I bought two bags of Royal Oak All Natural Briquettes at Wal Mart and tried them on the last cook. Had one chimney fully lit poured on some old coals from the last cook in my slow n sear and it burned for 5 hours with all vents open. Baked potatoes for the first part of the cook, then seared some filets. I was very pleased with it. I've read that these are the same as the Weber charcoal that used to be here - made by Royal Oak. $8 for a 16lb bag isn't bad.
I will have to check our local Walmart and see if they carry that. I picked up a bag of whatever their house brand is (“Expert Grill” or some such hoo-ha) just because it was cheap (around five bucks for 16 lbs) so I figured it was worth a try. Small briquettes, crumbly, real coarse texture, not particularly impressive at all. I’m looking forward to being done with it.
Local True Value had KBB twin-20 lb bags last week for just under $18. Might not have seemed like a deal a few years ago, but 45 cents a pound seems reasonable these days.