Royal Oak charcoal?


 
S

StanSulli

TVWBB Fan
Hey,

I've been using Royal Oak lump charcoal for I guess over 20 years.

Went out to buy some today and had to go to 3 different places. Of course I found it at Walmart, the farthest place for me. They always seem to have it.

While driving around, I happened to think that in 20 years or so I have NEVER seen Royal Oak on sale nor have I ever seen a discount coupon for it anywhere.

Has anyone here ever seen the stuff on sale?

Now Kingsford, which is sold all over the place, seems to have a lot of sales and often has coupons available in the Sunday paper and on the Internet. (I just checked the Internet).

I guess I'm just wondering why the people at Royal Oak are so stingy?

I'm also thinking that it may be time for a change from Royal Oak lump to Kingsford briquettes.

I've always used that Royal Oak lump because I think it gives a real clean, healthier burn.

Do you guys think it burns cleaner than the Kingsford blue or have I been selling myself a bill of goods all this time?
 
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StanSulli said:
Do you guys think it burns cleaner than the Kingsford blue or have I been selling myself a bill of goods all this time?
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I don't know if it burns cleaner, but lump in general doesn't have the fillers and therefore, it's cleaner from an ash and clean up point of view. I like RO lump so we may have been sold the same bill of goods but I think it's better than Kingsford briquettes.

And no, I've never see it on sale.
 
Round here, Menard's puts it on sale twice a year, K-mart and I believe wally world also. When HD had the K sales last year, big bags of RO lump were on sale also.
GFS sells a re-branded huge bag of RO lump that you can get on sale.

Tim
 
lump and briquetts have their uses, the gordon food lump made by RO is pretty good however it has an off smell at start up but work real good and tastes good. rare to see RO on sale, both RO and GFS are 17 lb bags and same price.
 
I called RO today and asked them about sales and coupons.

The woman told me in the history of the company they have NEVER (and she said it loudly) offered any discount coupons.

She also said there prices are constant and whoever buys their products to sell to the public can charge what they want.

She was a pretty cold piece of work for someone working for a charcoal company.:)

So I guess if we do ever see it on sale it's probably a "loss leader" type deal to get people in the store.
 
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Well, I'm a Kingsford fan. I have never found any "trash" in a Kingsford bag (as I have in nearly every bag of lump I have opened) and frankly I get excellent results with Kingsford. I load up with several hundred pounds at a time when they are on sale and have never been disappointed.

But, that's just me...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Robert,

Maybe it's time for me to "learn" a new charcoal. But I've been using the RO so long I know how much to use for what I'm cooking and when to add more and so on.

But if that woman's attitude is indicative of the company as a whole, they don't seem to care much about their customers. Her attitude seemed to be, "If you don't like it use something else. We'll survive without you buying RO."

I was kinda surprised.
 
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I used RO exclusively for a LONG time. Now I dry jerky, bacon, Buckboard bacon, smoke kielbasa, etc and I have to have a consistent predictable temp control. I can only get that with a consistent predictable charcoal so I went with Kingsford. I am not really into borax, limestone, anthrocite coal, etc but I have to hold certain temps for cetain times and I do not use an ATC. You also have to wait until the lit heats up the cooker before the "bad" smoke stops but it will given enough time.

Interestingly, I can't remember if it ever went on sale or not.
 
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StanSulli said:
I've always used that Royal Oak lump because I think it gives a real clean, healthier burn.

Do you guys think it burns cleaner than the Kingsford blue or have I been selling myself a bill of goods all this time?
Click to expand...

When I was using Kingsford blue bag, I felt like I had a hard time differentiating between the rubs I was using. I gave Royal Oak a try one day, and immediately felt like I could 'taste' the rubs much better.
 
I picked up some twin packs of RO briqs last year at local hardware store - they were on sale. So I believe it is solely up to the purveyor. While I like RO, particularly for it's lower ash production, I do find it very inconsistent - even the briqs. I'm also a serial "re-user" of charcoal and have not had much success with RO when re-using. I use mostly KBB due to price, consistency and re-usability.
 
I can tell you the big W store sells it cheaper than the big HD store where I live. By about 3 bucks! So while I have never seen it on sale, you can find it cheaper if you look around. That said I only use RO from time to time, I find the bags very greatly in size and smell. Which is just annoying. I actually find the clean up more cumbersome with lump. Some of it NEVER burns and I have to clean it out manually. With briquettes all you need to do is use the One Touch system. I think lump adds a level of excitement for some people. I get that.
 
Walmart runs a sale on RO here in SC during the major grilling holidays, just a bigger bag. I personally never liked all the fragments and dust in the bags.
 
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