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Types of charcoal

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SheaPressley
SheaPressley Posts: 7
edited June 2012 in EggHead Forum
Has anybody tried charcoal other than hard lump? Costco sells competition brikets from kingford I've been tempted to try them. Does that type of charcoal work well or should I just stick with hard lump? Thanks for any input.
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  • tnbarbq
    tnbarbq Posts: 248
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    Traditional charcoal, Kingsford, produce a tremendous amount of ash, which has a big impact on how the egg cooks.  Stick with the lump.
    Scooter 
    Mid TN. Hangin' in the 'Boro. MIM Judge
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  • SheaPressley
    SheaPressley Posts: 7
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    Thanks for the advice
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,961
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    Lump will give you the best results over briquettes every time. Costco also has good hardwood lump at most locations (The original Charcoal Co). It's about $17 for 35 lb bags and it's pretty good.

    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • NibbleMeThis
    NibbleMeThis Posts: 2,295
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    I tried the Competition and other "pure lump" briquettes in my Egg.   Less ash than standard briquettes but definitely way more than lump.  I also had a harder time keeping the temps down for low/slow than lump.  I wouldn't recommend any briquettes for the Egg.

    Ironically, I don't like how lump burns in my non-Egg grills so they only get briquettes.  
    Knoxville, TN
    Nibble Me This
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  • FxLynch
    FxLynch Posts: 433
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    I tried the Competition and other "pure lump" briquettes in my Egg.   Less ash than standard briquettes but definitely way more than lump.  I also had a harder time keeping the temps down for low/slow than lump.  I wouldn't recommend any briquettes for the Egg.

    Ironically, I don't like how lump burns in my non-Egg grills so they only get briquettes.  
    I agree with this, I decided to try some left over cowboy lump on my Weber kettle and didn't like it at all.  Temperature was impossible to regulate, it was just burning at full temp.  Probably due to air leaks.
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  • gdenby
    gdenby Posts: 6,239
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    Besides making enough ash to stop air flow during long cooks, there is another problem w. hardwood briquettes. I've bought a few bags from different vendors a couple times. One bag, from Wicked Good, got pushed over into a corner. It sat there for at least a year. I came across it, and decided to use it for a fast hot cook. Unfortunately, during the time it sat in the garage, the starch binder lost some if its strength. I got it going, brought the dome to about 350, and put on some burgers. When I went back to flip the burgers, they were covered with fine white ash. After shutting down, the remaining briquettes pretty much turned to charcoal dust and ash when I tried scooping them out.
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  • Adamd
    Adamd Posts: 160
    edited June 2012
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    I also tried the Kingsford competition and I agree with the above posters. I really liked how it burned because it did burn hot, however because of the large amount of ash created it clogged up all the vent holes and really was not good to use for low and slow cooks because of it. Lump really is the only way to go.
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