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Disappointed with this year's Costco lump

Cmyachtie
Cmyachtie Posts: 101
in EggHead Forum
Don't know if it’s just me being unlucky or not but last year I was very happy with the lump from Costco and this spring I bought twice as many (6) bags because of that but I keep finding too much bark in them (never found any last year), am now on my second bag and was hoping it was just in my first one but am now about a third into the second and keep finding pieces of bark and it smokes(make that stinks) like crazy, am curious if any other canucks experience this as well, as I believe south of the border Costco sells a different brand.

pic below is what I have so far from my second bag.

Reason I switched from the BGE lump is because the Costco lump is less smoky and cheaper.......

MMx, my not so large BGE
Genesis E330 gasser 
WiFi ANOVA SV
Halifax, Canada
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Comments

  • larryd
    larryd Posts: 121
    Haven’t seen that lump at our costo
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  • alaskanassasin
    alaskanassasin Posts: 8,931
    Take it back!
    South of Columbus, Ohio.


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  • Hans61
    Hans61 Posts: 3,901
    My Costco has 30lb bags of cowboy, maybe @stlcharcoal should get rockwood there :-)
    “There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body.”
    Coach Finstock Teen Wolf
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  • GrateEggspectations
    GrateEggspectations Posts: 11,604
    I buy Basques with great frequency and have experienced some bark as well. Not a ton, but some. I’ve noticed the bags I have opened so far feature small lump pieces, though this could simply be handling rather than manufacturing. 

    All in all, I am a big fan of Basques. It burns well, is very neutral and is generally $13.99. I even use to buy it for $9.99 when on sale, though I haven’t seen that price in a long while. 

    If if you want to give something else a go, you may want to try Maple Leaf charcoal (the brown bag). It is quite similar to Basques and can be had for about $14.99 a bag when on sale. 

    http://www.mapleleafcharcoal.com/charbon/charbon_english.html
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  • chzplz
    chzplz Posts: 68
    Another Canadian Costco egger here with the exact same experience.  First time I’ve seen bark, and lots of small bits. Nowhere NEAR as good as last year’s. 
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  • Cmyachtie
    Cmyachtie Posts: 101
    chzplz said:
    Another Canadian Costco egger here with the exact same experience.  First time I’ve seen bark, and lots of small bits. Nowhere NEAR as good as last year’s. 
    Thx, I will go and give them hell.....see if it helps...LOL
    MMx, my not so large BGE
    Genesis E330 gasser 
    WiFi ANOVA SV
    Halifax, Canada
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  • Stubby
    Stubby Posts: 134
    Return it and let Costco know they have a pretty good quality control team.. i think you can even let the qc team know they will audit the manufacturer.. good luck.. let us know how it goes.. 
    XL.......for now

    Kernersville, NC
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  • thetrim
    thetrim Posts: 11,387
    By some Cowboy lump.  It will make you like your crappy Costco lump much more.
    =======================================
    XL 6/06, Mini 6/12, L 10/12, Mini #2 12/14 MiniMax 3/16 Large #2 11/20 Legacy from my FIL - RIP PitBoss Navigator 850G 11/25
    Tampa Bay, FL
    EIB 6 Oct 95
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 23,179
    edited June 2018
    Stubby said:
    Return it and let Costco know they have a pretty good quality control team.. i think you can even let the qc team know they will audit the manufacturer.. good luck.. let us know how it goes.. 
    They audit the manufacturer anyway. We get audited all the time along with any 3rd party factory we use to build for Costco. Anywhere in the world.  They are really thorough when vetting vendors.

    Natures own and Basques have been well respected brands in the past so maybe they had a bad batch or changed sources for the wood. Either way, Costco will take it back no questions asked and I promise you, the vendor will get a call. We had one item out of 10’s of thousands  sold to Costco Canada come back one time because it “didn’t look right”. A Sr. VP of the area we sell to called me personally to ask what the deal was. We compared to the approved inspection report and it was well within Costco specs. They hounded us for weeks until they were somewhat satisfied that we weren’t out of spec. They finally let it go when they sold the rest without incident but they still hawk us and bring it up all the time. When a Costco member says something isn’t right, they take it very seriously. Trust me :)

    This has been edited of some details to cover my ass a little :)
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • Cmyachtie
    Cmyachtie Posts: 101
    GrateEggspectations said:
    I buy Basques with great frequency and have experienced some bark as well. Not a ton, but some. I’ve noticed the bags I have opened so far feature small lump pieces, though this could simply be handling rather than manufacturing. 

    All in all, I am a big fan of Basques. It burns well, is very neutral and is generally $13.99. I even use to buy it for $9.99 when on sale, though I haven’t seen that price in a long while. 

    If if you want to give something else a go, you may want to try Maple Leaf charcoal (the brown bag). It is quite similar to Basques and can be had for about $14.99 a bag when on sale. 

    http://www.mapleleafcharcoal.com/charbon/charbon_english.html
    Yeah I did use some Maple Leaf last winter as I ran out way too soon of the Basques only negative was sooo many small pieces, did like the burn but preferred last years Basgues why I went and bought my years supply this spring as soon as Costco had it in stock. However this year’s supply seem to be as small(pieces) as the ML plus the many pieces of bark added.
    With the limited choice of supply here in th boonies it kinda sucks will have to go for real deal again (BGE) guess it is.
    MMx, my not so large BGE
    Genesis E330 gasser 
    WiFi ANOVA SV
    Halifax, Canada
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  • EggNorth
    EggNorth Posts: 1,535
    edited June 2018
    I'm just so happy they started carrying this lump again that the odd bark does not bother me.  I just throw it in the flower garden.

    I have 10 bags in stock, have not noticed too much difference from other brands.  Picked up a tip on this site to give the bag a shake, it it rattles too much, leave it.

    I believe the problem is in the handling, at my store you can tell bags where placed on top of the an existing pile,  I would think that is not done delicatly.  And of course non Egg customers just throwing the bag back, no respect :) .
    Dave
    Cambridge, Ontario - Canada
    Large (2010), Mini Max (2015), Large garden pot (2018)
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  • GrateEggspectations
    GrateEggspectations Posts: 11,604
    I’ve been getting further into my own stockpile of Basques for this year and I have to say that I agree that there is a lot of bark and a high proportion of small pieces. 
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