Exaco KOTA Grillhouse/ Hunter’s Cabin – 250 sq ft XL

Location: For grill cabin to function properly it is very important to choose the right location. To ensure effective fume and smoke extraction, it is recommended to locate the grill house in open area, above the sea level.

Foundation: Make sure to prepare good foundation for the grill house. Terrace, cement base, tiles, stones serves well for this purpose. Good foundation ensures stability and durability of the grill cabin. Prepare the base of at least 5 cm height and make sure that there are sufficient air apertures under the cabin floor for ventilation. It is recommended, to have foundation prepared by specialist or at least consulted with ones.

Cabin maintenance: Pine wood for its physical characteristics is an ideal raw material for the construction – it is strong and is easy to recycle. It maintains good thermal insulation, prevents condensation and thus creates a healthy indoor climate. However, in order to preserve the beauty and functionality of the cabin, it is necessary to properly look after the timber. On-going maintenance of the wooden grill cabin is essential in order to ensure a long service life.

Maintaining your cabin externally not only preserves its life-span, but also keeps it looking good. Changing weather conditions may change its appearance. Large and small cracks, color tone changes, as well as altering structure of the wood is a result of a natural cause.

Unprotected wood has a lot of enemies and one of them is sunlight. UV rays destroy lignin – an important component of the timber. Wood surface starts yellowing, becomes grayish, cracks and finally peels off. Other wood enemy is moisture. Moisture and temperature fluctuations result in the formation of cracks. The wood may become grayish or it may be obsessed by depleting wood mushrooms. Depleting wood fungi and insects may affect and disrupt important structural part of a wooden house.

In order to ensure long service life of a cabin, it is necessary immediately to process it with wood impregnations. Professionally selected suitable coatings reduce the swelling and shrinkage of the wood. Cabin must be re-painted or re- stained according to manufacturer’s instructions of used impregnation agent’s. Nevertheless, we recommend inspecting the grill cabin at least once a year.

BBQ grill usage: NB! Be very careful while grilling and making fire indoors or in shelters and cabins!
1. In order to assure the safety the grill should be fixed to the floor.
2. When using your grill for the first time, the surfaces of the new product that are in direct contact with the flames may create smoky smell while warming-up, because the paint is drying finally. We advise to keep the door open during the first usage and not to cook until the smell has cleared.
3. The paint used Thermal 400 bears dry heat up to +400 degrees centigrade. The final drying proceeds at the temperature +230 degrees. The paint does not consist of unhealthy compounds and no chemicals hazardous to health are released during heating. Some splitting and burning of the paint is normal, because in the long run the paint does not bear the heat of the flames.
4. When using the grill avoid direct contact with the steel parts of the grill, because there are the risks to burn your hands or other parts of your body. The parts of the grill may have sharp edges, therefore be customarily careful.
5. To start the fireplace put a couple of small, dry birch logs on the fire grate. To get good ember we advise to add some charcoal as well. We suggest using natural materials, starter cubes or a little lighter fluid for lighting the fire. To make it easier and to ensure that the grill is getting enough replacement air, open the damper and, it is advisable, to keep the door open as well. In case the hood gets warmer the draught will be better and then the bigger logs can be added.
6. In order to achieve optimal ember, regulate the ventilation with opening and closing the damper. Choose a non- sparking wood type; avoid using spruce or aspen and wood covered with bark. We advise to use logs with max length 300 mm.
7. Once the embers reach the optimum cooking temperature, you can close the damper a bit. Now the embers will burn slowly over a longer period of time.
8. Sufficient fresh airflow is most essential aspect of smoke exhaustion. At least as much fresh air should come in as goes out with the smoke. If the grill is smoking open the door of the cottage and make sure that the wood is dry or not bark covered. Provide additional dry wood if needed.
9. Remove coals and ashes from the fireplace after they have cooled down.