Lump Charcoal vs Briquettes for Smoking: What Tests Found

Close-up view of glowing charcoal embers with dark wood, creating a warm and dramatic effect.

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Lump charcoal and briquettes both work for smoking, but the claims about them (hotter, longer, cleaner, tastier) do not all survive testing. This article sets out what America’s Test Kitchen measured with help from the USDA’s Forest Products Laboratory, what AmazingRibs.com and The Virtual Weber Bullet report, and what two kamado makers, Kamado Joe and Big Green Egg, say about their own fuels.

Burn Time

America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) tested two briquette brands and three lump brands. A full chimney of briquettes gave about 2.5 to 3.5 hours of cooking time, defined as temperatures above 300°F (149°C). The same volume of lump gave about 40 minutes to 2 hours. ATK’s chimney held roughly 6 quarts, which weighed 5-6 pounds in briquettes but only 2-4 pounds in lump.

AmazingRibs describes a similar Cook’s Illustrated test: two six-quart chimneys, one lump and one briquettes. By volume the two burned about the same for roughly 30 minutes, after which briquettes held heat longer and lump turned to ash faster. The Virtual Weber Bullet calls it the general consensus that briquettes burn longer and more consistently.

The makers are less uniform. Kamado Joe says lump burns hotter, less evenly and quicker than briquettes. Big Green Egg says its own lump burns hotter and longer. These are statements about different products from ATK’s, so they are not a direct contradiction of the tests, but they are marketing statements, not test results.

Heat

ATK reports that Forest Products Laboratory researchers found lump has more potential energy per gram in a bomb calorimeter. In real chimney tests, though, briquettes reached average peak temperatures of 666 to 729°F (352-387°C) against about 546 to 664°F (286-351°C) for lump. The researchers named the heavier weight of briquettes in a full chimney as one of the biggest reasons, and said heat depends on mass, density, size, arrangement and airflow. AmazingRibs’ science advisor Prof. Greg Blonder makes a similar point: irregular lumps can nestle together and impair airflow. AmazingRibs adds that a hotter fuel only matters if you want high heat, since you can lower the temperature by using less charcoal or less air.

Ash

ATK found lump produced a smaller volume of ash per chimney. AmazingRibs says lump leaves less ash because it has no binders, which matters in kamados with little room for ash to collect, and that binder-containing briquettes typically produce more. Both kamado makers claim less ash from lump.

The Virtual Weber Bullet’s 2022 briquette-only test shows “briquette” is not one number. After a 2-hour uncontrolled burn, ash was 19% of pre-burn weight for Kingsford Original, 11% for Franklin Barbecue and 12% for B&B Competition Oak. The Virtual Weber Bullet’s own conclusion was that Franklin produced the least ash and Kingsford the most by weight.

Consistency and Contents

ATK found briquettes very uniform, while lump varied by brand and within a bag: one had mostly 4-inch cubes, another ran from powder to 7-inch slabs. About 20 to 50 percent of the lump it surveyed was too small to use, or contained foreign objects such as rocks. AmazingRibs likewise says lump varies in heat output per pound and often carries carbon dust.

On additives, sources differ in detail. AmazingRibs lists Kingsford’s standard bag as containing anthracite coal, mineral charcoal, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone, borax and sawdust. The Virtual Weber Bullet lists similar ingredients but notes that Kingsford confirmed sodium nitrate was discontinued as an ignition aid in 2005-2006. Both say the additives serve purposes such as binding, ashing and ignition.

Flavor and Which to Choose

In ATK’s blind tests, tasters could not reliably tell lump from briquettes. AmazingRibs agrees that properly made lump tastes close to neutral, but says lumps that are not fully carbonized can add unpredictable wood smoke. Its author prefers briquettes for low-and-slow cooking and lump for hot, fast cooking. Both kamado makers favor lump in their own guides. By contrast, USDA’s smoker instructions assume “commercial charcoal briquettes or aromatic wood chips,” and Weber’s Smokey Mountain handbook gives fuel quantities for Weber briquettes.

ATK notes that using one kind consistently teaches you how hot it gets and how long it burns, and AmazingRibs recommends picking one briquette brand and sticking with it for a year.

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