Bought these the other day on a whim to see if they really give a charcoal flavor. Filled hoper with these ( straight not blended with other pellets). First thing I noticed was the crunching/popping noise every time the auger turned like rocks were in it. Yes for high heat grilling 400 plus degrees it does give a charcoal flavor. Tonight after cooking chicken and shutting grill off ,10-15 minutes later I happened to look out window and my hopper was smoking! Obviously a burn back through auger. Now I’ve been using my pellet grill for 3 years now and never had this happen. The only difference was the pellets. I do not think I will ever buy them again.
by Salt-Fee-9543
21 Comments
I’ve heard they have some uneven lengths that can mess up the auger. I’d like to try them but your and other people’s experience is giving me pause. Hopefully maybe they can fix the uneven length issue? Or maybe it’s something else.
Royal quality is suspect at best. Last time I bought their briquettes. For the Weber kettle bag contained rocks, and a nail.
My experience on a wwp was that the auger wouldn’t slow down enough so the temp would run away. No backfire but even set to 160 the temp kept climbing until it went over 500 and I had to unplug it. 50/50 mix with normal pellets just rant like 40 degrees over set. No noticeable charcoal flavor.
FWIW if I run 350+ on mine I always set it to min temp and let it cool down until it’s dropped below 300ish before starting shutdown sequence. That has completely eliminated backfire for me. This is with any pellets.
Curious what size grill you have? Burn back to the fuel box was a far too common issue with my multiple Traeger 22” grills, I got a larger one and problem gone it never feeds back the theory I’ve heard is the longer auger tube prevents this issue.
Never had any issues using these myself. I suspect you have a clogged auger, dirty burn pot, or clogged smoke stack.
That said, I doing they don’t really have much flavor to them.
At that price, no. I have gotten almost a dozen bags on clearance. By themselves they burn a little hot. I blend them 50/50 with regular pellets. TBH no noticeable flavor difference but they seem to help the smoke keep more consistent temps.
No flavor but I do 75% pellets and 25% charcoal pellets. They burn hotter them straight pellets but I’ve heard they are not a good by themselves. This was my first bag doing the mix I read online and no issues at all but they definitely have some random ass long ones.
Only Kirkland
Thanks for sharing. I saw these the other day in the store and was intrigued but was unsure how they would perform. I’ll stick with my bear mountain pellets I’ve had nothing but great results with them.
To prevent burn back, if you were cooking at +400 , you need to set it at 275 and let it set for about 10 minutes then turn it off and let it go through the cooling phase. I thought this was just common knowledge.
Lumberjack has some “char hickory” mix if you want to use some charcoal. A lot of people seem to like it. I’ve used it once, worked well.
I burn these is a smoke tube. Didn’t notice a significant difference.
My auger didn’t has a problem with them (like a 4 year old pit boss) but they didn’t at all taste like charcoal so I never bought again
I use these but i mix them with hardwood pellets and have zero issues
I have no issues with these, but don’t use them for flavor. I use them on my Searwood when I’m using it in manual mode for lid open high temperature grilling. They work great, definitely hotter.
I got these on sale once. They worked fine for me, mostly for burgers. They didn’t seem special enough to pay the regular price.
(Weber Smokefire ex4)
I blend them in during colder months and they help with pellet consumption and holding temps. Never had an issue
They’re harder than traditional pellets and cause my RT-380X to work harder filling the auger. Because of that, the minimal charcoal flavor and the price, I won’t be buying more.
Bought 12 bags of these at Kroger on closeout for $3 @ bag about 2 years ago right after I got my first pellet cooker. Best decision ever. I still have 2 left. Never had an issue. I use them by themself and mix them with wood pellets as well.
No issue here. Been using these for 2 years.
I had the same experience from the crunching in the auger to the burn-back. It was a fun experiment but I’ll blend them with regular pellets and not buy them again.
Hopefully they do help cut down on the ash, on the bright side.