Kingsford Briquettes vs. Royal Oak Ridge Briquettes: Burn Temperature, Time, and Ash Comparison

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As others speculated they would, it appears that lowes has extended the sale for the RO charcoal through 6/5:


I will be stopping back by tonight to grab some more that price is just too good to let slip by.
 
 
Thanks for the review! I was about to go pick several bags of Kingsford on my way home this afternoon, but now I will try the Royal Oak Ridge instead! Point for you!  
Crimsontiden74, thanks for the point from a VandyCommodoren77!  Ah, the old legendary Bear Bryant days. 

Enjoy the RO Ridge! 
 
 
Crimsontiden74, thanks for the point from a VandyCommodoren77!  Ah, the old legendary Bear Bryant days. 

Enjoy the RO Ridge! 
I have very vague memories of the Bear, I was only 7 yrs old when he passed.  But the man is a legend in college football!  I now live outside of Memphis, TN in the country and being a Bama fan in TN will make you be an honorary Vandy fan for sure! (Vols fans are hard to deal with around here) I always pull for Vandy when they play anyone other than Bama. 
 
At the Lowe's by me they said the 6 per customer is a suggested limit. So I bought 20 bags! 
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Just fired up the WSM with a half load of used charcoal (KBB and RO lump), chunks of hickory, half load of cold RO Ridge, few more chunks of hickory, and 1/3 chimney of hot RO Ridge.  Out of my 6+ decades of life, I've got a lot of muscle memory hauling KBB around the garage, yard, BBQ, and smoker.  As soon as I picked up a full charcoal bucket with the RO Ridge in it, everything felt like old school KBB, pre-2006.  It even fired up like the old stuff.  I'm letting the temp controller bring it up to temp.  Sniffing the white smoke, all I can smell is hickory wood, not the charcoal. 

Smoking 6 lbs of "pork riblets" in a roasting pan this afternoon.  Turns out pork riblets are the trimmings from cutting down a full rack of spares.  Not boneless like I thought, but that's okay.  I love those meatier rib tips, YUM!  Plus, they are perfect for adding to smoked baked beans, which are on the menu this weekend.    

Now, to convince my wife I need to go buy another 20 bags of RO Ridge.  Won't happen, but I'll give it a shot. 

 
 
Just fired up the WSM with a half load of used charcoal (KBB and RO lump), chunks of hickory, half load of cold RO Ridge, few more chunks of hickory, and 1/3 chimney of hot RO Ridge.  Out of my 6+ decades of life, I've got a lot of muscle memory hauling KBB around the garage, yard, BBQ, and smoker.  As soon as I picked up a full charcoal bucket with the RO Ridge in it, everything felt like old school KBB, pre-2006.  It even fired up like the old stuff.  I'm letting the temp controller bring it up to temp.  Sniffing the white smoke, all I can smell is hickory wood, not the charcoal. 

Smoking 6 lbs of "pork riblets" in a roasting pan this afternoon.  Turns out pork riblets are the trimmings from cutting down a full rack of spares.  Not boneless like I thought, but that's okay.  I love those meatier rib tips, YUM!  Plus, they are perfect for adding to smoked baked beans, which are on the menu this weekend.    

Now, to convince my wife I need to go buy another 20 bags of RO Ridge.  Won't happen, but I'll give it a shot. 
In my previous post I had said that I didn't think my wife would be happy with the 20 bag purchase I made yesterday.  I could not have been more wrong.  When she found out what I paid for them, she wanted to know why I didn't get more! Ha, go figure.  I guess since she has been doing most of the grilling for dinner during the week lately, because with my new job I get home too late to grill during the week, she now realizes how much charcoal we go through.  Oh darn, guess I'll have to get more this weekend! :) Thanks again for putting in the work to test! Have a wonderfully smokey Memorial Day weekend!
 
I love this RO Ridge!  A relatively short smoke today.  From fire up to vent closure was only 7.25 hours.  I set a temp of 250F for 5 hours, wrapped the riblets, then cranked the temp controller up to 325F for the last hour and a half of smoke.  When I opened the WSM door to look at the coals just before vent closure, all I could see were glowing, full sized coals.  No bed of ash.  Will look at in the morning to see what's there for next time.  
 
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This is sort of partially related to the discussion here, but I am at a Competition as I'm typing, and picked up a few bags of the Kingsford Professional (formerly called "Competition") and man am I unhappy with the stuff!
I was told it burned hotter and linger than any other Kingsford, and I know lots of teams use it, but I'm only 5 hours in and the ash over was so bad I almost entirely lost my fire. Got down below 200 by the time I noticed.
Had to spent 15 precious minutes with the meat in the cold air trying to get the briquettes left to come back to life.
Even beside the ash over a full basket of charcoal down to the amount remaining is pretty bad too. After just 5 hours at 235 I'm down to I py dregs.
I know my minion method isn't spot on, but I've used 3-4 different types of briquettes and made it at least 10 hours per cook with no issue.
 
This is sort of partially related to the discussion here, but I am at a Competition as I'm typing, and picked up a few bags of the Kingsford Professional (formerly called "Competition") and man am I unhappy with the stuff!
I was told it burned hotter and linger than any other Kingsford, and I know lots of teams use it, but I'm only 5 hours in and the ash over was so bad I almost entirely lost my fire. Got down below 200 by the time I noticed.
Had to spent 15 precious minutes with the meat in the cold air trying to get the briquettes left to come back to life.
Even beside the ash over a full basket of charcoal down to the amount remaining is pretty bad too. After just 5 hours at 235 I'm down to I py dregs.
I know my minion method isn't spot on, but I've used 3-4 different types of briquettes and made it at least 10 hours per cook with no issue.
Oh T, that's the WORST!  Sorry to hear that is happening to you. You'll adjust nicely though.  Wishing you good luck at the comp!

Like I mentioned above, I had a relatively short smoke yesterday.  In my WSM I dumped 1/3rd chimney of the hot Royal Oak Ridge on a half load used KBB/RO Lump, half load of RO Ridge, and wood chunks.  Time from dump to vent closure was 7.25 hours.  Here's what my charcoal basket looks like this morning.  That's after warm-up, then running my WSM for 250F for 5 hours, then 325F for an hour and a half.  After seeing the charcoal basket, experience tells me this RO Ridge is going to have a LONG burn time.  In excess of 20 hours on a full load at 225-250.   

Convinced my wife I need 10 more bags at $4 a bag.  She bought into it pretty quick actually. 

 
After the fluctuating would not stop, i puled the meat out, put it into my other smoker (which wasn't on) and shook off the charcoal real well. scooted the remaining to one side, and instead of replenishing with the Kingsford comp stuff i used the Red Oak briquettes. Literally from that moment on the smoker held its perfect temp for the next 6 hours, i only say it deviate from the temp by 1 degree a couple of times. 

Likewise, i loaded my second smoker with the Red Oak briquettes to get my ribs started, and again they performed PERFECTLY for the entire 6 hour cook, AND once i shut it down and eventually pulled the basket there was very little ash build up, and i kid you not it looked like a brand new full basket after a 6 hour cook! 

100% i am converted to Red Oak, and i will be using this stuff exclusively from now on. As i mentioned, i also have some of the "Embers" branding f rom Home Depot, and ill use some and let you know if it is in fact the same exact stuff. 

This was in a competition environment and even the Competition Kingsford let me down, but the couple of "just in case" bags of Red Oak literally saved the cook. FYI, this was my first ever competition of any level, and this was a pro comp, and i took 4th in ribs and 3rd in Brisket! (thanks to the RO)
 
I am doing a brisket in my uds tonight with the RO. Loving it so far. Super rock steady​ temps. Only bout 3 hours in so far. I will be going back and stocking up.
 
Thanks for this post Ray, I too have been a KBB fan for years. I knew something wasn't right with these, but was really my only option other than a brand called Frontier... Which in my opinion is even worse than KBB. My local Lowes had not been carrying any RO briquettes. Well, I called this morning & they said they do have them now. I might be returning at least half the KBB I just got the other day to go get some RO. I appreciate your time in testing &'posting this. Point!
 
Thanks for this post Ray, I too have been a KBB fan for years. I knew something wasn't right with these, but was really my only option other than a brand called Frontier... Which in my opinion is even worse than KBB. My local Lowes had not been carrying any RO briquettes. Well, I called this morning & they said they do have them now. I might be returning at least half the KBB I just got the other day to go get some RO. I appreciate your time in testing &'posting this. Point!
You are very welcome, Justin, and thanks for the point! 

The first time I went to Lowes to get some RO Ridge, the floor rep told me it was new for them to carry the RO Ridge.  The Kingsford was prominently displayed, and on my subsequent two visits the RO Ridge was kind of buried in another section.  Meant I could find some for me, but it wasn't really in a place to sell a lot.  I know vendor reps give incentives for store placement, and the RO Ridge is not as well known, so that could explain the placement.  Hopefully that will change with time and recommendations from us experienced guys.   
 
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