Used Briquettes Cooler?


 
J Hasselberger

J Hasselberger

TVWBB All-Star
Smoking just 2 lbs. of fresh Kielbasa and I wanted to build a smaller, cooler fire in an 18"WSM. I collected used coals (Kingsford) from various containers around the place and came up with about a third of a chamber-full. Their size varied from about 1/2 to 3/4 normal size. I put 15 lit new coals on top. Even though it's sunny and in the upper 70s today (beautiful), I'm finding it easy to keep the temp below 200. Before I started, the lid temp was 150 from just sitting out in the sun.

My question is, "Do used briquettes burn cooler than new ones?"

Jeff
 
Jeff,
Any given fuel source will combust at it's inherent point. In that there is less surface area on a small piece of charcoal, it's fair to expect fewer over all BTU's heating the confined space of the cooker. You could then expect that using fewer new coals will have a similar effect as using a greater amount of used coals.

...and just throwin' this out there....

Kingsford Competition Briquettes will provide more BTU's cuz there is more actual charcoal and less binder per briquette vs their standard blue bag.
Likewise, lump charcoal

Propane provides more BTU's than natural gas, which is actually a mixture.

A ton of bricks provide no BTU's, but is remarkably similar in weight to a ton of feathers. :-)

Moral of the story? There is no substitute for good vent management.

Brett
 
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My experience, with partially burned KB is that they Minion much slower, probably due to the outside ash, and seem to burn with less heat.
I plan to try them on my next bacon smoke.
 
Face it, at the end of the day most of us are amateurs and we don't do competition BBQ or have aspirations of having our own brand of sauce or our name on a BBQ shack along some local highway. So...... using leftover coals is perfectly fine and will work for almost any type of smoke you are doing (be it a pork butt, a rack of ribs, some ABT's or a few kielbasa's). The "used" coals may burn a little cooler than the fresh ones, but a bunch of used coals can still give you a 250-275 degree cook temp, if that's what you want. You can control the temperature using your vents. The only "rule" I follow is that oldest coals go on the bottom. Oh... and I only use Kingsford Competition.
 
Hmmm. A combination of the ash (Bob) and surface area (Brett) may be a logical explanation. I was a bit stingy in vent management, too, so maybe a combination of all three. I was expecting hotter, since the ambient under the lid was 150. I also just got hip to the fact that KCompetition and lump have less binder and hence less ash. I'm gonna try them.
 
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