Charcoal logs

Ringburner

Ringburner

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Anyone tried these charcoal logs?
20120816_113230.jpg


They are Chinese made and are apparently made from sawdust.
I'm told they burn longer than lump and have no fillers or binders (this cannot be true??)....

At $20NZD (around $16USD) for 10kg they are quite cheap too....

Reckon they will be any good on a WSM?

Sent from my GT-I9100
 
Extruded charcoal. I've heard they are dense and hard to light, but they burn clean and long. So they should be good. No guarantees as I've never used 'em, but have heard lots of good things about them (other than the complaints that they are hard to light).
 
We have similar in the Philippines, but not a log, more a tube about 3 inches long. Slow to burn, good heat but not as hot as the local lump. I use a mix of the Chinese briquette and local lump for smoking.

tubularrulerw.jpg
 
This stuff in Australia is called "Robot Poop"

It does burn clean, but also burns pretty fast. Has no real weight to it as it's reconstituted and extruded.

Main thing is that it contributes nothing in the way of smoke flavour to a cook. Real lump charcoal will still give you some hint of smoke to your BBQ even if you don't use wood chips or chips or chunks, but Robot Poop has nothing.

My recommendation is to get real lump charcoal from a hardwood tree or root. If you can't get that in NZ, then make sure you add some good smoking wood to the Rbot Poop and you will get some flavor and some increased smoking time.

I sorta equate Robot Poop with Match Lite

Cheers!

Bill
 
Naked Wiz has some info on his website about it:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpextruded.htm

Heavy edit:
First of all, what is "Chinese Lump"? .. This charcoal was made in China, thus the reference to "Chinese Lump". However, this lump was unlike any other lump we had ever seen before....

The next surprise, and probably the biggest surprise, ... The lump was hexagonal logs about 2 inches across that had a hole down the middle. Each log was about 6 inches long. ...

Another surprise was how difficult it was to light this strange new lump. ..

The final surprise was how long this lump lasted: almost forever...

The bottom line general concensus on this stuff was that it was great for extending the life of your regular lump, but most people didn't care to use it by itself. Mixing with regular lump made lighting easier, for one thing.
Click to expand...
 
I personally am somewhat suspicious of some products from China that are going to be in or around my food. Too many documented issues of poor choice of chemicals and processes that are harmful to humans (at least on this side of the pond). Too often choices are made that maximize profit at the expense of safety. I am referring to melamine in baby formula and milk and vegetables that have been fertilized with human waste, which many westerners have not developed antibodies against. What binders are used in the manufacturing process? Just a little bit too much unregulated commerce to feel comfortable here and generally beyond coincidence. BTW, my wife is originally from Taiwan, and she will not eat certain products from China as they are not considered acceptable for consumption. Just my opinion and not a reflection of anything I "know" about this product, it may be perfectly fine for use. And like everyone else, we do have and use Chinese made products in our house.
 
BettysNephew said:
I personally am somewhat suspicious of some products from China that are going to be in or around my food. Too many documented issues of poor choice of chemicals and processes that are harmful to humans (at least on this side of the pond). Too often choices are made that maximize profit at the expense of safety. I am referring to melamine in baby formula and milk and vegetables that have been fertilized with human waste, which many westerners have not developed antibodies against. What binders are used in the manufacturing process? Just a little bit too much unregulated commerce to feel comfortable here and generally past coincidence. BTW, my wife is originally from Taiwan, and she will not eat certain products from China as they are not considered acceptable for consumption. Just my opinion and not a reflection of anything I "know" about this product, it may be perfectly fine for use. And like everyone else, we do have and use Chinese made products in our house.
Click to expand...

Yep, just a bit of cadmium, lead, copper, or mercury in these things and down the road you come up with heavy metals poisoning, and how could you trace it back for sure ?

Bill
 
Ringburner said:
I'm inclined to agree.... This will be to one and only box I buy.

Thanks for your thoughts, I WAS going to use it heavily in my wsm

Sent from my GT-I9100
Click to expand...

I'd probably buy a box too just for giggles :)...........robot poop :)
 
While not a big fan of "made in China", saw dust usually is just that. Coconut hulls are also usually pretty free from heavy industrial metals. If they have fewer filler ingredients, they should produce less ash and good heat. Those are not bad characteristics in my book. The review by NakedWhiz was quite eye opening for me and answered a lot of questions I had about the only pressed briquettes available in the Philippines.

All things considered, if I was in the USA, I'd buy local before overseas, provided the cost difference was not unbearable.
 
Tatoosh said:
While not a big fan of "made in China", saw dust usually is just that. Coconut hulls are also usually pretty free from heavy industrial metals. If they have fewer filler ingredients, they should produce less ash and good heat. Those are not bad characteristics in my book. The review by NakedWhiz was quite eye opening for me and answered a lot of questions I had about the only pressed briquettes available in the Philippines.

All things considered, if I was in the USA, I'd buy local before overseas, provided the cost difference was not unbearable.
Click to expand...

I work every day with a part of a product that is made from "sawdust" and we DO find metal in them sometimes, who knows what kind of metal. And in china who even knows what is in their "steel". I read a post somewhere by a guy whose company had sourced some tanks from China to be made of a given grade of stainless, on assay it was not even close to spec.

Bill
 
Robot poop I needed a laugh and you gave me one Thank You for that!

Oh i live in Rhode Island and someone makes a product called smart wood i believe, as an alternitive to fire wood for heating with a wood stove. This product is supposed to be just compressed hardwood sawdust but i never trusted it for my wood stove doubt i would cook with it either.
 
Tatoosh said:
While not a big fan of "made in China", saw dust usually is just that. Coconut hulls are also usually pretty free from heavy industrial metals. If they have fewer filler ingredients, they should produce less ash and good heat. Those are not bad characteristics in my book. The review by NakedWhiz was quite eye opening for me and answered a lot of questions I had about the only pressed briquettes available in the Philippines.

All things considered, if I was in the USA, I'd buy local before overseas, provided the cost difference was not unbearable.
Click to expand...


In the Philippines, just stick to what the locals do. I'm pretty sure they are using coconut shells and local woods as always. Steer clear of that other crap.

There are a few other brothers from the Philippines that pop in occationally. I wish they'd stay a little longer. I really like what they put up.

Cheers!

Bill
 
I don't use charcoal and sure not going to use CHina made charcoal.
 
Looks like what the Koreans use for under-the-floor charcoal home heating.
 
Used these a few times now and they are absolutely awesome.
Shame about the potential for harmful compounds in them.

They burn clean as, are a moderate/high temperature for about 5-7 hours.

Wish I knew what's in them, definitely a product I'd like to keep using.....

Sent from my GT-I9100
 
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