Black Diamond Charcoal - I bought it so you don't have to

Tjcoley · May 2016

Anybody ever hear of Black Diamond Charwood - Organic Hardwood Charcoal? I just picked up a box (Yeah, it comes in a box) at Wegman's. 0.66 Cu Ft for $12. According to the box, which measures 12"x11"x8", 0.66 Cu Ft is equal to 12 pounds of lump, or 18 pounds of Briquets. Reusable up to 5 times and using 0.24 Cu Ft per grilling, you can get up to 14 grillings per box, "saving $100's over your grilling season". Fully (94.6% carbonized, 6% moisture, consistent size up to 4 inches, only 3% ash production, which can be recycled into the garden when done. It has 75% more carbon than all that cheap crap everyone uses. This is truly "The Next Generation of Charcoal"!!!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/5d/4itepsfj16sp.jpg

Spaightlabs · May 2016

That is amazing. Oughta last the whole summer.

GATraveller · May 2016

And it can be yours for three easy payments of $12.99.......but wait there's more!

Mattman3969 · May 2016

Was it in the formed log like coconut lump?

XC242 · May 2016

Isn't all hardwood charcoal organic???

Ozzie_Isaac · May 2016

Wish I knew my RW could be reused 3 times! I thought once it turned fire the first time it was done.

DoubleEgger · May 2016

Looking for a good laugh @stlcharcoal ?

Mikee · May 2016

I wonder if the product you get is what they are saying? RW is supposedly 80% characoal; this claims to be 94.6%. Maybe that's why it comes in a box and not a bag.

stlcharcoal · May 2016

Mikee said:

I wonder if the product you get is what they are saying? RW is supposedly 80% characoal; this claims to be 94.6%. Maybe that's why it comes in a box and not a bag.

For about $200, you can have it sent off for carbon & BTU testing.

In the multiple tests that were performed on ours, it averages above 80% carbon and around 11000 BTU/pound. That was below 5% moisture. Ash content is different than the weight of the ash left behind, but I came up with about 4% (13 ounces in a 20# bag is what's left over.)

Ozzie_Isaac said:

Wish I knew my RW could be reused 3 times! I thought once it turned fire the first time it was done.

You can reuse it 1000x if your fires are short!

stlcharcoal · May 2016

Tjcoley said:

I just picked up a box (Yeah, it comes in a box) at Wegman's. 0.66 Cu Ft for $12. According to the box, which measures 12"x11"x8", 0.66 Cu Ft is equal to 12 pounds of lump, or 18 pounds of Briquets.

How much does that box weigh?? Just curious.

Tjcoley · May 2016

The box weighs 6.2 pounds. It apparently comes in larger sizes as well. This is the 'mini'.

Mikee · May 2016

stlcharcoal said:

Mikee said:

I wonder if the product you get is what they are saying? RW is supposedly 80% characoal; this claims to be 94.6%. Maybe that's why it comes in a box and not a bag.

For about $200, you can have it sent off for carbon & BTU testing.

I'm not going to spend the money to have it tested. For them to say to state 94.6% carbonization, that means each and every box meets that. One of the reasons for '100% Lump Charcoal' being in the 80% charcoal range is due to the brittleness as is approaches 100%. It cost more to produce it and then requires more protection to ship it.

In the mean time, I am happy paying 50+ cents a pound for other lump when on sale.

Tjcoley · May 2016

"Easy Pour Box" with Inner Bag to prevent moisture - as advertised.

"Consistent size, up to 4 inches" - picture is what came out of the bag first. Some pretty small pieces mixed in with the "consistent" size ones, but overall not bad at all. (That's a penny and a quarter for scale)

Very mild, with little to no smoke smell. The pieces are noticeably clean - there is hardly any dust covering them. This box has been turned and rotated every which way, giving every chance for dust to mix. We'll see what the bottom of the bag looks like, but so far looks pretty good.

So far it's holding up to the claims on the box. Is it going to burn hot and last longer than normal making it equal to twice as much lump? We'll see, but for now I feel like I paid a lot for a very small box of charcoal, admittedly nicely packaged to prevent any damage in shipping/handling. It will be very easy to stack and store, taking up less than half the space of 'regular' lump (mainly because there's less than half the amount as usual).

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/xr/3ihgnwy3a0he.jpg

johnmitchell · May 2016

Spaightlabs said:

That is amazing. Oughta last the whole summer.

Agreed... You might have more at the end of summer than when you started !!!

stlcharcoal · May 2016

What I find confusing here is what it comes down to.......BTU per pound, NOT how many pounds of fuel you use when you cook or are present in a certain volume. If that's a big deal to anyone, you should be using LP, natural gas, or gasoline as their BTU's per pound are much higher.

Dried US hardwood wood = 6000-7000 BTU/# @ bulk density of 30-60#/ft3
US Hardwood lump charcoal @ ~80% carbon = 11500 BTU/# @ bulk density of 16#/ft3
Coal = 12000-14000 BTU/#
Carbon = 14500 BTU/#

When you remove the cu-ft per pound calcs, it still comes down to how many BTU's are packed into 1# of charcoal. And it's never going to be HIGHER than carbon which is around 14500 BTU#. 80% carbon lump charcoal is about 11000-11500......so 11500/14500 = 79%. The math makes sense.

So if a 6.6# box can contain the same amount of BTU's as a 12# bag means it has to be 21000 BTU/#. That's 1.44x more BTU/# than pure carbon. That's not happening. So BTU's are not in their equation--and that's all that matters in the end.

lousubcap · May 2016

@stlcharcoal - thanks for that concise summary. That's all you need to know but as noted, shopping for lump by BTU is not out there.

stlcharcoal · May 2016

That might have been confusing in the previous post, so if it doesn't make sense......

Think about a piece of 8x11 paper. If you crumble it up, it doesn't change how many BTU's it contains, nor the weight. All it changes is volume it occupies because you increased the amount of air because you crumbled it up.

So if you pack a chimney starter full of flat paper, you could put a whole ream in there--lots of BTU's, very heavy, and would take a while to burn up. If you wad it up, you could only fit 20-25 pages in there--very few BTU's, super lightweight, and would burn up in seconds.

You cannot use the volume of one chimney starter as a constant. If you need to cook for X number of minutes at X number degrees, you MUST do it by BTU. Volume and weight ratios mean absolutely nothing.

The only time that these weight-volume rations matter is when you have a very small firebox and are trying to cook for a long time. In that case, an all-charcoal briquette will contain nearly the same BTU/# as lump, but will have a much higher bulk density BTU/ft3 (because all the air is pressed out of it.) Unfortunately, most "charcoal" briquettes do not contain as much charcoal as you would think.....thus the BTU/# is very low compared to lump for the same volume which = exponentially more ash.

lousubcap · May 2016

Now I'm confused

yljkt · May 2016

14 cooks out of whats in that box?

YukonRon · May 2016

Rockwood.
Good talk.
Next?

Jstroke · May 2016

YukonRon said:

Rockwood.
Good talk.
Next?

LMAO-----agreed.

Mikee · May 2016

stlcharcoal said:

What I find confusing here is what it comes down to.......BTU per pound,

That is true. But you omitted the cost per BTU. The cost to cook really is a measure of the cost per BTU. Rockwood may stack up against this well. But when you stack RW against comparable 80% carbonized lump at 1/2 the price, who do you feel is the winner at the cost per BTU?

jtcBoynton · May 2016

Do you have a list of "comparable 80% carbonized lump at 1/2 the price"? I would like to know which ones are available.

stlcharcoal · May 2016

Mikee said:

stlcharcoal said:

What I find confusing here is what it comes down to.......BTU per pound,

That is true. But you omitted the cost per BTU. The cost to cook really is a measure of the cost per BTU. Rockwood may stack up against this well. But when you stack RW against comparable 80% carbonized lump at 1/2 the price, who do you feel is the winner at the cost per BTU?

Show me the lab reports of other 80% carbonized lump with a moisture content below 5%. Have you done the testing? No. You're eyeballing it and have no idea. I know what our product CONSISTANTLY is because thousands of dollars is spent every year testing it.

We do not compete based off price.....we compete off consistency and performance (just like any other "craft / artisan" small batch product.) It's obvisously working as we have happy customers, growing sales, held #1 on TNW for over 3 yrs now, etc. We're a fraction of 1% of the size of the company you're a cheerleader for. Give them a call and let them know that you're trying to steer customers away from my niche product every chance you get--maybe they'll send you a t-shirt for your valiant efforts.

blind99 · May 2016

YukonRon said:

Rockwood.
Good talk.
Next?

@yukonron thanks for reminding me I'm on my last bag. 6 more on the way from firecraft.

CurtisMaximus · May 2016

Guess I'm not putting enough thought in to my lump purchases. I live in a small town and my lump purchases are:

Greenwise brand at Publix (grocery store in FL)
Other brand at Publix, seriously I don't know the name but I get more for less $$ than Greenwise
BGE brand at Pinch a Penny, more $$ than Other
Another brand at Sam's usually a little less $$ than Other

I don't go to Sam's often as it's not in my standard routes for work, drinking, kids, drinking, golf, drinking...etc, so I buy the Other brand at Publix.

Thanks for the thorough review on Black Diamond Tjcoley, sounds like a good value so far.

HoustonEgger · May 2016

I've had the opportunity to try this brand out as well:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/ql/dh5cu0eu54x6.jpg

Pros:

The packaging - the box makes for easy transport and storage. The plastic bag inside the box make for very clean storage and transport as well.
Very low ash - I used one egg for the entire box and never had to clean out the egg. I didn't measure the final amount remaining but it was very little.
Reaches high temps very fast - and can hold 700+ without any effort.
Little to no smell/odor

Cons:

Does not handle low temperatures very well - lowest temp reached was around 275
Lost fire completely on two cooks - due to the above issue, I lost the fire on two cooks - one was an overnight cook that I didn't catch, the next was a rib cook that usually only takes 4-5 hours, lost temperature and the fire around the 2nd hour and had to raise the temperature from 250 to 275 to keep it going.
Consistency - I'm only calling this one out because they proclaim such consistent lump sizes on the packaging and the website - you can see from the attached pictures that it wasn't. But still better then most bagged lump, just not quite as good as they were proclaiming

Spaightlabs · May 2016

Did you get 14 cooks out of a box?

bigalsworth · May 2016

Their numbers are goofy. In an ultimate analysis of a combustible product everything should add up to 100%. If they are saying 94.6% carbon 6% moisture and 3% ash. The numbers don't work so they are fudging something somewhere.

It is likely irrelevant anyway but it looks like they are mixing a bit of the information. If they put in a 1kg log through their lump process I think they must be saying 94.6% of that log is carbonized. But if you put their product through an ultimate analysis you would get 6% moisture and 3% ash which would leave 91% carbon. Not a big difference but maybe an example of how advertising doesn't show the whole picture. Also there is likely some other constituents that are not being accounted for like Nitrogen, Oxygen, hydrogen and volatile matter, which would come out of the ultimate analysis and likely drop the carbon content down lower.

BikerBob · May 2016

If the plastic bag is not stored in a humidity controlled environment and the humidity rises ( remember Bonnie?) it stands to reason the moisture level will increase.
I'm glad you bought it. It gave the forum something to conjecture about,.

Bob

Mikee · June 2016

stlcharcoal said:
Show me the lab reports of other 80% carbonized lump with a moisture content below 5%. Have you done the testing? No. You're eyeballing it and have no idea. I know what our product CONSISTANTLY is because thousands of dollars is spent every year testing it.

So you done your testing. Have you tested the competitors? If not, then your just eyeballing like everyone else. You can check my posts, I've never said your lump was garbage. After going out of my way to buy a bag just so I could have an opinion, I feel I get a better bang for my buck with other lump.

Black Diamond Charcoal - I bought it so you don't have to

Comments

Categories