My thoughts on Weber's Charcoal


 
~Mark~

~Mark~

TVWBB Pro
Yesterday I opened up the wallet and after the moths flew out I pulled a twenty out and purchased a shiny new bag of Weber Charcoal.
Right off the rip I thought that twenty bucks is a lot to pay for charcoal, but it said Weber, so I had to give it a try.
The bag has a pull to open slot at the top that has a Zip Lock seal that is nice.
The charcoal doesn't have any marks or groves it's reminiscent of the old KBB that way.
I filled a chimney and put it on my Performer's starter.
It smokes the same as KBB when starting, and seems to take as long to start.
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I put them in the charcoal baskets and the temp went up to 400 where my settings are for around 350. Not a big how do you do so far, just had to throttle back a bit more and she came down to 350.
I cooked potatoes for about forty five minutes, then put on some country style ribs and ran it another forty five minutes. The temp stayed dead on 350 for the whole cook.

After I cooked for ninety minutes at 350 I puled everything off and took it in the house. I came right back out to see what the coals looked like.
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I was surprised at how little the coals burnt down. Note how little ash is under the basket, usually there's twice as much ash with KBB after a ninety minute cook.

All in all it's not a huge change from the KBB, but I want to see how nice they work in my smoker.
 
Nice review Mark. I'm also surprised to see how little the coals are spent after that amount of time. 20 bucks might be worth it if you can get similar results all the time.
How was the smell, similar to KBB at lite up?

Tim
 
timothy said:
Nice review Mark. I'm also surprised to see how little the coals are spent after that amount of time. 20 bucks might be worth it if you can get similar results all the time.
How was the smell, similar to KBB at lite up?

Tim
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Tim
They seemed to smell a lot like KBB, but both my wife and I smelled a hint of cherry every once in a while.
I thought it was just me until she asked.

I'll most likely stick with KBB while grilling, but I'll use the Weber next time I use the Bullet hoping to get a longer more even burn.
 
Interesting, your experience with the amount of smoke on light up and smell differs from mine.
I found the smoke to be a fair amount less than Kbb, and the smell more campfire-ish, not as much as lump, more like Stubb's.
I'm in total agreement about much less ash, and it falls through the grate easily on its own.
With my twin butt cook, on an 18" WSM, the temps held very steady for a 10 hour cook with no ash knock down.

I do like it, just not enough to pay a buck per pound for another bag.
 
Bob
I guess you are right about the smell. It was more campfire-ish, but as you can see in my picture there was a lot of smoke.
 
Weber has been promoting their charcoal on FB and getting some backlash on the price.
BUT they say the MSRP is $24.99, so $20 is a bargain, right? :rolleyes:

I know it's not grilling season for many folks, but it looks like none has sold at my local HD, the pallet is still full after about 3 weeks.
Haven't checked Lowes where I bought my bag.
 
Bob Correll said:
Weber has been promoting their charcoal on FB and getting some backlash on the price.
BUT they say the MSRP is $24.99, so $20 is a bargain, right? :rolleyes:
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What's up with Weber, first the overpriced Genesis II grills and now $24.99 retail for a 20 pound bag of charcoal!! They're nuts! That's like saying price wise thier charcoal is four times better than KBB, I don't think so. At least with what I've been reading here on the forum.
 
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Down here in Costa Rica I just bought a 7.7Lb bag of "Kingsford Blue" for around $10.00. If this new Kingsford Charcoal ever arrives in Costa Rica it will probably cost around $35.00 plus a bag because of the heavy Import Tax.
 
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I bought a bag and found it comparable to Stubb's. I only grilled with it. I thought the temps were higher than KBB. Smoked about the same as Stubb's IIRC. Definitely less ash than KBB. Again, more like Stubb's. I had a tough time getting the bag open. With kraft paper bags I just whack it open with a cast iron Dutch Oven lid tool (mid evil method). I tried to open this with the pull tab and finally got it after a select moment of 'sweet' talk. Overall: too expensive for what you get IMHO.
 
I'm hoping that with no one going nuts over paying 20 smacks a bag and it rotting on the vine Weber will wise up and drop the price.
I am happy with the results, but the price is way over the top. I'd jump on Stubs but you just don't see it around here.
 
Maybe they are following BGE. Just over price everything so people think it's better. It has to be better because it costs more.
 
JBooker said:
Maybe they are following BGE. Just over price everything so people think it's better. It has to be better because it costs more.
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That's standard for any big name brand. Weber doesn't just sell grills, they see themselves as a lifestyle brand. Such brands charge a premium for anything with their name on it. Doesn't matter if it's Weber, BGE, Apple, Lexus, or anything else. Slapping their name on it will take the price up a decent amount.
 
Rich Dahl said:
What's up with Weber, first the overpriced Genesis II grills and now $24.99 retail for a 20 pound bag of charcoal!! They're nuts! That's like saying price wise thier charcoal is four times better than KBB, I don't think so. At least with what I've been reading here on the forum.
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Let's not forget the new $2,000 charcoal grill. :rolleyes:
 
Very good test, thanks. But as I had already mentioned that someone on the weber fb site stated that the weber coals are made by royal oak. Also to the fact that royal oak makes the coals for the wal mart house brand and that those are bigger coals makes it more intriguing. And yes, the wm coals look exactly like the weber stuff . So maybe a test between the wm house brand and the weber stuff may be in order.
 
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