Lump Charcoal - Interesting Find

[Marknmd]

Here is a list of lump ratings from readers of the site, rather than from those who run the site:

The Lump Charcoal Database Rankings-- Naked Whiz Charcoal Ceramic Cooking

Readers rate many brands of lump charcoal.

www.nakedwhiz.com

The site states: We suggest that you vote after every bag of lump that you use. If a brand's quality is going up or down, this should eventually be reflected in their ratings.

The Naked Whiz's Ceramic Charcoal Cooker Page

www.nakedwhiz.com

If you go through and read the comments from readers, each comment is dated. For example, a fairly recent comment on Royal Oak Lump Charcoal: Quality has fallen WAY off over the past year. Mostly chips and dust now. (07/14/22)

and

Royal Oak was good but now awful. Last six bags had rocks, 65% very small pieces, and 5% very large pieces. Cheap but useless. (03/15/22)

 

[Coreymacc]

IMO wood is wood. Just cut differently. As long as there is no chemicals on it. I actually would hate to see all that good wood get wasted because it can't be used for charcoal.

The metal band on the other hand. No excuses for that. Their magnets sure didn't do the job on that one.

Corey

 

[bill1]

My concern with discarded building products would be with the paint/finishes that were on them at one time, and if "engineered wood products", the epoxies, binders, and glues that were included with the wood. The charring process gets rid of most of the volatile organics that will be released but I doubt all...the remainder are potentially sticking to your food. Most fires build with old building materials don't smell good.

Bottom line, pour out your lumps and inspect them before putting in your cooker. If the half-price stuff means you're throwing out 10% of it, you're still money ahead. And even the top-shelf ("cost is no object") stuff is likely to occasionally have something your don't want so I'd recommend "filtering" it as well.

 

[Coreymacc]

I really hope they wouldn't use discarded building wood. I would think its off cuts from the saw mill when they make the products.

However, i will now inspect as i load my chimney for sure.

Corey

 

[ddow229]

My son worked at a Royal Oak plant loading and unloading the kilns for a while. He said they would use just about any non treated wood. They would get rejected trees and ends from sawmills, full length tress, basically anything that couldn't be used for other things.

 

[noboundaries]

I was a RO fan for a good while. It appears something changed during the shutdown, and it apparently hasn't improved. I stopped using their lump a while ago, and I'm not hearing anything good about their briquettes. Too bad. So sad. When my 124 lbs of pre-pandemic RO briquette stock is gone, I'll hunt something new.

 

[bill1]

Everything changes Ray. Be thankful you're observant enough to see it and smart enough to adapt.