It's that time of year just before Memorial Day when "bulk" charcoal goes on and off sale, with deep discounts, up to 50%. July 4th will be the next opportunity, then Labor Day. After Labor Day you can often find "clearance" sales that are unbelievable as stores empty their summer stock to make room for Christmas, etc. I once picked up 20 lb bags of Lazzari Mesquite Lump charcoal for something like $3.30 a bag. I bought all they had.
But I digress. I've noticed that the recent reformulation of Kingsford Original has cut into my long smoke time by quite a bit, dropping from 18-20, sometimes 22 hours, down to 14-16, maybe 18 hours. When I open my
WSM to add fuel, it looks like a huge ash pillow with a few little red, glowing eyes looking up at you from the pillow.
I still have 120 lbs of the pre-formulation KBB remaining, having used up a few hundred pounds of the new stuff. As I restock during these sales, I felt it might be time for a change.
Lowes has Royal Oak "Ridge" briquettes on sale through
6/14/17 (edit) for $4.00 for a 15.4 lb bag, or 26 cents a pound. But I wanted to know how it compared to the Kingsford. Being the engineer (by education) that I am, time for a test. Below are the results.
Conclusion: The new Kingsford Original is worse than what I tested below. The Royal Oak Ridge, though it produced the exact same amount of ash as the old Kingsford formula, held temps longer and WAY outlasted the KBB. Even the ash held onto heat significantly longer than the KBB. I have pics of the entire process, including how the briquettes slowly disappeared. Right now I have to go buy some more Royal Oak Ridge Charcoal.
Although I haven't smoked with it yet, I will this weekend.
Kingsford Briquettes vs. Royal Oak Ridge Briquettes: Burn Temperature, Time, and Ash Comparison
24 Kingsford Briquettes @ .8 oz each = 19.2 oz.
24 Royal Oak Ridge Briquettes @ 1.0 oz each = 24 oz.
Picture of 24 briquettes in a 4 cup measuring cup:
Kingsford:
Royal Oak Ridge:
Plan:
Test Kingsford first, complete test, then repeat test with Royal Oak Ridge.
Remove cooking grate from Weber Kettle, put clean pizza pan on charcoal grate, then replace cooking grate.
Load 24 briquettes in a chimney starter, ignite for 2 minutes on propane side burner on gas grill, then put chimney on the cooking grate over the pizza pan.
Wait 15 minutes, then take picture of inside of chimney.Use infrared thermometer to find hottest spot in chimney.Record results.
Repeat picture and thermometer reading every 10 minutes until all charcoal has fallen through to the pizza pan, nothing but ash remains, and the temperature of the ash is less than 100F.
Measure volume of ash.
Start of test: 7 AM PDT. 60F.Light wind.Shade.
End of both tests:11:35 AM PDT.74F.Light wind.Shade.
Time (minutes) Kingsford Temp Royal Oak “Ridge” Temp
15 978F 977F
25 977F 977F
35 863F 977F
45 713F 978F
55 601F 949F
65 473F 681F
75 243F 728F
85 157F 667F
95 201F 466F
105 88F (1 hr 45 mins) 343F
115 NA 232F
125 NA 243F
135 NA 189F
145 NA 131F
155 NA 82F (2 hrs 35 mins) (148% of KBB older formula)
Kingsford Ash:
Royal Oak Ridge Ash: