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Royal Oak Lump Review - Not Feeling It
Comments
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Most of the time, RO works just fine for me.However, the 2nd load from a bag I bought was terrible. Small pieces, dusty, etc but that is not the worst of it. After lighting, It smoked me and my neighbors out. The thick white smoke went on for like an hour or more. I probably won't be buying again for a while. The price went up and there is better stuff for a comparable price.
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That white smoke may have been plastic or some other foreign object.Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN
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Yeah but a cook needs good tools not cow patties to cook with.Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN
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FWIW, I have never seen a piece of plastic or anything that might burn other then charcoal in RO. Rocks, maybe but plastic? Never, and I have been through hundreds, no thousands of pounds of RO. I have found a couple pieces of insulation which I was not found of though.
I am only stating this because RO has been my go to charcoal for the last 7 or 8 years since I got my first egg and RO is the only real choice readably available in my area. I burn in the range of 400 to 500 lbs a year. I've gone in on two pallets of WG in that time and used my share of BGE brand with a few other minor purchases in between.
RO has gone down hill in quality lately and I hope they pick up on the quality because like I said, it is the most readably charcoal in my area.
I wish I had more choices.
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Joe, where are you located?Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN
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I am in the arm pit some people call South Jersey.
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Damn...I've got family in jersey. .Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN
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When you come visit them maybe you could do a charcoal run for the deprived eggers in this area.
Yea, that sounds like a great idea!
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Can't say I've ever found plastic either. I have however found paper, rocks, insulation, and metal bands in both RO and Natural Glo. This is why I hand place my charcoal in every time instead of just dumping. Also part of the reason I stopped using those brands and just bit the bullet and started ordering RW and OO online.Large and Small BGECentral, IL
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I have used a lot of RO over the past year as well. I got in a pallet buy of some Rockwood and used several bags of that. Went back to a bag of RO and I noticed that it sounds like rubber when you dump it in the egg. More of a "thud" than the "plink" of Rockwood. In my experience, the RO does smoke a lot more and impart more smoke taste but the RW gets hot quite a bit faster and burns cleaner. I have had some pretty small pieces in some of the RW but overall, I've been pretty happy with it.I wonder if RO has started to rush the process a bit now that they are supplying Home Depot with tons of lump? Maybe it's a huge increase in production volume thus causing them to shorten their production cycle. It seems like the quality of RO that I've had recently has been a little lower than before. Either that or I'm paying more attention now. I've had some very long burns with RO and RW and they both seem to do the job.L x2, M, S, Mini and a Blackstone 36. She says I have enough now....eggAddict from MN!
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I have been using Royal Oak now for about 10 months prior to I was using BGE brand lump thats all I have used but from my experience the Royal Oak works fine for all cooks low & slow or hi temp cooks it lights quickly burns hot and long2 Large Eggs and a Mini 2 Pit Bulls and a Pork shoulder or butt nearby and 100% SICILIANLong Island N.Y.
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Agree it burns fast, had to reload a brisket cook after 9hrs or so, it should have been fine.Seattle, WA
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I'm in the don't have any other choice camp also. I dislike RO. Maybe I got a bad batch, but I loaded up when it was $10 for 17.7 lb bag. Every bag I get into it seems longer for VOC's to burn off. Yesterday was over an hour. I'm usually never in a hurry, but that's ridiculous. I've convinced myself to make a few hour road trip just to stock up on lump when I run low on RO.
Hey @HungryJoe, do you ever get close to West Chester PA. That's where Firecraft has a warehouse. I think it was @Hapster who said they'd let you pick up there.
Damascus, VA. Friendliest town on the Appalachian Trail.
LBGE Aug 2012, SBGE Feb 2014
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SWVABeanCounter said:
I'm in the don't have any other choice camp also. I dislike RO. Maybe I got a bad batch, but I loaded up when it was $10 for 17.7 lb bag. Every bag I get into it seems longer for VOC's to burn off. Yesterday was over an hour. I'm usually never in a hurry, but that's ridiculous. I've convinced myself to make a few hour road trip just to stock up on lump when I run low on RO.
Hey @HungryJoe, do you ever get close to West Chester PA. That's where Firecraft has a warehouse. I think it was @Hapster who said they'd let you pick up there.
I was going to make the trip to Firecraft but after talking to them the price was the same, $100 for five bags picked up or delivered free, I opted to have it shipped. I think it would have been a hour trip in each direction. If I could have got some kind of discount I would have drive out there and most likely would have bought up to 30 bags. Plus they told me they charge tax which I didn't have to pay having it shipped. Here in NJ charcoal is not taxed as far as I know.
I don't plan on having charcoal shipped like that again unless I start hearing from people who had better experiences.
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I am not knocking anyone's lump choice, but opinions on what lump is better than the other is like every opinion...everyone has one..here is the SuperBowl cook i completed on the Egg using R Oak....Outside temp was in the low 30's the whole time, but I filled up the egg...used half a chimney to start the coals, and spread the hot coals through out the egg.First 16 hours, 225...then 4 of hours at 275, then a couple of hours at 300.The lump lasted 23 hours, while keeping the egg up to temp in ambient temps of low 30s. It could not have lasted another hour...it was gone!The air temp is a factor in how fast the lump has to burn to keep a temp. I use a CyberQ, so that thing pumps in cold air when the lump needs it. And that lump has to warm up that air to keep the dome up to temp. I think in the summer I would not have any problem keeping the egg up to temp for 30 hours.Also, when it comes to the VOC's...I think some people are having long wait times due to the way they light their lump. If you put in a cube and light one or two spots, it will take a long time for all the lump to get to temp where the VOC's burn off. Sure the dome temp is 350, but that is air (not dense) being heated. A dense material (lump) takes time to get up to that temp...and if you have a small initial fire, that process will obviously take a long time.
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saluki2007 said:Can't say I've ever found plastic either. I have however found paper, rocks, insulation, and metal bands in both RO and Natural Glo. This is why I hand place my charcoal in every time instead of just dumping. Also part of the reason I stopped using those brands and just bit the bullet and started ordering RW and OO online.
Give them a pass on the rocks.......those are unavoidable. You will find them in our charcoal as well. Char dust covered rocks look too much like charcoal during the bagging process.
The metal banding will show up once in a while as well. That's what binds the slabs together when they are trucked from the mill to the charcoal plant. After 6 months outside, and then 5 days in the kiln they break and usually come out a few long strips--but sometimes they crack in a lot more places. You will occasionally find that in ours as well.
Same goes for anything that's lodged inside of a tree, and thus inside of the charcoal--bullets, arrowheads, nails, barbed wire, coins, and more.......you'll find all kind of stuff.
Paper, cans, insulation, concrete, etc is another story though.
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Im getting a little tired of spending over $35.00 fo ra bag of lump up here, I think I can get RO from Lowes here or half bags at Canadian Tire for a lot cheaper than what I am paying for the current lump i am buying. However, the RO is a blue bag, I dont see any reviews on this one, or do I know the origin of this type? Has anyone used this RO before? I'll make a trip soon and see if I cant pick up a bag or two to try anyways.County of Parkland, Alberta, Canada
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Hungry Joe said: If I could have got some kind of discount I would have drive out there and most likely would have bought up to 30 bags. Plus they told me they charge tax which I didn't have to pay having it shipped. Here in NJ charcoal is not taxed as far as I know.
I don't plan on having charcoal shipped like that again unless I start hearing from people who had better experiences.
You might talk with them about preordering. I can call and talk with them if you want and see if we can figure something out. As much as you like charcoal, I would really like for you to have a better experience with our product.
On the tax, that's PA sales tax. If you pick it up in PA, they have to charge you for it. I have to do the same for MO customers that do not have resale certificates.
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TheShaytoon said:I am not knocking anyone's lump choice, but opinions on what lump is better than the other is like every opinion...everyone has one..here is the SuperBowl cook i completed on the Egg using R Oak....Outside temp was in the low 30's the whole time, but I filled up the egg...used half a chimney to start the coals, and spread the hot coals through out the egg.First 16 hours, 225...then 4 of hours at 275, then a couple of hours at 300.The lump lasted 23 hours, while keeping the egg up to temp in ambient temps of low 30s. It could not have lasted another hour...it was gone!The air temp is a factor in how fast the lump has to burn to keep a temp. I use a CyberQ, so that thing pumps in cold air when the lump needs it. And that lump has to warm up that air to keep the dome up to temp. I think in the summer I would not have any problem keeping the egg up to temp for 30 hours.Also, when it comes to the VOC's...I think some people are having long wait times due to the way they light their lump. If you put in a cube and light one or two spots, it will take a long time for all the lump to get to temp where the VOC's burn off. Sure the dome temp is 350, but that is air (not dense) being heated. A dense material (lump) takes time to get up to that temp...and if you have a small initial fire, that process will obviously take a long time.
Steve
Caledon, ON
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@littlesteven I think with the torch, you are creating a HOT environment in the pile of lump. That's why you don't have the VOC issues.Again, I was just saying that RO works pretty good, but you do have to play the other factors...
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Ditto on RO for me as well, Its fine for the short cooks but I use other brands for the long haul. We had burgers tonight and look what was in my bag of RO Lump (red bag). I did not find any feet or eyeballs, it looks like insulation or something. Glad I saw it!!!Atlanta, GA - LBGE -
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Been hitting up my stash of OO since I am out of RO. I can say that I notice it seems to burn a lot cleaner and has less of a smokey flavor. I will probably still use RO on some good steak cooks but everyone here has given me a lot to think about so I plan to bite the bullet on cost and go for the lump I like.Milton, GA.
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stlcharcoal said:Hungry Joe said: If I could have got some kind of discount I would have drive out there and most likely would have bought up to 30 bags. Plus they told me they charge tax which I didn't have to pay having it shipped. Here in NJ charcoal is not taxed as far as I know.
I don't plan on having charcoal shipped like that again unless I start hearing from people who had better experiences.
You might talk with them about preordering. I can call and talk with them if you want and see if we can figure something out. As much as you like charcoal, I would really like for you to have a better experience with our product.
On the tax, that's PA sales tax. If you pick it up in PA, they have to charge you for it. I have to do the same for MO customers that do not have resale certificates.
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I have switched over the last couple years to RO from BGE mostly because of price. I have done many long overnighters(15-18hrs) with no problem and I just pour it in. I wish I had easy access to some other brands but I'm happy, albeit maybe because I don't know what's out there. Hey, ignorance is bliss I guess.In Manchester, TNVol For Life!
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Ignorance can be bliss. I use the Central Market Mesquite lump. 20# for $12.50. Burns great. Food tastes great. In a pinch, B&B works well. Haven't had the chance to use the great stuff yet. Hope to soon.
XL BGE; Schertz TX by way of Stow OH. #egghead4life
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Used to get Wicked Good at my local ACE. As has been mentioned they no longer carrying it.Now they are carrying Kamado Joe 22lb bag for $22. Has anyone had any experience with this.Woody in Northville, MILarge BGE with AR R & B Oval Combo w/Extender and Sliding D Grid, Kick Ash Basket, Smokeware Cap, Wok, Grill Grates and Kettle Q
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Haven't had any trouble with Royal Oak yet. Order them off Amazon with free Prime shipping. Will continue to use it for now.Large - Mini - Blackstone 17", 28", 36"
Cumming, GA -
@woody my local ace carries kamado joe in lieu of WGWW as well. I have tried it and find it extremely comparable to WGWW - I haven't used WGWW in months and I really like KJ lump.
The picture below is a bag of KJ poured into my XL, I put my Sierra Nevada in the picture for reference.
Burns hot, lasts long, I love it. It's my go to lump. -
RO works fine for me, hot and fast, low and slow over 24 hours. I love the price and couldn't fathom spending twenty plus bucks per bag for lumpExtra Large, Large, and Mini. Tucker, GA
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