I use it because its cheap and readily available when I cook beef. There are a lot of big chunks but they break apart real easy. If you are smart wear shoes when lighting it too, A lot of sparks and flying pieces of charcoal. I'm not smart and wear flip flops most of the time. Yesterday I got lucky and only burned my flip flop and not my toes when a chunk went fling on my foot. I also found a piece of charcoal in my shirt pocket, don't know how it got there, it didn't show any signs of it ever being lit.