New member from Austalia-charcoal problems


 
P

Peter Brigg

New member
Hello there-I have a Weber "Flying Saucer" type Weber BBQ-the older style cooker-oval when viewed from the side and circular when viewed from the top.
Not the biggest size- you could cook two chickens or one chicken and some vegetables at one cooking.

I have been trying to cook using charcoal plus a few briquettes to get a longer cooking time and the results are erratic-sometimes perfect sometimes the fire goes out and sometimes a bit too hot.

Recently I made a pyramid of about 8 briquettes and built up the charcoal around this-it went well.
I make my own charcoal out of hardwood-it seems fairly dense and chunky.

Can anyone offer some advice on using charcoal?
A local Australian Weber agent said flatly tht chatcoal is not suitable to use in a Weber. Is he right? Surely they were originally designed to use charcoal.

I am a new person in this business and any help is appreciated.

Regards
Peter
 
Welcome Peter. Glad to have you my friend. I am unsure what type Grill you have but if it's a Kettle like in the photo below it is definitely intended to use charcoal. Weber in the USA does recommend Briquettes. However, I use lump charcoal more often than not.

If your fire is going out there are only two things to look at: if you have heat, you either have an oxygen problem or bad fuel. I'd check a cpl things: ensure your vents aren't blocked and ensure your charcoal has not been absorbing moisture or is wet.

 
First of all, I'd buy a few bags of coal/briquettes from someone who have a rather large turnover, and see if the problem is the same, just to check if the fuel is the problem.

Charcoal normally burns hotter than briquettes, and more inconsistent. Usually it is not a problem at all.

I've used charcoal in my Webers lots of times, without any problems. It's just a bit more difficult to aim in the right temperature.
 
Do you have problems with the lump charcoal alone or is it only a problem when mixing charcoal and briquettes? It may be related to having two types of fuel that don't burn the same, one fuel may be catching or burning out before the other causing a change in the amount of lit fuel. If you always add some briquettes I would try charcoal alone and see how it goes.
 
All I use is lump charcoal so the Weber guy is out to lunch on that one. They say that in the manual to avoid warranty issues if you get the cooker to hot and destroy the finish on the bowl. Try buying a bag of lump charcoal and trying that. Maybe the stuff your making isn't burn't down enough or is getting damp?

Welcome to the forum.
 
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