Anyone use royal oak briquettes in WSM?


 
I bought a bunch of RO at Walmart. I've only used it in my kettle. When lighting, it lets off some black smoke. Is this normal for this brand? It looks strange. I'm worried about off flavors in the wsm as it lights

That's usually all I use in my WSM. :wsm:

Tim
 
I've used royal oak now for the past 4 cooks, and I'm not very impressed with it for smoking. It seems to burn through a lot quicker than kingsford. Since it was so cheap at walmart, I didn't care to add more, but eventually the bowl is filled with ashes and it makes the temp a bit more unpredictable. Longest I've gone on my 18 was 21 hours and I feel like I was pushing it.

My recommendation is save the RO for grilling, use kingsford for smoking.
 
I've used royal oak now for the past 4 cooks, and I'm not very impressed with it for smoking. It seems to burn through a lot quicker than kingsford. Since it was so cheap at walmart, I didn't care to add more, but eventually the bowl is filled with ashes and it makes the temp a bit more unpredictable. Longest I've gone on my 18 was 21 hours and I feel like I was pushing it.

My recommendation is save the RO for grilling, use kingsford for smoking.

That's your opinion Marcus and I respect that!

Tim
 
Same here Tim. My experience does not match yours, Marcus. Of course, the RO briquettes I use are not found at Walmart.
 
After I posted this I felt bad- I shouldn't have been so conclusive with it. For one thing, it's been colder overnight and I haven't compared KBB to the RO. I'm sure this actually has a lot to do with it now. Also, I just don't have enough experience to say what works well or not.
 
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Just used Royal Oak in my WSM again yesterday. It works fine, just like it has for me for over 40 years. Never have had black smoke when lighting it.
I use it in the kettle as well. Never a complaint from me about Royal Oak. Could your black smoke have been from newspapers in a chimney starter?
 

 

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