Royal oak charcoal burn time


 
J

John S.

TVWBB Member
For my Independence Day cook i decided to try Royal Oak charcoal for the first time. Decided to run it just like old Kingsford, heaped my ring full with about 6 chunks of smoke wood on top and spread about 15-20 lit coals evenly around the top around 6:30 yesterday evening. Everything went just like the old K, maybe even better. Rock solid temps with just one adjustment of the lower vents it stayed between 220 to 240 until midnight. I set my alarm to wake me at 4:00 this morning to give it a check and the temp had to fell around 190. I pulled the side cover and was shocked at how little fuel I had left. This was only 10 hours and there wasnt enought to stir and rejuve so I lit 40 or so more in the chimney and brought my temp back to 250 and went back to bed. 7:30 rolls around and the same thing, no fuel, 40 more lit, 250 degrees. When I finally pulled my butts at 11:30 (brisket came off at 7:30)it was nearly out again. Also, it had a strange smell to it while it was cooking and the brisket (that i overtrimmed) also had a bit of the same strange taste. On the plus side, I did notice that RO produces quite a bit less ash than old K but by the time I added all the additional coals it had evened out. Is all this normal for RO? Thanks, John
 
It helps to carefully fit pieces of lump into the ring, leaving little or no space between pieces.

My best burn times with RO were around twelve hours when the weather was still cool here.

I use other brands now for overnighters (B&B, Wicked Good, Picnic) and all can go much longer than RO.

I've gone as little as ten hours too, and maybe could get 14 now while it's hot in fla.

If you are using the brinkman water pan and RO, you may want to go back to the weber pan. You'll get alot more fuel in if you do.
 
John, you mean briqettes not lump, right?

Don't know about the briqs, but Royal Oak lump seemed a little ashy to me when I used 4 bags this spring. I did however like the aroma, had a good woody smell.
 
Were you using the charcoal or the Lump for your cook? I haven't used the charcoal before so I don't have any real experience with it. I use the lump all the time. THe lump works great. You just have to watch for occasional spikes and keep it pretty well packed when your first loading it so you get alot more mass in the ring.
 
I have used the briquettes many times in the past and found them to burn similar to old Kingsford. Full ring lasted as long and quite a bit of ash.

They did smell different while burning but I found it to be a pleasant smell.
 
ime, RO briqs did produce more ash than old K and my perception was that it burned faster, also. As to the later observation, it could have been the result of conditions.

Paul
 
I remember getting 80% of the old Kingsford burn time using RO briqs - not sure how it compares to new K-ford, but I'm guessing RO and the new Kford are similar in burn time.

I think I got 18 hours with one sir of the coals off a RO MM cook.

Never noticed any "off" smells or taste using it.

In fact, I'd still be using it if I hadn't found a stash of old K-ford for $3/bag.
 
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