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Oklahoma Joe’s released the updated Tahoma Auto-Feed last year, adding auto fire starting to their connected gravity-style charcoal smoker. They’re a brand known for their true barbecue flavor, so does the Tahoma stay true to that? They sent me one to find out.

Gravity-Fed Charcoal

Gravity feed systems, like the one on the Tahoma, are a new way to add easier control and longer burn times to charcoal cooking. They work similar to a pellet grill.

There’s a hopper on the side of the grill that you fill with charcoal, then you light a fire at the bottom. As the charcoal burns, ash falls through a grate below and gravity provides new charcoal to burn.

Temperature is controlled automatically with a digital controller and a fan. You can set the temperature you want, then the controller tells the fan how much air to push into the fire to achieve and hold that temperature.

It works well on the Tahoma. The system is able to hold temperatures constant to where it’s set at, removing the hardest part of traditional charcoal cooking.

Model Comparison

The Tahoma Auto-Feed is the updated version of the Tahoma that added plates to choke off the charcoal when you’re done cooking, letting you use it the next time. The tree models are the 1200A DLX that retails for $1,099 (check price), the 900A DLX that retails for $899.99 (check price), and the plain 900 that also retails for $899.99 (check price) that they usually run on sale.

The number in the model let you know how big cooking area is of the grill in square inches. The models the have A DLX in them have the auto-ignition feature that lights the charcoal for you. That’s a big enough upgrade that I’d go for one of those.

900 square inches is plenty of cooking space for my needs. You could easily cook for a gathering with that amount of space.

Cooking

Like I said when describing how a gravity-fed grill works, the Tahoma is super easy to cook on. It’s really as easy as setting a temperature and pressing start, then letting the grill take over.

It also works with the Oklahoma Joe’s app for temperature control. The grill comes with temperature probes, so you can monitor them through the app. The app itself has a nice interface with features a graph of your cook, recipes, and more.

The Tahoma has a wide temperature range that allows for both smoking and grilling, which is a big plus. The 900 can get as low as 225 degrees F and as high as 600 degrees F, while the 1200 can get a little lower to 200 degrees F.

That range makes it nice for smoking, grilling, or doing both. It great for reverse searing or other operations with large temperature changes.

When grilling, there’s a metal manifold under the grates that ensures hot air is evenly distributed along the grill. It also gives great grilled flavor because it’s super hot and drippings hit it. Be aware though, fat hitting a really hot surface can cause flare-ups just like a regular charcoal grill.

For smoking or grilling, you’re cooking with charcoal, so you get quite a bit more smoke than a pellet grill. I’ve also gotten much better bark than a pellet grill.

Tips and Tricks

The Tahoma is much easier to cook on than a traditional charcoal grill, but it’s not quite as easy as a pellet grill. Whether that’s good or bad is up to the user, but there are some key tips to keep in mind, so you know what you’re buying and how to have success with the grill. I also walk through these in the YouTube video featured in the article.

Starting

If you’re starting with a fresh batch of charcoal, there’s not much to it. Just load it up, set the temp, and it does the rest.

When you’re re-using charcoal from your last cook, you have to make sure that all the spent charcoal falls down into the ash pan. If you don’t, the grill struggles to light because it’s already spent, and you’re in for some wasted time.

Any time I’m re-lighting used charcoal, I give the grate in the bottom of the hopper a shake. It helps knock the ash down, so you’re left with useable fuel.

Inevitably, sometimes some charcoal will fall down too but that’s ok, you can pick it out and reload it. Just make sure when you’re shaking the ash grate, you don’t open it too far and have a bunch of charcoal fall out, otherwise you’re left with a little bit of a job.

Jams

Sometimes during cooking, the charcoal will get a little jammed in the hopper and not fall into the fire. To fix it, use a poker and knock the charcoal down into the hopper.

On shorter cooks you won’t really notice it happening because you’re burning off the bottom half of the filled hopper, so you don’t get to the charcoal that’s jammed. You notice it on some longer cooks though when your temperature starts to drop.

You can either be proactive and just check on it every couple of hours or wait for a little drop in temperature and fix the problem. It means you’re doing a little bit of fire management, but it’s not hard and it’s still easier than a regular charcoal grill.

Changing Temps

One other task on the fire management front is I notice that the grill needs a little assistance when I go from a low smoke right into high heat cooking. I think what’s happening is similar to starting with used charcoal.

The charcoal gets spent and maintains the right level of charcoal for a low temperature fire but not enough for high heat. When you crank up the temperature, it doesn’t have enough unspent fuel.

When this happens, you turn up the temp but it takes forever to climb. It can be resolved the same way as starting with used charcoal.

Shake out the grate a little, but make sure to wear appropriate hand protection because you’re dealing with a burning fire. I’m not sure that this would be officially signed of on by Oklahoma Joe’s, but it works, and to me it’s no different than when I’m managing a live fire. Do it at your own risk though.

Conclusion

The Oklahoma Joe’s delivers on it’s promise of giving traditional charcoal flavor without all the hassle of a traditional charcoal grill. While it’s significantly easier than other charcoal grills, it requires some occasional fire management that makes it not as easy as a pellet grill.

It’s a trade-off for more flavor and better grilling. The extra work isn’t for everyone but some people will enjoy that you’re interacting with the grill, so it’s not purely an easy bake oven.