Frontier Lump at BJ's Wholesale Club. $19.99 for 34 lbs.

Cookinbob

Walked in to BJ's yesterday, they had a full pallet of Frontier lump in 34 lb bags for $19.95.  Naked Whiz rates it pretty good but says it has a lot of what he considers "small" lumps about golf ball size.  That would be an improvement over the bag of BGE lump I am working through right now.

Label was slightly different than on the site but it appears to be American (as opposed to Argentine).  I was tempted to buy, but do not need charcoal right now, and I figure it will still be there when I am in need.  Has anybody tried it?

SmyrnaGA

Yes.  I bought a few bags (Made in the USA) when they had the sale for 16.99 (ended June 26).  It's only the 3rd bag of lump charcoal I ever used, so by no means am I an expert.  My other 2 bags were BGE with lots of dust and ping pong ball sized pieces (I did abused it a little since I didn't realize how fragile charcoal were).  2nd bag were Cowboy which had a few huge pieces the size of footballs and lots of pieces the size of Large eggs.  Frontier were the best in terms of size to me.  1/2 the bag were size of soft balls.  The remaining pieces were the size of racquetballs. I think I got lucky with the Frontier since they were virgin bags (untouched by another person but me!).

I can't speak for burn time nor ash production since I'm still learning how to control my vents.  None of them so far let me do pizza above 450 (indirect with pedals open and daisy wheel closed).

In terms of smell, I can't tell the different either.  But, my significant other (whom has a much stronger sense of smell than me) said she like the smell of BGE and not so much of Cowboy & Frontier.

There is another review from the Naked Whiz for the USA brand here->http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpdatabase/lumpbag95.htm.

tactical_66

I use Frontier almost exclusively due to the price.  It works very well for me and I have been happy with the results.  Most bags I have gotten have been very good only one to date has had a lot of smaller pieces.  Even with the small pieces I start the fire and have never had any problems.  I bought a bag of Restaurant Quality from a place in PA that comes in a Blue Bag.  $25.00 a bag and the absolute worst I have ever used.  Covered every cook in ash.