Prime 6 charcoal on Shark Tank

Years and years ago at one of the local area surplus/salvage stores (Building #19) they had boxes and boxes of extruded ground up coconut shell charcoal, the same shape as what Prime6 is doing. Great stuff, I bought a box out of curiosity, ended up going back for all they had left. Price was cheap, the heat output was incredible. Used it for years...

Thinking harder about that I realize it was over 30 years ago. After running out of that stash I've never bought any more, using only standard natural lump.

I'm betting it'll be good stuff, just a bit pricy. 

maybe the packaging is convenient.  but for >$2/lb i'll stick with other lump. 

speaking of convenient packaging, kamado big block has a plastic lined bag.  it's nice.

It's not going to be "ashless" or "smokeless".  As with ANY charcoal, there will be some amount of ash and smoke.  Just depends on carbonization.  The more the carbon, the less the ash and smoke.  Ground up lump charcoal is no different [chemically] than a chunk of lump if they are the same species and are carbonized to the same percentage.  It may burn different because of the porosity of the chunk, but that's about it.

As far a plastic lined bag goes.....screw that.  Yeah you may be sealing moisture out of the bag, but you're also sealing it *in* the bag (unless you acclimate the lump in a temp/humidity controlled environment and seal the bag while you're in there.)  You don't put wood chunks or chips in a sealed bag either.  Let it breath.  Lump charcoal will shed moisture just as fast as it adsorbs it.

The bigger issue on a plastic bag over a paper bag is the possibility of getting plastic in your firebox and cooking over it.  When a sharp/jagged chunk of charcoal pops through a paperbag, no big deal.  But when it pierces a plastic bag it may take some with it.  The multi-woven ones are the worst (like seed bags)--lump charcoal rips those apart and you'll find the strands.  Happens when the importers ship in "supersacks", then bag in the US to call it "made in the USA". 

Mikee said:

Prime 6 does sound interesting. I like the idea of no sparks and clean burning. Seems it takes awhile to light up and to get hot. I just picked up a couple bags of Wicked Good Weekend Warrior, Fogo Premium, and Fogo Super Premium lump to see how they compare to the Charbroil Center Cut (down to 10 boxes of it). After hearing/reading how good B&B was, I tried 3 bags. What a disappointment B&B was! Smokey, sparky, takes for ever to get really hot, and a ton of ash.

Wicked Good is decent stuff.  The B&B ranks right down there with Cowboy!

Jealous Devil seems to be a new favorite around here.
I've cooked at a few demonstration cooks with it earlier this year and it did well.

stlcharcoal said:

It's not going to be "ashless" or "smokeless".  As with ANY charcoal, there will be some amount of ash and smoke.  Just depends on carbonization.  The more the carbon, the less the ash and smoke.  Ground up lump charcoal is no different [chemically] than a chunk of lump if they are the same species and are carbonized to the same percentage.  It may burn different because of the porosity of the chunk, but that's about it.

As far a plastic lined bag goes.....screw that.  Yeah you may be sealing moisture out of the bag, but you're also sealing it *in* the bag (unless you acclimate the lump in a temp/humidity controlled environment and seal the bag while you're in there.)  You don't put wood chunks or chips in a sealed bag either.  Let it breath.  Lump charcoal will shed moisture just as fast as it adsorbs it.

The bigger issue on a plastic bag over a paper bag is the possibility of getting plastic in your firebox and cooking over it.  When a sharp/jagged chunk of charcoal pops through a paperbag, no big deal.  But when it pierces a plastic bag it may take some with it.  The multi-woven ones are the worst (like seed bags)--lump charcoal rips those apart and you'll find the strands.  Happens when the importers ship in "supersacks", then bag in the US to call it "made in the USA". 

What, do you think you make charcoal for a living or something?