Sub Standard Charcoal

jjessup532

Happy Thanksgiving Eggheads!

I love my BGE and I love this community but I must say I absolutely detest BGE Charcoal and have bought my last bag.  I've had my last two cooks result in complete flameout due to substandard charcoal broken into bits so small as to not sustain a flame.  There are better options online with premium chunks of hardwood.  Until they improve their packaging I will NEVER buy another bag.  I'm tired of paying top price only to throw half of the bag away.  I've enjoyed my egg over ten years now with many successful cooks however the charcoal has gotten worse and is now just a shame.  

I've purchased the charcoal from many different providers with the same result which tells me the problem is at home and not the supply chain.  You can do better BGE but for now I'm done.  

James J

Langner91

Sorry you had that experience. 

Try Rockwood.  It has never failed to sustain a flame for me.

stlcharcoal

Any lump charcoal can have this damage in shipping, but be careful of the "big chunk" brands as they may be under kilned.  Much better to have small properly carbonized pieces over gigantic pieces of wood charred on the outside, yet are full of water and wood fiber on the inside.  Shop for carbonization first, and hopefully it was handled well.  The easiest way to check for 80%+ carbonization is to try to break it apart by hand.  If you CANNOT break it apart by hand, it's not charcoal (yet).

Quick fix so you never have to worry about it again, get a Kick Ash Basket.  That will ALWAYS allow the airflow through or around even if it's small pieces.  

caliking

if it took 10yrs to get to this point, I'd say you had a good run.

Asking for the "best charcoal" here is like throwing lighter fluid on a tire fire . Whatever works for you,  in terms lead time to cook, odor vs. aroma, price, availability, etc. is something you will need to work out for yourself. 

jjessup532

Thanks guys,  all great comments indeed.