ANOTHER Kingsford Charwood Update - yuck!

LFGEnergy

EggHeads,

Over past few weeks, I have posted about Kingsford Charwood, a lump I came into at a local grocery when my egg store was closed one Sunday evening. First bag worked REALLY well, very impressed, and thats how I posted it.

On Christmas, "Rib Bones" posted about a toxic smell coming from the Charwood during startup, and his concern about cooking over the lump. I also posted to Rib Bones' thread that I was a fan, and was pleased with the performance of Charwood.

OK, now the (fall on my sword) rebuttal :unsure: !!!

My last two cooks using Charwood have created a toxic off gassing and black smoke during the heating process, one that continued last night for over 30 minutes, including penetrating into the food - I simply could not get egg hot enough to burn what ever the smell was. Absolutely disgusting . I could get no heat off of the Charwood last evening, and yes, my vents are open and clear and ash box clean, etc. My egg is in the dry, so it wasnt that anything got wet (unless Humidity). Hebert's boudin was uneatible. I could still smell the odor when I cleaned out the egg today of all unburned lump.

It may be a bad bag thing, but WOW, I don't think I would trust Charwood again. Taking unopened bag in garage back to store for credit.

Found RO at Walmart (for a whopping $6.50 a 10 LB bag), cleaned egg (including vacumming ash) and firing with a pork loin for tonights feast. RO took about 20 minutes to be cook ready at 350F.

Thought you should know.

Happy New Year to all

Dave in Keller, TX

Willie Lump Lump

My observations on Charwood or any other brand are that manufacture of charcoal is a crude process. The variations from bag to bag are uncontrollable. The variation of the input is uncontrollable. The statement that it must have been a different tree is actually accurate in charcoal bags.
Early in my egging I had bought several bags of R.O. on sale at Menards. No one here ever had bad mouthed R.O. My experience was there was something in the bag that smelled like creosote. It stunk even before it burned, all the bags where from the same pallet and probably came from the same run.
I live where within three miles I can buy BGE, RO Charwood, Frontier, Wicked, Cowboy, and Dragons Breath. I weigh cost benefit and convienence in my choices. None of the brands are perfect.
After my early experiences I am a charcoal sorter. I will not dump a bag in the Egg and hope for the best. I always look for things that are unpleasant. Uncarbonized pieces and rocks are common in all brands. Strange melted moon rocks or insulation are less common but are always a possibility.
My other albeit weird habit is that I smell the charcoal bag in the store like I’m buying a pineapple or watermelon. If the bag smells like creosote I don’t buy it.
TTFN WLL