Briquette/Lump or Just Wood to Start the Fire?

[Its_Raw]

I have seen a lot of articles and videos covering some aspects of this question, but what I cannot nail down is whether there is any advantage in starting an offset smoker fire with briquette/lump over wood in quality of the coal bed, cost (charcoal vs wood splits), and time invested. What has been your experience?

Thank you!

 

[Chasdev]

I vote briquettes to start, seasoned hard wood prices are through the roof around here but charcoal is fairly cheap, so why waste valuable splits just to create a coal base when charcoal will do it at a lower cost.

 

[SmokinAl]

I agree with the above, what ever is the cheapest alternative to start the fire is best. Plenty of guys on here have access to unlimited wood supplies, so they wouldn’t be starting with charcoal. But as Chas said wood splits around here are expensive.
Al

 

[JLeonard]

Will the offset I have coming, I've been watching a ton of YouTube on them also. And yep, you see it done both ways. I'm thinking I'll just go with lump to get things started then feed in splits. Mainly just to save the splits and Charcoal is cheap.

Jim

 

[1MoreFord]

It's easy to start charcoal, either briqs or lump in a chimney and add together with a pile of charcoal. Instant coal bed. Hard to do that with sticks even if you have a log starter. Then start feeding your logs.

 

[DonP]

Experimenting is part of the fun.

 

[jcam222]

I use briquettes or lump depending on what's cheaper. I fire up a small pile with my weedburner to jump start a nice coal bed.

 

[civilsmoker]

I use to use all wood but it takes patience that I don't have any more.....

So I start coals over a burner... simple and quick!

Then pour them over some more unlit coals once all fired up....it creates a very nice base coal bed! Then flavor wood..... This saves on wood volume which is harder to source for me.....

 

[radioguy]

I buy briquettes when they are on sale. I use about 3/4 of a chimney to get my RF started. A propane weed burner helps in the winter.

RG

 

[Chasdev]

Keep an eye peeled for Costco spring/early summer Kingsgford sales.
They have two large bags of Pro Competition briquettes for under $20!
It's a steal, I really love that stuff, it's so much better than B+B it ain't funny.

 

[DougE]

I mostly use a chimney full of lump to get a decent coal bed going before adding splits.

 

[pineywoods]

Since I either cut trees that need to come down at my place or get it free from someone wanting to get rid of it. So that being said I start my fire with wood splits and a weed burner.

 

[daniels]

I have seen a lot of articles and videos covering some aspects of this question, but what I cannot nail down is whether there is any advantage in starting an offset smoker fire with briquette/lump over wood in quality of the coal bed, cost (charcoal vs wood splits), and time invested. What has been your experience?

Thank you!

I use newspaper in a chimney starter to light some lump charcoal. Then I use the bed of lighted lump charcoal to light the splits. I suppose I could use briquettes instead of lump. IMHO, it doesn't make much of a difference so don't sweat it.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Only thing the side burner of our gas grill gets used for is lighting chimneys of charcoal... works great!
Only built one fire in our new smoker so I'm still learning!

Ryan

 

[Its_Raw]

Side burner on the gas grill - that's a good tip!

I will likely give the charcoal briquette or lump a try first as wood is easy to come by here, just pricey at times.