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Royal Oak Disappointment

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Braddog
Braddog Posts: 212
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I've always had pretty good luck with Royal Oak Lump,but the last two bags that I've used have had a large chuck of concrete about the size of your fist in the bottom of the bag.

It's like paying for 10lbs of lump and only getting 9 and a lump of concrete. Very annoying. Anybody else experience this?

Cheers,
Braddog
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  • Mike-RR
    Mike-RR Posts: 181
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    Yes, there was a nice rock in one of mine, but that was only once. There's bound to be a bad bag here and there.
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  • Braddog
    Braddog Posts: 212
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    Agreed, but that's two in a row!
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    nature of the beast. I haven't had one that big, but "moon rocks" are par for the course.
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    nature of the beast. I haven't had one that big, but "moon rocks" are par for the course.
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  • lowercasebill
    lowercasebill Posts: 5,218
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    look on the side of the bag and check out the naked whiz . royal oak has lump from usa and 3 different south american countries and they are not all the same . let us know where your bag is from
    thanks
    bill
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  • Mike-RR
    Mike-RR Posts: 181
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    Hmmm...

    I buy the "Made in the U.S.A" variety from my local Wally World for about $5.27 for a 10lb bag. That is my #2 favorite charcoal behind Ozark Oak.

    Sorry to hear about the bad luck. I'me saving my last nasty bag of B&B Expert's Choice (Way too sparky!) for some high-temp cleaning when the grates and the insides of my LBGE need to be fired up really hot.
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  • Crimsongator
    Crimsongator Posts: 5,797
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    So, if your experience is true with rocks 100% of the time and you get 9#'s of lump while paying for 10. That would put the real cost of 20# of RO from Walmart at $11.71. Even if you find 3lbs of rocks and 7 lbs of good lump, your cost is $15. Find other brands of RO (nature glo, BGE) for that price.

    I accept a small amount of trash and smaller pieces for the cost savings associated with buying the US version of RO from Walmart for $5.27 per bag.

    Granted, my favorite that I can get locally is ozark oak. It costs around $7.50 for 10# bags. I have even have one bag of WG comp blend left that I will throw in from time to time. But for everyday use, the cost savings from the folks over in Bentonville is pretty darn good (and that is usually all I buy from them)

    Gene
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    I've only experienced an occasional small rock in my Royal Oak. My disappointment however has been with the last three bags - they have sparked pretty badly compared to my previous experience with the product. I haven't had the same experience with BGE charcoal.

    Roudy
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  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
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    I'll accept your challenge.

    I bought 160# of BGE lump on Tuesday for under $100 - tax included.

    And yes, a few rocks or concrete chunks happens from time to time. They use front end loaders to fill the hoppers, and they will inevitably pick up some detritus as they scoop the lump.
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  • currdog
    currdog Posts: 25
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    I've noticed a moon rock increase in my walmart RO bags. I've had 3 in the last 4 bags, each about the size of golf ball. Not a big deal to me. Treat them like mini plate setters, they're another thermal mass that heats up and maintains its temp for awhile.
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  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,888
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    some one say moon rocks? Here's my collection from lump bags and even one piece that was probably a yellow plastic handled screw driver!

    IMG_1080.jpg
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
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  • AZRP
    AZRP Posts: 10,116
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    I see a rock or two whenever I do a thorough cleaning and that's after a dozen bags or so. Broken concrete is part of the process so expect some every now and then. -RP
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  • thirdeye
    thirdeye Posts: 7,428
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    Here is my personal grand champion. It might be a two-fister.

    DSC01753a.jpg
    Happy Trails
    ~thirdeye~

    Barbecue is not rocket surgery
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  • Crimsongator
    Crimsongator Posts: 5,797
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    OK, one point of reference. I was not including bulk purchases that qualify for BGE discounts. I actually bought a ton (well actually it was 24 bags, so it was 0.12 tons) from Walmart last winter when they cleared out RO for around $3.50 per bag.

    16 bags of RO from Walmart costs $84.32. Assuming 9lbs of good lump, it will run 93.68. With 8 lbs of good lump, it would cost 105.4. Start seperating the small BGE stuff and we can recalculate

    Gene

    p.s. I am just having fun with this, but it IS something to think about. I am also off to work, so I'll get back to it later today.
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  • Crimsongator
    Crimsongator Posts: 5,797
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    OK, one point of reference. I was not including bulk purchases that qualify for BGE discounts. I actually bought a ton (well actually it was 24 bags, so it was 0.12 tons) from Walmart last winter when they cleared out RO for around $3.50 per bag.

    16 bags of RO from Walmart costs $84.32. Assuming 9lbs of good lump, it will run 93.68. With 8 lbs of good lump, it would cost 105.4. Start seperating the small BGE stuff and we can recalculate

    Gene

    p.s. I am just having fun with this, but it IS something to think about. I am also off to work, so I'll get back to it later today.
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  • Rusty Rooster
    Rusty Rooster Posts: 1,239
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    Wow, I never knew I was supposed to pay attention, save, photo the occasional piece of debris in a bag of lump. All I have been doing was tossing them off into the woods and forgetting them. What a dummy I am!! LOL
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  • Car Wash Mike
    Car Wash Mike Posts: 11,244
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    With as much Private Label brand of lump that RO packages, I don't see how they can possibly have any quality control. I'm pretty lucky in the KC area. They package Best Choice. Always nice large chunks. BC actually insures their own quality.

    Mike
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  • thirdeye
    thirdeye Posts: 7,428
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    Maybe there is some kind of compensation.... like the guy that found the coin in the Velveeta and got free cheese. :laugh:
    Happy Trails
    ~thirdeye~

    Barbecue is not rocket surgery
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  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
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    Love the avatar Mike.
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    dude. w/t/f? you have a negatice karma? first time i saw that.

    some weird stuff going on. AZRP had 8 thumbs up, while the Naked Whiz had ONE and Nature Boy had none.

    Karma's a weird thing!

    your moon rock collection trumps mine by far. mine are all small, and all seem to be bits of refractory ceramic (like the lining of the retort, or something).

    but you begots some cool stuff. ...as for you kamra, i'ma bump you up. see if we can't get rid of the negative!
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    you need to get out more, fidel!
    hahha
    cheers
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • AZRP
    AZRP Posts: 10,116
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    Holy carp! I didn't know the rocks were collectible and all this time I've been flinging them into the desert. -RP
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  • The Naked Whiz
    The Naked Whiz Posts: 7,777
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    Were these last three bags the US version? Some of the South American lumps bagged under the Royal Oak name are very sparky.
    The Naked Whiz
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  • The Naked Whiz
    The Naked Whiz Posts: 7,777
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    I don't get the connection between private label bagging and quality control? Private label companies have their bags shipped to Royal Oak, and Royal Oak just uses those bags instead of the Royal Oak bags. My guess is same charcoal, just different bags. If you mean that Royal Oak doesn't have any control over the bags of charcoal once they ship them to the distributors, that is the same for the private bags as the Royal Oak bags. I doubt the control over the Royal Oak bags shipped to Wal*Mart is any better or worse that the control over bags of BGE shipped to BBQs Galore, for example.
    The Naked Whiz
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  • dhuffjr
    dhuffjr Posts: 3,182
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    Karma can only be given once a day.

    Like "rep" at other sites I frequent there will soon be Karma or not Karma debates. The fact that we can't leave comments with Karma that only the recipient sees and that it is limited to once and day and most importantly that hopefully and anything goes OT area will never be created here might prevent that from happening.
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  • dhuffjr
    dhuffjr Posts: 3,182
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    I've got to agree with you. I knew a lady in NC who worked at a battery factory. Same batteries different labels. Same for garments when NC had a garment industry.
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  • Car Wash Mike
    Car Wash Mike Posts: 11,244
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    It has been 15+ years since I was in the grocery business. But, AWG sent out quality control mangers to different manufactures with certain criteria for what was packaged under BC. That included lump, regular charcoal, veggies and fruits ect.
    While working my way threw college, I worked for Mead in St. Joe packaging paper. Mead paper, new cover sheet, Walmart paper.

    Mike
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  • The Naked Whiz
    The Naked Whiz Posts: 7,777
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    Lump charcoal isn't made/bagged by little old ladies wearing hairnets and pink dresses with white aprons. :) They use front loaders or back loaders or something loaders to move this stuff around, and invariably rocks and dirt clods are going to get into bags. If you bought two bags from the same pallet/batch, I wouldn't be surprised if you got rocks in both. My guess is that as the charcoal moves through the process, all the charcoal that was on the bottom of the pile gets processed together, so if they scoop up some rocks with the charcoal, all the rocks are going to be in bags that are processed as a group about the same time. I just bought a bag of Royal Oak from Wal*mart that was probably the best bag of lump I've ever opened. It's just the nature of processing a product like natural charcoal that there will be variability between bags.
    The Naked Whiz
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    thanks... i knew how it worked, i just was wondering why our poor RRP got spanked down a notch. I blew a little sunshine up his skirt, and he's back at ) rather than negative. hahaha
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    now you have 10 karma?!?!!?!

    who do you know? hahaha
    frikkin Whiz has nuthin, NB got nuthin. and you! somehow you have 10! how many accounts did you create so that you could vote on yourself?!?!?!
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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