceriasdon]

What the developer should have done during R&D was to get a prototype in the hands of the some people like Kenji rather than rely on his own less than educated knowledge of the pizza baking process and gotten their feedback. The product would have been vastly improved out of the box.
Don

[pizzaneer]

Now if only someone who knows how to cast kiln shelves could make a low dome with a usable opening that would fit directly on the kettle.  Forget the cheesy sheet metal ring, let's sell stone domes. 

[buceriasdon]

Brian, Several folks have posted about their FrankenWeber clones but I don't recall much in the way of followups later. In fact the anticipated production of the Pizza Forge seems to have also stalled and the last I read he was not responding to emails. If I were to speculate, my guess is the cracking problem has not been overcome but who knows, I read somewhere the FrankenWeber mod was estimated to cost close to $1,000. That's some serious dinero.
Don

Now if only someone who knows how to cast kiln shelves could make a low dome with a usable opening that would fit directly on the kettle.  Forget the cheesy sheet metal ring, let's sell stone domes. 

[Tampa]

Well played Jet_Deck

[apizza]

Although this product appears to not be for many here, I have to admire the builders of this product. They came up with an idea, put time and money into it, and put it on the market. Their site says they started in a barn. Apple started in a garage. Apple still improves their products to this day. In time I hope that kettlepizza will make some changes to the product that will improve the pizza baking. Ratings on Amazon are mostly very good, so there are some happy customers.

Two guys come up with a product and make it in the USA. I wish them the best.
Marty

[Jackitup]

http://www.kettlepizza.com/?gclid=CICizpyi77ACFQ67Kgod-lSOFw

OK I was going to post this as a new topic but I see it is already here. Isn't this basically a knock off of the LBE? That thread has 70 some pages and most were very pleased with the results. If I remember right Chau made one and used it and liked it a lot for quite some time. Not looking to argue but am interested in the differences other than for 150 bucks for the insert and a lot less work this looks about a horse apiece. Was actually considering this and giving it a try seeing as I am looking to buy a Weber anyway. Any thoughts appreciated.
Jon

[pizzaneer]

My .02: propane costs less than charcoal.  Think long-term about putting half a bag of charcoal in the Weber to make a couple pizzas.  With the LBE, you have a lot more control over the fuel consumption.

I built my LBE for about $10... but I have a lot of stuff laying around that I can repurpose easily. You could get lucky too - just hit a couple yard sales, think out of the box.

I love my LBE.  I use it for all kinds of stuff.  I can also use it for charcoal firing if I want.  See thread: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,16863.0.html

[ccgus]

I thought I would chime in here and mention that I've had a ton of success with my KettlePizza - but only after I had hacked it up a bit.  I pretty much did what the Slice review mentions (big stone on top), as well as adding a door to the bottom of the weber to adjust fuel and give it some more oxygen.  I can reliably peg the thermometer (I'm guessing it's somewhere between 900-1000), and I managed to make 16 pizzas in a little over an hour recently.  I don't use much charcoal either- just one stack full and then I use apple wood for the real heat.  It's pretty awesome- so don't discount it!  It's a nice little portable WFO (granted, the 900+ heat is only around for ~40 before I have to put more wood on it, but that's usually more than enough time).

Here's a list of the parts and what went into making it: http://shapeof.com/pizzalab/archives/2012/7/make_your_own_marvin.html