Storing Lump

OshawaDave said:

I'm curious to know how others store your lump. Do you leave it in the original bag or dump it into a container, if so, is it  airtight? Do you store it indoors out of humidity or in a shed out back......just curious. Have your noticed better performance by storing it a particular way?

If you store it in an airtight container, you're also keeping the moisture in.  Unless you evacuate and seal that container in a low moisture environment, it's not really doing anything for you other than keeping the rain out.  Plus, when the sun beats down on that container, you can get condensation on the inside......just like the BGE.  Best to ventilate.

Paper breathes......just keep it in the bag in your garage.  If you want to dry it out some more, just bring your next bag inside the AC and open it.  Charcoal sheds water FAST!  That's why the cave man invented it.

I leave bags out in the rain all the time by accident.  They're soaked.  Just butterfly (or spatchcock) the bag and let it sit in the sun for the day......good as new by that evening.

GoldenQ said:

I keep mine in the original bag and inside the garage.  For the briquets which I use for the webber I do also .   I have had briquets that sat in breezeway under cover but high humidity and rainy outside that I used and they worked well after I got them lit but were harder to light.  

Briquettes will definitely do that because they are full of limestone, starch, and  sawdust......all of which love to absorb moisture and not release it.  They already have a fair amount of water in them--that's what holds them together.

Charcoal doesn't really absorb moisture, it just very porous and has plenty of places for the moisture get into.  But as well as it gets into all those nooks and crannies, it also comes right back out.  If you get a lot of popping when lighting, that usually moisture that didn't weep out--then boiled and POP!

I store in the bag outdoors but, under cover so it doesn't get rained on.  Humidity in FL has never been an issue storing it this way.

stlcharcoal said:

GoldenQ said:

I keep mine in the original bag and inside the garage.  For the briquets which I use for the webber I do also .   I have had briquets that sat in breezeway under cover but high humidity and rainy outside that I used and they worked well after I got them lit but were harder to light.  

Briquettes will definitely do that because they are full of limestone, starch, and  sawdust......all of which love to absorb moisture and not release it.  They already have a fair amount of water in them--that's what holds them together.

Charcoal doesn't really absorb moisture, it just very porous and has plenty of places for the moisture get into.  But as well as it gets into all those nooks and crannies, it also comes right back out.  If you get a lot of popping when lighting, that usually moisture that didn't weep out--then boiled and POP!

I never knew what made that POP, but it makes complete sense.  I get very little POP in the dry winter around here.  But in the extremely humid summer,  lighting up can look like a sparkler burning.

I leave my lump in its original bag in the shed.  Once it is open, I put the opened bag in a storage cabinet built into my egg table. Also, FWIW, I keep my smoking wood in little plastic storage bins in a drawer in my egg table. 

I'll keep mine in its original bag, and store it in my shed. Have yet to have any issues doing it this way.

In the bag in the garage 

All the lump and briquettes are out in the cookshed, stored in original bags until it goes on grill.  Hot or cold doesn’t seem to matter.

I had an extra steel drum taking up space.  Painted it up, made a round corian top for it, and put it on wheels.  Now it's a rolling counter top and lump storage.

I'll try and remember to post a pic tomorrow.