Reusing charcoal


 
D

Daum

TVWBB Super Fan
Hey guys -

I know there have been a few threads in the past. The past few cooks I've had I've had a bunch of left over charcoal (KB), each time I just close the events and then restack it into my basket and light it again. Recently I've been noticing that even a full basket of reused charcoal isn't burning that hot at all and takes forever to light. Any ideas why? I make sure to give it a good shake to get off any ash on it.

One benefit I've seen though of reusing the charcoal is that there isn't tons of smoke when I first light it up unlike fresh KB....much nicer given some of my neighbors have windows ~10 feet from my bbq spot.

I only used lump once (came with a grill off CL I got) and if I recall that burns/lights much much cleaner. I don't recall how the reuse of the wood went, for smaller short cooks what do you use?

Daum
 
Hi Daum,

I agree with your observation about used briqs not burning as hot and taking longer to light. Perhaps part of the reason is that some of the compounds in the charcoal were fully burned off when it was lit the first time, leaving a "purer" product. This explains the reduction in smoke and the longer lighting time.

This is purely my observation, and others may disagree, but I've personally found that lump charcoal doesn't seem to snuff out as well as briqs if you're trying to save it for the next cook. Seems like it continues to burn, very slowly, even at the lower oxygen level with all the vents closed.
 
I imagine quite a bit of it is still ash even after shaking it off. I reuse my charcoal if I don't need high heat. Otherwise I don't
 
Matt H. said:
I imagine quite a bit of it is still ash even after shaking it off. I reuse my charcoal if I don't need high heat. Otherwise I don't
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I agree with Matt on this, too. I do snuff and save charcoal, but that's what I use when I just want to grill some hot dogs or something fast. I hate firing up new charcoal only to cook hot dogs or something that's done in less than 10 minutes and doesn't need a sear. Used briqs are perfect for this.
 
I found that my left over briquettes draws in moisture. Won't burn as hot and takes longer to start.

No problem with lump charcoal. Cutting the air practically kills the fire right away for me.

Sorry, going to add to your question. Do you guys leave the vent open after the charcoal is out? Wondering if this will dry out the charcoal after, or add more moisture.
 
When I reuse charcoal I always put down some new charcoal at the bottom of the basket or chimney, one reason is that the reused stuff can fall right through. However by putting reused charcoal on top of new charcoal, for me the fire is ready as normal. I agree that you can't hit the high heat with used charcoal or a mixture of new and used, so I only go with used charcoal when cooking low and indirect. I have a whole bucket of used charcoal that I can't just throw away.
 
After grilling, I'll snuff out the charcoal, wait for the kettle lid to cool, and put the cover on, with the vents still closed. The next day, I go back in to salvage the coals. If I'm using CharBaskets I'll just dump as much as is left into the basket into a small metal garbage can. If I'm not using CharBaskets, I just pick it up from the grill by hand and put it in the metal garbage can. While it's in that can, I shake it around enough to knock most of the white ash off, and then collect the used briqs in a 5 gallon bucket. I mix used lump into this bucket too, if I have any. Sometimes I'll get rid of the ash by adding it to my kitchen garbage bag before throwing it in the big garbage can in the garage. This seems to keep the garbage smell down a bit in my garage, where I like to hang out.
 
I close down all vents in my smokers and grills after removing the food. Afterwards, I shovel all of the used charcoal (any that doesn't fall through the grates) a bit roughly to knock off any ash. I then store it in one of my grills until the next cook. I use only new charcoal in my smokers as these are normally long cooks and I want/need consistency. However, all of the used charcoal is used on any short cooks (less than an hour or so) on the grills. In my chimney, I put new briqs in the bottom (one layer, only) then fill the chimney with used. I don't see any difference in the heat for any normal cook. However, my typical set up uses two fire bricks that make a two level fire (direct and indirect) so my live coals are closer to the food grate than if I dumped them in the bottom of the grill spread all over the grate.

At any rate, this gives me a greater return on my charcoal "investment", requires less charcoal over the year, and also reduces my garbage level. Plus, being "C...." er-r-r, "Frugal" and I LIKE saving money and at the same time "doing good" (all tree huggers, note;)).

Waste not, want not...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
James Lake said:
When I reuse charcoal I always put down some new charcoal at the bottom of the basket or chimney, one reason is that the reused stuff can fall right through. However by putting reused charcoal on top of new charcoal, for me the fire is ready as normal. I agree that you can't hit the high heat with used charcoal or a mixture of new and used, so I only go with used charcoal when cooking low and indirect. I have a whole bucket of used charcoal that I can't just throw away.
Click to expand...

Same Here, throw some fresh coals on the bottom and mix a few new with some used in a chimney and i'm good to go most of the time.
 
Matthew Y said:
Do you guys leave the vent open after the charcoal is out? Wondering if this will dry out the charcoal after, or add more moisture.
Click to expand...

I leave all the vents closed out of laziness and have never noticed a problem, but I'm in a not very humid place. i also leave the used charcoal in the kettle. if i want to reuse it, i generally fill the starter 1/3 with new and dump the used charcoal on top of it. in the weber smoker i just put new charcoal on top of the old charcoal which I'm sure isn't ideal, but as i said I'm pretty lazy.
 
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