Hmmm. One thing I didn't really take into account till BFletcher posted the link is that ALL Weber bags are 20 lb. Kingsford has something like 17 LB and snuck in the sneaky 13 lb. So while yea 15 bucks for a bag of weber sounds kind of high. The fact it is 20 lbs makes it not quite so bad. And figure if you want to smoke a brisket overnight,and that if you fill your smoker with Weber you probably won't have to get up at 3:30 or 4 oclock in the morning to stoke the fire. Weber starts to sound like a pretty good deal.
No Weber Charcoal!!!
- Thread starter Robert-R
- Start date
BFletcher
TVWBB Honor Circle
Food for thought. In my 2 1/2 years of smoking I've only used KBB thus far; I need to experiment!
russ olin
Closed Account
Wow, I just love a guud charcoal war. lol....I'm with Lou I only burn lump too. Gee, I hope I'm not confused also. Just having a little fun.
Will be doing dino beef ribs on Saturday on old leaky. Guud old Jealous Devil lump with hickory chunks. Gonna be a lot of fun.
Hope everyone else has a guud time too.
Be kool everyone.
Will be doing dino beef ribs on Saturday on old leaky. Guud old Jealous Devil lump with hickory chunks. Gonna be a lot of fun.
Hope everyone else has a guud time too.
Be kool everyone.
Rich Dahl
R.I.P. 7/21/2024
It's funny, I went out to my charcoal shed to take inventory because of the HD sale on Kingsford. Guess what I found buried under twin bags of KBB.... My sample box of Weber's charcoal, forgot all about it. Think I'll just hold on to it, don't want to get any more confused than I am.
Guess I'll have to try some lump, only used a partial bag I got with a used performer I bought years ago. Well maybe not that might get that confused thing going again.
Guess I'll have to try some lump, only used a partial bag I got with a used performer I bought years ago. Well maybe not that might get that confused thing going again.
Last edited:
Rich Dahl
R.I.P. 7/21/2024
Going to be smoking a brisket on smoke day. Last rain if you could call it that was early December, not a drop since then. The city of Prescott has a no open flame outdoors in effect. Here we are still in a stage two which mostly affects the national forests around us.
Weber Briquettes are a godsend for my 14-inch WSM
Thank you everyone for drawing my attention to this charcoal, your experiences, and tests. I've used regular Kingsford (KBB) in my 18-inch Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) (Model 2820) since I bought in 2003. I loved the WSM so much, that I bought the 14-inch WSM (Model 711001) in 2013.
I never had an issue maintaining temperatures or needing to refuel the 18-inch WSM, spare for some very long brisket cooks, but the 14-inch has been a bit more finicky with the KBB in terms of temperatures and keeping it fueled for four-plus hours. I suspect this had to do with the amount of ash produced by the KBB combined with the smaller volume afforded by the 14-inch WSM's lower bowl. So much so, that I switched over to lump exclusively in the 14-inch for the past couple of years. The move to lump seemed to enable solid 5+ hour cooks, but lump being lump, while it did not require re-fueling, it did require much more attention in terms of maintaining consistent temperatures, working the vents back and forth and moving some lumps around throughout the cook.
Fast forward to this thread, I was picking up a couple of the double 18.6 lbs. KBB packages during the $10 sale at Home Depot, saw a skid of the 20 lb. bags of Weber Briquettes for $17 each and figured I'd give it a try on the 14-inch WSM.
What a difference! Basically using the Minion Method, I stacked the Weber Briquettes in a single row (varying from 3-4 briquettes high) along the inside of the charcoal ring, I then filled the center of the ring with hot coals from a half-full Weber Compact Chimney Starter (Model 7447) (~ 9 briquettes). With the lower bowl vents approximately 1/4 open, the thing was at 280-degrees (temps taken from a Maverick ET-732) almost in an instant! I then closed the lower bowl vents to a sliver. That (along with any leakage coming from the side door) got me at 235-250 degrees for the next 6 hours! Other than a temperature dip around the 4.5 hour mark, when I opened up the lower vents to about 40%, I didn't have to do a single thing with respect to the coals. For the first time since I have had the 14-inch WSM, I was able to essentially "set it and forget it" thanks to the Weber Briquettes. As noted in the test done here, there was plenty of ash in my lower bowl after using the Weber Briquettes, but, rather than inhibiting the burn time and temperatures inside the 14-inch WSM (like the KBB seemingly does) it was simply the by-product of full consistent cook in my little smoker.
I'm sure the KBB will continue to serve me and the 18-inch WSM fine, but now I can reserve my lump for hot and fast cooks on my 22-inch Weber Kettle and regular Smokey Joe (not to mention, thereby saving a little cash), and use the Weber Briquettes for the 14-inch WSM. Accordingly, a couple of days ago I went to my local Home Depot and picked up an additional two 20 lbs. bags of the stuff at $11.99 per bag with them doing a price match Lowe's price. I'd have liked to have bought a couple more than that, but with a few bags of KBB, a few bags of Rockwell and Fogo lump, plus my first bag of Weber Briquettes already taking up space in the shed, that wasn't going to work.
I figure the ~ 55 pounds of the Weber that I have now will get me through to next year.
Again, thank you all for your information and experiences. These Weber Briquettes have given me a new found peace of mind and more time to do other things when using my 14-inch WSM. I don't know if others will have the same positive experience I've just had, but I hope my experience will encourage anyone sitting on the fence to pick up a bag and give it a try (if you can find it in stock!).
I did the same!
Thank you everyone for drawing my attention to this charcoal, your experiences, and tests. I've used regular Kingsford (KBB) in my 18-inch Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) (Model 2820) since I bought in 2003. I loved the WSM so much, that I bought the 14-inch WSM (Model 711001) in 2013.
I never had an issue maintaining temperatures or needing to refuel the 18-inch WSM, spare for some very long brisket cooks, but the 14-inch has been a bit more finicky with the KBB in terms of temperatures and keeping it fueled for four-plus hours. I suspect this had to do with the amount of ash produced by the KBB combined with the smaller volume afforded by the 14-inch WSM's lower bowl. So much so, that I switched over to lump exclusively in the 14-inch for the past couple of years. The move to lump seemed to enable solid 5+ hour cooks, but lump being lump, while it did not require re-fueling, it did require much more attention in terms of maintaining consistent temperatures, working the vents back and forth and moving some lumps around throughout the cook.
Fast forward to this thread, I was picking up a couple of the double 18.6 lbs. KBB packages during the $10 sale at Home Depot, saw a skid of the 20 lb. bags of Weber Briquettes for $17 each and figured I'd give it a try on the 14-inch WSM.
What a difference! Basically using the Minion Method, I stacked the Weber Briquettes in a single row (varying from 3-4 briquettes high) along the inside of the charcoal ring, I then filled the center of the ring with hot coals from a half-full Weber Compact Chimney Starter (Model 7447) (~ 9 briquettes). With the lower bowl vents approximately 1/4 open, the thing was at 280-degrees (temps taken from a Maverick ET-732) almost in an instant! I then closed the lower bowl vents to a sliver. That (along with any leakage coming from the side door) got me at 235-250 degrees for the next 6 hours! Other than a temperature dip around the 4.5 hour mark, when I opened up the lower vents to about 40%, I didn't have to do a single thing with respect to the coals. For the first time since I have had the 14-inch WSM, I was able to essentially "set it and forget it" thanks to the Weber Briquettes. As noted in the test done here, there was plenty of ash in my lower bowl after using the Weber Briquettes, but, rather than inhibiting the burn time and temperatures inside the 14-inch WSM (like the KBB seemingly does) it was simply the by-product of full consistent cook in my little smoker.
I'm sure the KBB will continue to serve me and the 18-inch WSM fine, but now I can reserve my lump for hot and fast cooks on my 22-inch Weber Kettle and regular Smokey Joe (not to mention, thereby saving a little cash), and use the Weber Briquettes for the 14-inch WSM. Accordingly, a couple of days ago I went to my local Home Depot and picked up an additional two 20 lbs. bags of the stuff at $11.99 per bag with them doing a price match Lowe's price. I'd have liked to have bought a couple more than that, but with a few bags of KBB, a few bags of Rockwell and Fogo lump, plus my first bag of Weber Briquettes already taking up space in the shed, that wasn't going to work.
I figure the ~ 55 pounds of the Weber that I have now will get me through to next year.Again, thank you all for your information and experiences. These Weber Briquettes have given me a new found peace of mind and more time to do other things when using my 14-inch WSM. I don't know if others will have the same positive experience I've just had, but I hope my experience will encourage anyone sitting on the fence to pick up a bag and give it a try (if you can find it in stock!).