Adjust the Air Lift hinge

Make the dome lighter or heavier

The hinge and the bands are under high spring tension. The manual: never loosen the bands or take the hinge apart without the hinge disengagement kit fitted, because the hinge cannot be removed safely without it. Any change of dome, base or bands needs two people, gloves and safety glasses (the Classic II's 2025 manual; the Big Joe's dome is heavier still). Refit the base band first, front pin first, with a helper holding the hinge (Kamado Joe Europe).

The manual's "Big Joe Air Lift Hinge Adjustments" (p. 16 and 17), the one hinge job it gives the owner.

1. Open the dome, with the grill cold.
2. Put a 10 mm open spanner on the flats on the screw.
3. Put a 19 mm open spanner on the nut on top of the spring retainer.
4. Hold the 10 mm still and turn the 19 mm clockwise to make the dome easier to lift, anticlockwise to make it heavier.
5. Try the dome after every full turn.
6. Stop before the nut touches the connector.

The same page draws an "alternate hinge" with a different spring retainer, without saying which grills have it; the tool sizes are the same. Owners confirm the 19 mm (Kamadobjorn's Big Joe video).