Frontier Lump vs. Royal Oak Lump

[CharliefromLI]

I need to get some lump charcoal once i finish the end of my current stash.

Frontier and Royal oak are widely available locally. I have had good results with royal oak, but i haven't tried frontier yet.

BJ's has it cheap. How does it compare with Royal oak? Better, worse, same?

[OoPEZoO]

I've had good luck with both.  I'd get whatever is cheaper.  For me, the Royal Oak seemed to fire off more sparks when lighting it in the chimney, but still not bad.  I have nothing bad to say about the Frontier I've cooked with.  Its always been great.

Once upon a time I got a bag of Humphrey's lump charcoal with a performer I picked up.  It was downright scary with the amount of sparks it shot out of the chimney.  It reminded me of a 4th of July fireworks show.  I used it up eventually, but kept it the hell away from my house and deck.

[1buckie]

Frontier is a good, standard all-around type deal.....not crazy expensive, not as "exciting" as some brands, burns for a decent time, pretty nice heat.....

If you have spark problems....



....just cap it off....

[CharliefromLI]

@1buckie i always love your pictoral posts.
1. they are great demonstrations of your techniques

2. the photos of your collection and yard are always entertaining.

I think this site needs to do "MTV WKC Cribs", your place would definitely be the first episode 

[1buckie]

@CharliefromLI


Golly's  place that he just sold would be on the up list.....

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/off-topic/gollys-gadial-ganing/

Brian's yard, with Mesa Azul......



Terry's place with all the 18's & Smokey's ............



When people take them out for show & shine or cleaning, there's always stories about the neighbors hanging over the fence & gawking.....

[mike.stavlund]

@CharliefromLI I've been waiting for the same sale at BJ's, so I bought some Royal Oak at Home Depot when it was on sale a couple weeks back, and I LOVED it.  I'm only a few cooks into my new stash of (made in USA) Frontier, so I can't be entirely fair about comparing it.  But I'd say they are very close in quality.  The Frontier tends to have much larger chunks, while the few bags of RO I've tried are much more consistent.  It's a pain to chop those chunks down to size, but I suppose that's still a lot better than buying lump with tiny pieces in the bags...

Also I must be getting old because those 35lb bags of Frontier are getting a bit heavy to tip into a chimney...

Bottom line, IMO it's too close to call.  I'd go with whatever was cheaper, or easier to get.