Royal Oak Embers vs Royal All Natural


 
Bob Correll

Bob Correll

R.I.P. 3/31/2022
Walmart sells RO All Natural, and sold Premium All Natural last Memorial Day. They claim they are one in the same, I've used both and I believe them.

Home Depot sells RO Embers, so I was curious if they were also the same. My little burn test says no.
They look exactly the same, except a lot of the natural stuff has what looks like a few tiny wood slivers embedded.
Embers on the left in all photos.



Five of each lit at the same time.



After 30 minutes.



After one hour.



A lot of the ashes fell through, but notice the difference in colors.
The natural always seems to take quite a bit longer to get going than Kingsford regular, burns with less heat, and burns out pretty fast like Kingsford.
Embers on the other hand took even longer, but lasted much longer.
I had no way to measure the heat output from each. No other conclusions by me.
A member here said he uses Embers for smoking, but not for grilling. I think that's what I'll try.

Have a great Labor Day everyone!
 
I like reading your experiences; they are concise without too much reading and you state what you do not know or cannot conclude. Thanks for sharing this one.
 
Thanks Bob! I too value your opinions and conclusions and always look forward to them. I have quite a collection of them as well.
 
I enjoy and learn a lot from your posts as well Bob. Once I used your bacon process I never looked back. I’ve never heard of Embers. What’s your overall impression/experience with them Bob. I’m looking for a replacement for Weber charcoal as my supply is about to run out and I can’t get it around here.
 
Thanks guys, you're all too kind.

JR,
I've used the RO Natural a fair amount, it's ok, not great. Only this test burn with the Embers, so far.
The only brand I know of that, IMO, is similar to Weber is Cowboy briquettes, formerly called Stubbs. It is smaller in size. Available at some Lowe's, but probably not all of them.

I mix some lump in with briqs pretty often, briqs on the bottom.
For an all around grilling charcoal I really like Kingsford Professional.
 
Thanks for the information Bob, as always fair and to the point. I agree about the Kingsford pro, good stuff. I'm happy with RO natural it's okay for short cooks, KBB for longer cooks. I'm going to start mixing the $2.00 lump I got last summer with brigs also or I'll never get rid of it, that is if they ever lift the fire restrictions.
 
Good read!
I just started using the Embers and I believe it's close to the RO Ridge but doesn't last as long.
I'm 3 hrs in on a rib cook and most of 2 chimneys ( 1 lit and 1 unlit ) is spent.
Could be me but it's alot more smoky on start up compared to Ridge or the classic RO briqs.

Tim
 
timothy said:
Good read!

Could be me but it's alot more smoky on start up compared to Ridge or the classic RO briqs.

Tim
Click to expand...
Thanks!
The Natural stuff is pretty smoky at start up too.
I think we've both said with the different labeling names, factories, regions, etc, that RO has, sometimes it's like a box of chocolates.
 
Bob Correll said:
Thanks guys, you're all too kind.

JR,
I've used the RO Natural a fair amount, it's ok, not great. Only this test burn with the Embers, so far.
The only brand I know of that, IMO, is similar to Weber is Cowboy briquettes, formerly called Stubbs. It is smaller in size. Available at some Lowe's, but probably not all of them.

I mix some lump in with briqs pretty often, briqs on the bottom.
For an all around grilling charcoal I really like Kingsford Professional.
Click to expand...
Thanks Bob. I’ve actually just started using lump in my Ooni pizza oven. I’ve been using Jealous Devil and it’s been doing good for me in that. It is a bit pricey though.
 
timothy said:
I've never seen or used the natural briqs. Is it the same as this? https://www.doitbest.com/products/838136
I've read good things on that.

Tim
Click to expand...
I think only Walmart sells what's called all natural.
Several years ago I got some of the Chef's Select from DIB, before it had ridges, and thought it was really good. RO claims the all natural is the same, but it's smaller than the older CS.

27690592227_e86f160a6d.jpg
 
Bob Correll said:
Wear sunglasses in case one of your UBC brothers drive by. :)
Click to expand...

It's not that just that, the place is a dump.
I have 2 super or whatever they call the big stores within 5 mins from me. Both parking lots are trash and walking in is worse.
I'll pass unless it's a steal of a deal.:)

Tim
 
Great info Bob. I can only say i find the embers great for the WSM. Doesnt seem to burn as hot a kingsford. But thats all i have to compare it to.
 
That's really interesting. Got to the bottom of the last pallet of regular Kingsford I had bought, and have tried probably 4-5 different brands the last few weeks but never thought to do a direct comparison between any of them like that.
 
Thanks Bob, that's a very useful comparison. I've been using KBB almost exclusively for the last several years, with a bag or so of Kingsford Pro from Costco once in a while.

I just bought some Embers Briquets (EMBERS 2-PACK 20 LB. CHARCOAL BRIQUETS) from HD during the weekend sale. I've never used them before, so why not?

Just extrapolating from your results, it looks like the Embers will burn cooler and slower than even the KBB.
 
I have tried Embers (Twin-pak - Home Depot), twice, so far of late, and it does take longer to ignite, but in my limited tests, it produced an intensely hot fire after piling it up on side of my kettle, and it stayed that way for a while.

I can see myself using this for grilling purposes down the road, although I have sort of soured on using Royal Oak All Natural briquettes for direct grilling because it sparks a lot when dumping a load on the grate. I like to use it for smoking though.

Thanks for the photos, Bob!
 
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