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

Tjcoley

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"!!!

Spaightlabs

That is amazing.  Oughta last the whole summer.

GATraveller

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

Mattman3969

Was it in the formed log like coconut lump?

XC242

Isn't all hardwood charcoal organic???

Ozzie_Isaac

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

DoubleEgger

Looking for a good laugh @stlcharcoal ?

Mikee

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

stlcharcoal

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

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

Mikee

Tjcoley

"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).

johnmitchell

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

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

@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

lousubcap

Now I'm confused  

yljkt

14 cooks out of whats in that box? 

YukonRon

Rockwood.
Good talk.
Next?

Jstroke

YukonRon said:

Rockwood.
Good talk.
Next?

LMAO-----agreed. 

Mikee

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

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

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

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

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

1. Greenwise brand at Publix (grocery store in FL)
2. Other brand at Publix, seriously I don't know the name but I get more for less $$ than Greenwise
3. BGE brand at Pinch a Penny, more $$ than Other
4. 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

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

Pros:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Reaches high temps very fast - and can hold 700+ without any effort.
4. Little to no smell/odor

Cons:

1. Does not handle low temperatures very well - lowest temp reached was around 275
2. 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. 
   
3. 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

Did you get 14 cooks out of a box?  

bigalsworth

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

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

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.