Lets talk about the Flame Zone that is a MAK exclusive. The Flamezone is standard on the 2 Star and can be bought separately for the 1 Star.
Now maybe this added to my confustion about the Flamezone or maybe I was just missing something. I always felt the Flamezone was an add on for high heat searing. It is not.It is a part of the Quick Change Grease Pan System. The complete working system inside your MAK. This is not your basic run of the mill heat diffuser with a grease tray, we are talking the Gold Standard here. Check it out.
Lets dive into this shall we:
Here is the inside body of the grill with everything removed. We will talk about the firepot and trap door later.
Here is the outer frame which is the grease tray. On the right hand side you see the large cutout. This goes in towards the right side of the grill. You can also see the downward angle of the inside frame which lets the grease flow from left to right into the grease drain. The grease runs along the sides of the outer frame.
Do you see the "handles" in the center around the fire pot opening. These serve two purposes. The heat diffuser mounts to these handles and you can also easily grab these to remove the outer frame/grease tray. Great thinking.
Here is the outer frame/grease tray installed in the 2 Star
The heat diffuser is next and embossed on it is "TOP" which means this way up. It mounts to the handles on the outer frame/grease tray
So here is how the outerframe/grease tray with heat diffuser looks all put together in the grill
Notice how the outer frame/grease tray is funneled down to the fire pot? This is really a multi functioning part of the overall system.
1. The grease is caught in the outer lip and drains to the grease drain.
2. The design is made to deflect the heat from inward to outward creating a very even cooking surface.
Now we get to the Flamezone pan. This fits on top of the grease tray and fits in the raised lip that runs along the outside of the outerframe/grease tray. There are rows of "dimples" with holes in them. This lets more intense heat rise up to grill level.
Here is the FlameZone installed. Not to get too far ahead, but this is your high heat cooking set up.
However, this is a world class smoker so the last part is the Flame Zone covers. There are two and they run horizontally on the FlameZone ports (dimples with holes). They should only be removed for when you want to cook hot and fast. I like to call that grilling.
So here is the complete Quick Change Grease Pan System. This is the set-up you will use for indirect/smoking.
We are almost finished. We need something to put our meat on!! You get two split grates. No I normally do not split grates because (at least in other Mfg grills) they do not sir right and kind of move around. No worries here. When installed you would think they were one piece. MAK does it right!!
One thing to add: if you get the optional full grate assembly, it will fit and become your main cooking grate if you so wish (thanks Cliff for the tip)
So here are two set-ups when you are ready to cook on your MAK
Indirect cooking/Smoking
High heat cooking...hot and fast. You simply remove the two Flame Zone Covers.
Well there you have it. When unpacking everything, I was confused. "Look at this stuff, what do I do with it?" It just fell into place.
Now I showed your two set ups. One for indirect. One for direct/high heat.
However, there are so many more combinations I will show later in the review.
Ya want a teaser?? Sure you do!! Remove one Flame Zone cover and you can high heat grill on one half of the grill and have the other half for indirect. Smoke some beans while grilling chicken wings on the other half.
don't worry, The Smoke has it figured out. This review is going to be a long one and I will try to show the many combinations of this brilliant all in on one cooking machine.
See everyone soon with some more standard features later.
