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New bag of Fogo- lots of snap, crackle, and pop!
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ColAngus
Posts: 123
Check out this video clip of the sparks from the charcoal. I bought a 35 lb bag of Fogo lump charcoal on Amazon.
What's causing this? Any advice?
PS- please excuse the vertical video... I'm a stickler about shooting in landscape!
What's causing this? Any advice?
PS- please excuse the vertical video... I'm a stickler about shooting in landscape!
Comments
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Read lots of theories over the years.
Could be the lump has picked up some moisture. Could be (as Weber claims) that natural pockets of gas in some pieces of lump are heating/expanding/popping. Could be some of the fine dust that is in all bags of charcoal are igniting/floating.
My guess is that it is likely some combo of all the above.“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ― Philip K. Diçk -
I have had an occasional spark/pop but nothing like that.
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Wow never seen it do that
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Well-if that doesn't grab your attention and a handy hose. I have not seen the likes of that and am no lump manufacturing expert. Perhaps @stlcharcoal, who has forgotten more about charcoal (and charcoal bag stitching ) than I will ever know will be along.Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win. Life is too short for light/lite beer! Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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I'm going with moisture but that right there is pretty intense. Like Independence Day line of charcoal.
How did did you get a video to imbed?"Brought to you by bourbon, bacon, and a series of questionable life decisions."
South of Nashville, TN
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I also a have a slo-mo video which is pretty cool... looks like a volcano.
As for embedding the video, just click on the </> icon in the editor and past the code from YouTube/Vimeo/etc.
Lemme know if that doesn't make sense. I'm a tech nerd and sometimes I need to speak non-geek. -
Lit said:Wow never seen it do that
Never bothers me and I find it somewhat mesmerizing.“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ― Philip K. Diçk -
HeavyG said:I've seen that on occasion when there are a lot of fines dumped in with the charcoal.
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ColAngus said:HeavyG said:I've seen that on occasion when there are a lot of fines dumped in with the charcoal.“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ― Philip K. Diçk
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I would think if you close the lid for 15 minutes any moisture or gases would bake out of the lump.BakerMan - Purcellville, VA "When its smokin' its cookin', when its black its done"
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BakerMan said:I would think if you close the lid for 15 minutes any moisture or gases would bake out of the lump.
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Where has your lump been? Outside and opened? What did you light with? If I really hit my lump hard with the weed torch it does similar (maybe not to that extent) and the lump has been on the porch for a while.------------------------------
Thomasville, NC
My YouTube Channel - The Hungry Hussey
Instagram
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tarheelmatt said:Where has your lump been? Outside and opened? What did you light with? If I really hit my lump hard with the weed torch it does similar (maybe not to that extent) and the lump has been on the porch for a while.Large BGE and Medium BGE
36" Blackstone - Greensboro! -
ColAngus said:HeavyG said:I've seen that on occasion when there are a lot of fines dumped in with the charcoal.
In industry, fines are anything less than about 3/4"......or called "3/4 inch minus." It's what falls through the grate/screen agitator on the way on the bagging line. They have plenty of value getting sold for briquettes, agriculture, livestock, industrial, munitions, and even cosmetics. -
If you look at charcoal under a high powered microscope it is extremely porous. The surface area of one gram of our charcoal is ~250 m2. That's a LOT of surface area.
If those fibers have moisture trapped in them, you will hear the snap, crackle, and pop just like a log on a fire. As the charcoal heats up, those fibers will open up even more releasing the moisture, rather than flash boiling it. With activated charcoal, they steam it or use a chemical bath to open up those pours and get everything out of there, boosting the surface area as high as 2000 m2/g.
Either way, this is why high carbon lump can get so much freakin hotter than briquettes......it's burning all the way through at once. A briquette is compressed and has to burn from the outer layer in. Think about burning a seasoned piece of kindling vs. a piece of Masonite.
As far as the sparks, I think this is more from the dust. When the you hear the pops, it blows a piece off, and thus you have some dust that goes with it which creates the sparks.
Btw, don't take any of this as the bible. The numbers above are lab proven, but I'm concluding rest on my personal observations based off humidity, moisture, etc in my own testing.
Google image search "charcoal under a microscope" and you'll see a bunch of photos like this.
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MTHAFKN SCIENCE!! I like it.
______________________________________________I love lamp.. -
tarheelmatt said:Where has your lump been? Outside and opened? What did you light with? If I really hit my lump hard with the weed torch it does similar (maybe not to that extent) and the lump has been on the porch for a while.
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Move over Bounty. Lump Charcoal The Quicker Picker-UpperLBGE 2013 & MM 2014Die Hard HUSKER & BRONCO FANFlying Low & Slow in "Da Burg" FL
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ColAngus said:tarheelmatt said:Where has your lump been? Outside and opened? What did you light with? If I really hit my lump hard with the weed torch it does similar (maybe not to that extent) and the lump has been on the porch for a while.------------------------------
Thomasville, NC
My YouTube Channel - The Hungry Hussey
Instagram
Facebook
My Photography Site -
Charcoal absorbs dat sheet out da air, dude!
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XL 6/06, Mini 6/12, L 10/12, Mini #2 12/14 MiniMax 3/16 Large #2 11/20 Legacy from my FIL - RIP
Tampa Bay, FL
EIB 6 Oct 95
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