Recycled Charcoal Question


 
M

M Hill

New member
How spent is too spent to re-use?

Had my second cook yesterday on my 18.5 (a whole chicken, slaughterhouse brined and smoked to near perfection at 300 deg for 3 hrs), and coming from an ECB, I am new to the concept of being able to shut down the smoker once meat is done. I used the Standard Method, 1 chimney KB lit, topped with 1 unlit. Today I cleaned the the coals and most of them lit, but many did not burn 100%. Can I reuse coals that have ash on the outside but solid on the inside?

First cook I used Minion, and had plenty of untouched coals to save, but am not sure about half cooked briquettes...

Did I mention I LOVE my WSM? It's as close to set-it and forget-it as I'd like when smoking meat! Only 2 cooks in, and am amazed at the amount of heat control and stability!
 
I re-used once and it wasn't worth the hassle IMO. I take the top and middle section off after I'm done smoking and set the grates on the bottom section to heat them up and scrape them with the brush. It makes the clean up go smooth.
 
I've never reused in my WSM but reuse in my Performer all the time. The old ones are the ones I put in my starter chimney first, with new ones on top. It's usually about a 2:1 ratio of new to old. Figure at the very least those old ones are helping to get the new ones started.

I'll just keep putting in old ones until they either get so used they fall to the bottom of the Performer's bowl, or crumble into pieces when I try to pick them up with my charcoal tongs.
 
I always reuse my charcoal. I take the left over coals from the WSM and put them in my OTG. I keep using it till they fall through the grates. When I light it in the chimney I place a layer of new charcoal on the bottom as I think it lights better and then put the used coals on top.
 
I reuse mine in the performer but in the WSM I will always start with fresh. When I am done using the WSM, I will just transfer it over to the perfomer.
 
MikeD125 said:
I reuse mine in the performer but in the WSM I will always start with fresh. When I am done using the WSM, I will just transfer it over to the perfomer.
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Same here as far as briquettes go. I will reuse leftover lump in the WSM, unless the pieces have gotten too small to mess with.
 
I reuse my any left over briquettes in my performer. I always put the old ones in the bottom of the chimney and fill up with new on top. Three reasons for this:
- as I live in a humid coastal area, the used ones may be damped and keeping them in the bottom of the chimney means that they are more exposed to flames when I light up
- it is easier to so how much I need to add
- the smaller used ones will sit on top of the old ones when the chimney is emptied out on the grate, hence few fall through the grate
 
Svein said:
- it is easier to so how much I need to add
Click to expand...

This is the big reason I put the old on the bottom, too. Knowing myself, if I didn't, I would frequently be going way overboard on my estimates about how much charcoal is needed for a cook.
 
I reuse by placing the fresh lit over the used. Seems to work well enough.
Can always add some later if needed, which is seldom.
 
I'm a "noob" having only been smoking on my WSM for about three months. But I have always reused the leftover coals. I keep anything that does not fall or get caught between the grates after giving the rack a good shaking. I just leave them on the grate, re-assemble the WMS, open all the vents and put the WSM in a weather-proof area for the next smoke. Like another poster, I will usually use leftovers first for my chimney starter (I use the Minion method almost exclusively). It's all the same charcoal. A half-burned briquette burns the exact same way as an unburned one.
 
I reuse all the time. I did the mod to use long U bolts as handles on the charcoal grate and to hold the ring in place. When I am done cooking I shut everything down and once cooled cover the smoker. The next use I shake out the left over coals, clean out the ashes and then put fresh charcoal on top of the old charcoal. I have never had an issue either. Heck some of the charcoal in the bottom of my WSM has had to of been there for 4 or more months before it actually was burned up fully. I just think the ring works best when it is full and the old coals light fine, even in humid summers and frigid cold Minnesota winters.
 
I re-use always. But I'm 100% lump user so can't say much about re-using briquettes other than re-using hardwood charcoal briquettes. I only use the briquettes typically for lighting so they don't see a second fire that often. But they have worked well.

Lump doesn't have near the ash as briquettes. So IMHO it's very easy to just put on a rubber glove (or not) the day after and just gently work through and work off any ash and let it fall through the grates. I have dual fuel grates at right angles in the WSM and the Performer. This keeps smaller pieces from passing through. Anything smaller than those squares I don't care much about.

Used lump, and lump briquettes re-use very nicely. So much so that I really don't worry much about how much I put into the ring on the WSM as I am controlling temp anyway and shutting down turns things of pretty quicly. I just shake out and re-use. I have a large fuel pan from a Brinkmans (crappy bullet :)) that I toss the used in and keep it aside. I reach for that first when starting a cook. In the Performer of course I am more focused on amount of charcoal as that has a lot to do with temp control than in the WSM.

With lump, even if it get's wet it will dry out and burn just fine. Same with Hardwood briquettes. Not sure that works with standard, kingsford style fuel as they have other elements that don't handle water well.

I don't see any reason not to reuse standard briquettes though unless there's some issue with lighting them the second time.

As size that is too small - basically anything that doesn't fit through the "cross hatch" created by the dual grates gets re-used.

I typically place the used on the bottom of the chimney or in the case of the WSM on the bottom of the fuel pile as I add the amount of lit I need on top.
 
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Yep... I reuse too. Mostly in my Performer or SJS. WSM usually always gets new (only because all old get used up for regular cooks) but sometimes have some used in the middle of minion pile on a few smokes. Nothing wrong with it IMO.
 
I only use lump in wsm and if it isn't gone, it is still the same as when I started it, charcoal from hardwood so I reuse it, just not in comps simply because it is too hard to transport.
 
I reuse all types of charcoal. If you're going to do a high heat cook, like 325+ use only new charcoal.
 
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