Used charcoal recovery for reuse


 
Mike - LA

Mike - LA

TVWBB Super Fan
This is my homemade box with expanded metal screen for separating tiny/dust from the reusable. Has worked really well for years. I reuse mostly for hot dogs and other non critical cooks. Lots of good usable charcoal gets thrown away too soon. C026CB8D-41BA-4BDF-B8E5-FFF92658674E.jpegD90CFDF3-DF92-4445-BF0B-91D22AC9D469.jpeg
 
Agree 100%. It's a shame to waste as much as 1/3 of the fuel. That can get expensive. I use a second charcoal grate, with the bars perpendicular to those of the first, to form a grid in the kettle. Once I've smothered the coals after a cook, stirring what's left drops the finer debris through the grid and, as with your method, saves the reusable fuel. Most of the cooks done on the kettle are over an open fire using my Santa Maria attachment. I light the reclaimed charcoal in a chimney with fresh coals added as needed to start a coal bed.
 
that's THE reason i use the Weber CBs. pour over the remaining cold fuel and add fresh atop it and light er up. only what falls back through the grate is done. and the small stuff that stays atop the grate gets shoveled back onto the hot new coals once lit.
 
That’s a nice setup but for the multiple different brands, models and type grills here at the empire I mostly have to scoop or shovel out.
 
Mike - LA said:
That’s a nice setup but for the multiple different brands, models and type grills here at the empire I mostly have to scoop or shovel out.
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Yup. It is a unitasker. It's too tall for a kettle and too small for the wsm 22.
 
I just knock the ash off by shaking charcoal baskets in the kettle, put some fresh in the bottom of the chimney top it off with the previously enjoyed leavings touch it off and start all over again.
I doubt I’ve used full chimneys of fresh coal more than a dozen times in the last year or two.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
I just knock the ash off by shaking charcoal baskets in the kettle, put some fresh in the bottom of the chimney top it off with the previously enjoyed leavings touch it off and start all over again.
I doubt I’ve used full chimneys of fresh coal more than a dozen times in the last year or two.
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Same here.
 
I shake over a trashcan so the dust and fines go in the trash and the usable pieces stay in the chimney starter. Messy as I said with all of the shaking. But now that I am thinking about it, I do have a rig that I use for screening dirt that could be used for the charcoal. It is a screen framed in wood and mounted to wheels and placed over a wheelbarrow, basically like this. That way might be a little less messy.
 
Bob Bailey said:
Agree 100%. It's a shame to waste as much as 1/3 of the fuel. That can get expensive. I use a second charcoal grate, with the bars perpendicular to those of the first, to form a grid in the kettle. Once I've smothered the coals after a cook, stirring what's left drops the finer debris through the grid and, as with your method, saves the reusable fuel. Most of the cooks done on the kettle are over an open fire using my Santa Maria attachment. I light the reclaimed charcoal in a chimney with fresh coals added as needed to start a coal bed.
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That's exactly what I do. The used charcoal ideal for quick cooks
 
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