Vision Grills Quick Change Gas Insert for S-Series Kamado Grill-VGK-GPAK-S1

The first to review ... that is a lot of pressure.First, know which Vision grill you've purchased. There is another Vision propane insert on Amazon for as I understand it, newer version of the Vision S series grills. My particular Vision S-series is quite old, about 5 years old now originally purchased at home dept. Take a good look at the shape of your ash drawer and compare it to the picture. If yours is square like mine, this is the insert you're looking for.Everything arrived on time and unbroken. Box was slightly beat up but who cares as long as the contents are fine which they were. If you research these inserts you'll find that some folks have to shave off a tiny bit of ceramic to get the fit right, I did NOT have to do this. Slipped right in perfectly. Total install time was less than 5 minutes.First test run was a miserable failure, cause I forgot how propane works and had the bottle on it's side. This caused the regulator to freeze up. Not the products fault, my fault. Make sure your propane tank is sitting upright.After waiting a few minutes with the hose and regulator in the sun I fired it up again and this time it worked perfectly.With the burner set to high: (Thermoworks Smok monitoring temp, air temp probe placed as close to dead center of the grill as I could eye ball)450 degrees was reached in 8 minutes 20 seconds.500 degrees was reached in just over 13 minutes.550 degrees was reached in just over 20 minutes.My Smoke probes from thermo works top out at 550 so not really sure how much hotter it can go but 650 should be doable. you'll be waiting at least 30m though I'd imagine. Use charcoal if you need the high temps as you can get up to those high temps faster. Get an inexpensive hair dryer, use that to force the temp up and you can get charcoal super hot real quick. Just remember, with kamado grills if you over shoot your temp it takes a bit of time and technique to get the temp back down. For searing steak though you just want it hot fast and a hair dryer really helps here.To me this insert really is for burgers, dogs, and andything you want done fast with no fuss and don't require much more than 450 degrees for - which is exactly why I bought this. Hitting 450 under 10 minutes is great as far as I'm concerned. I have a Zgrill pellet grill (love it) for other things and I just don't have time to play with charcoal/wood in this Vision kamado anymore. I've done everything in this Vision using char/wood and the results were fantastic but I just can't baby sit a grill anymore like I used to be able to. That said, I will be getting a pellet smoker tube and at some point will likely do something low n slow on propane while also having the pellet smoker going. The second driving reason for this is I like cooking outside. In SoCal during the summer cooking inside just increases your AC bill. Now with the Pellet grill and my now Propane Vision I have flexibility being able to cook multiple things at once and keeping all the heat outside.I'll update this review as I use it more. Hopefully it lasts awhile and hope the review helps others.*update* the electric start function has failed. Not sure if it is fixable. It works after the fire is lit for some reason but when cold the starter no longer works. I just remove the grate, lava stone, and the deflector and start it with a lighter now

The insert didn’t fit as described. Finally got it to go in, but it was VERY difficult!!!! I still don’t think it’s correct, but to late to send it back. Going to have see if maybe I can modify the insert ??

The non-stainless steel part of the insert where the flame arises rusted out and was useless. Unit was stored inside without exposure to water or high humidity. Cheap, thin, poor quality steel at a cost of $270. for B-SERIES. Very dissatisfied with product. Contacted Visions about poor quality who never responded