How good is Royal Oak Lump charcoal and Is the DigiQ DX2 temperature control system worth the money

mahansc

To my surprise my wife bought me a Large BGE for my birthday. Of course It sat on my screen porch for two months till iI got home on my RR. I was wondering is the royal oak lump charcoal any good. I mean they make BGE's charcoal. pro's and Con's anyone? Also I was looking to pickup the DigiQ DX2 temperature control system, has anyone seen these in action are they worth the money? The three times that i used my BGE it worked as advertised but I want to try and cook a boston butt over night and i want to make sure it stays the constant temp. Any and all inputs are welcomed. thanks in advance.

Scott

bigbang1955

First...yes...you certainly got a great surprise. Congrats.   Second, we've had the BGE for almost 5 years and other than the initial bag of BGE charcoal, all  we have ever used is Royal Oak.   So I really can't compare it to anything else.  It's just easy to buy at our local Home Depot.  Lastly, for us, the digiq is worth the price, BUT you may not really appreciate it till you do a low and slow without it.  We did not get the digiq until about a year's worth of cooking and would not want to cook a low and slow without it.   I've read from others who very successfully control the temp without the digiq, but with it, the worries are over and waking up in the middle of the night to check are no longer an issue.  Good look and happy egging!

ryantt

Scott, lump charcoal is a very personal thing with this group and you will get a wide range of opinions.  Look at the www.nakedwiz.com to read some good reviews on lump.  Truth be told if you buy a few bags and try try it you'll know if you like it or not.  

DigiQ DX2 is fine(lots of good temp controllers out there), but you don't need it to cook low and slow overnight.  Get your temps how you like them for 45min (without having to adjust), put you butt on and let it ride. One note when you put you butt or other large hunks of meat on the temp will drop fight the urge to adjust anything it will recover.  Just make sure to put enough lump in to get you to the finish ( fill it up).  I be gone 16 hours on my XL now with lump left over at 250-275.  I fill it to the bottom of the  plate setter.  

Last of all, welcome and enjoy the ride.  

Fred19Flintstone

Royal Oak is a Chevy & works well.  Nowadays Rockwood is the Cadillac lump.  Since you're new to egging, go without the temp control unit until you learn how to control temps manually.  In the long run, you'll be much better off.  There is a thread about visual helps for temp control I'm sure someone will post a link to it.  I can't on my phone now.  Study it.  Welcome and good luck.  Your wife's a keeper!

pgprescott

Controllers are of most use when trying to cook below 250. I like them for overnighters and events with a lot of cooking going on. They are good cheap insurance and peace of mind. As long as you don't try to fail the temp way down, you would probably be fine without one, but there are cases of the fire snuffing itself out. They call it the black hole effect. The lump burns straight down and does not ignite the surrounding lump and goes out. If you do go overnight without the controller in would suggest 250-275 temp range. Happy egging. 

mahansc

bigbang1955 and ryantt thank you both for your input. 

ryantt, i've beenon the nakedwiz and thats where i came across the royal oak charcoal and it even said that they are the makers of BGE charcoal, and its less than half the price. but as you mentioned i do plan to try a bag out to see how it does. i've cooked a brisket on there for 8 hrs and the temp stayed pretty consistent for the most part, but as you said just let it be i learned that lesson on the brisket.

bigbang1955,

my plan is to ask for that for xmas this year since i'm only home every 3 months. but if all works out this is my last yr working overseas so that will be a nice xmas present. thanks again for the input.

 

jtcBoynton

Royal Oak is good charcoal.  There are some charcoals available that have a more neutral smoke profile.  They cost more than Royal Oak.  So depending on the value you place on a neutral smoke profile, you may be perfectly happy with Royal Oak or you may prefer to spend the extra to get something else.

Temperature controllers can offer piece of mind.  Some view them as an essential part of the egg cooking and others view them as a crutch.  You may want to cook without one for a while. Cooking without a controller will allow you to really learn how the egg works.  

For your first few low and slow cooks, I would suggest not doing an overnight cook.  Instead, start in the morning. Bump the temps up to a moderate level. You can start a pork butt right after breakfast and have it ready for dinner if you cook it around 275º.  That will allow you to monitor the cook and gain experience in holding temps for a long cook without losing sleep.  

lousubcap

Congrats on the BGE.  Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Lump is a personal deal for many.  Try what you can find locally and when time permits you can expand your horizon with mail order from fire craft.com.  
And I am in the camp where you can learn quite a lot about the BGE by learning how it works w/o a controller.  And if your controller bites the bullet you can continue the cook just fine.

News2u

Royal Oak is very reliable with good, consistently sized chunks. Not a lot of black dust and few (mostly zero) rocks in it like I often find in Cowboy Lumps for Chumps:

No question BGE brand is fantastic, but not worth the price in my opinion. The fact of the matter is as long as you start with the proper amount and dampen properly (no better way than with digital monitoring devices), lump will not fail you in terms of burn efficiency. ryantt ain't kidding: definitely don't fiddle with dampers right after putting on your meat; the drop in temp will adjust upward and back to setting -- just give it time.   PS: That rock weighed in at almost 3/4 lb.

YukonRon

I have the controller, I bought it when I bought the BGE. For me it has been a winner. The others which suggest you learn the characteristics of the egg, are some pretty smart people, and I have followed their suggestions. I am learning the characteristics with many cooks, but, I have to say, for an overnight cook, the controller rocks.
I have used BGE/Royal Oak, Carbon Del Sur and Rockwood. Of these I rate them:
1) Rockwood - minimal dust and fines, neutral smoke early, large chunks, burns excellent lasts long
2) Carbon Del Sur - minimal dust and fines, a bit longer for neutral smoke, massive chunks, burns excellent, lasts long.
3) BGE - 1/3 bag unusable longer burns to get to neutral smoke, few large pieces, if any, burns very well, due to the amount of smaller pieces bags don't last as long.

These are my observations, by no means are they scientific and recorded on a spread sheet.

Time to neutral smoke is judged by amount of bourbon consumed while waiting.

Usable lump per bag is defined by what falls through the KAB when loading.

Everything else is based on drunken observations while standing in small pieces of lump.

Your test methods may differ, but I think your results will be similar.

welcome to the forum!

tgs2401

Hi Scott,

Nice wife you have there  I switched to Royal Oak after reading on this forum that they produce and package the BGE lump. In my opinion, it's better than what I was getting from my BGE dealer with bigger chunks and less unusable pebbles in the bottom 25% of the bag plus it's just about half the price. 

55drum

I've used some other brands of lump but prefer Royal....

Never used temp controller...don't see a need for them

msloan

like others have said, best thing to do with lump is try a few and use the one that you enjoy the best.....there are differences you will notice as you cook and as you eat.

as for the digi-q, I have one and it works as advertised and it does the job.  however, I have become more of a hot and fast kind of cook and it pretty reduces the need for a controller, because I am usually around the egg while I am cooking.  


I would only get one of these controllers if you plan to cook overnight on a regular basis at a low temp, or as someone else pointed out, if you are going to be involved in cooks where there are lots of things you are responsible for taking your attention away from the egg for long periods of time.

mahansc

msloan, thats a good point thanks for the input.

mahansc

tgs2401 said:

Hi Scott,

Nice wife you have there  I switched to Royal Oak after reading on this forum that they produce and package the BGE lump. In my opinion, it's better than what I was getting from my BGE dealer with bigger chunks and less unusable pebbles in the bottom 25% of the bag plus it's just about half the price. 

tgs2401, 
I've notice alot of unusable "pebbles" in the BGE lump charcoal. at first i thought it was by design but after reading more on L.C I know its not. thanks for the input.

jtcBoynton

Always remember that lump charcoal is brittle.  The nice big pieces that may have been put in the bag at the factory, may not survive for you to take home. Dropping, bouncing, crushing, and other savage bag handler methods can greatly affect what you find in the store.  Roughly handled lump is not specific to any brand, or individual bag.

mahansc

jtcboynton,

Good point. my plan is to get a 5 gal bucket to store my charcoal in while i'm out of the country, this way i'm able to keep about two bags on hand... fun times ahead.

SkinnyV

It's fine.
yes it's nice to have.

Fred19Flintstone

Fred19Flintstone said:

Royal Oak is a Chevy & works well.  Nowadays Rockwood is the Cadillac lump.  Since you're new to egging, go without the temp control unit until you learn how to control temps manually.  In the long run, you'll be much better off.  There is a thread about visual helps for temp control I'm sure someone will post a link to it.  I can't on my phone now.  Study it.  Welcome and good luck.  Your wife's a keeper!

Here's the link to that thread I mentioned this morning:

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/746823/vent-settings-a-visual-guide/p1

mahansc

Fred19Flinstone,

Very nice thread and VERY informative for me being a newbie. thank you very much... i'll be printing them out as a guide till I get used to it. thanks again

nolaegghead

OK, and mmmyyeahhmabybee

Fred19Flintstone

@mahansc - My pleasure sir!  Learning manual control first is better then starting out using "cruise control".  If you have your heart set on a temp control system, the Digiq2 you're considering is pretty good.  I have it and it works well.  I don't use it much, but it is handy when i want it.  If I used it more, I would probably be happier with one of the systems you can monitor & control with a smart phone.

mahansc

yes Sir I'm a tech nerd by profession and i've seen this one http://www.firecraft.com/product/flame-boss-200-wifi-kamado-fb200-kamado/bbq-thermometers which is wifi... VERY cool. I'll have to look at them when the time comes but i'm taking all the advice and learn to cook on it w/o one... thanks again.

Mosca

The DigiQ is worth the money, but you should still consider it a luxury purchase. If you can't cook without it, you won't be able to cook with it, either. Even with the DigiQ, you can have a fire that gets blocked, or have an air leak that leads to a runaway fire. Learn how how to get the fire to go on cruise control all by itself. Then if you have a few hundred laying around that you don't feel like blowing on Kobe brisket, or if you had a good weekend at the blackjack tables, order the DigiQ. It is cool as all get-out. 


Regarding lump charcoal: find one that you have consistent access to and get used to the way it performs. Knowing that Rockwood is the best doesn't help you on a lumpless Sunday morning in Pennsylvania. But if you can drive down to the grocery and pick up whatever you used that made great ribs last time, then you are in! Or, you could order half a dozen bags of Rockwood, and reorder every time you get down to two bags left. Whatever, as long as you know what is going to happen when you set the vents. 

LRW

Humphrey's Charcoal is a great lump. It's Manufactured in Pennsylvania. I use it and RO.

Mosca

mahansc said:

jtcboynton,

Good point. my plan is to get a 5 gal bucket to store my charcoal in while i'm out of the country, this way i'm able to keep about two bags on hand... fun times ahead.

I use these. They cost more, but look kind of cool on the deck next to the table.

steelegg

I have been using a Royal Oak for about 2 years now i get it at my local Home Depot and i have no complaints especially with the price 

News2u

Get ours at Walmart. In Florida, if you buy charcoal or lump at a super Walmart, which has a grocery store, you pay no sales tax. So Walmart always beats the price at any competitor that doesn't sell food.

Mikee

Royal Oak is a great choice. Half the price of some other lump. Is it a top tier lump or is it a great value lump. RO is my go to lump. I got a bag of Frontier lump last month and started using it. So far that bag has been great vs previous bags of Frontier I used years ago.

News2u

RO has my vote.