Weber Kettle Club Forums

Cooking & Food Talk => Charcoal Grilling & BBQ => Topic started by: jdefran on June 16, 2016, 03:01:10 AM

Title: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: jdefran on June 16, 2016, 03:01:10 AM
Last week we quite a bit of rain when tropical storm Colin came through. My WSM was uncovered and the smoker had a lot of water in it, saturating the charcoal from my previous cook.

It's a mix of mostly KBB and some lump. Should I toss it or will it perform fine when it dries out?
Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: Darko on June 16, 2016, 03:14:18 AM
Toss it. It'll take forever to dry out
Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: jdefran on June 16, 2016, 03:31:22 AM
Ok thank you. Although it's cheap, I don't like being wasteful. My biggest concern was consistency in burning.
Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: pbe gummi bear on June 16, 2016, 08:42:39 AM
I'd toss it. Moist charcoal is a haven for mold and fungus. Also, make sure to remove the wet ash from the wsm. Kbb has a lot of limestone in it that can solidify once it's wet.
Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: Hell Fire Grill on June 16, 2016, 08:48:01 AM
The lump will dry out in a couple days and burn fine.

The fake stuff will take longer to dry but the binder is weakened so the clumps will break easily even when dry again, and the quality was never great to begin with so dont expect stellar results.

Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: Travis on June 16, 2016, 10:45:07 AM
I'd definitely toss it, and as stated above spray out the cooker so no mold starts.


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Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: Craig on June 16, 2016, 11:05:47 AM
Toss it. It becomes ash mud and can destroy the bowl of a kettle or a WSM. +1 on prompt removal of wet ash.
Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: jdefran on June 17, 2016, 03:06:00 AM
Thanks for all the insight fellas. I did rinse everything out to get rid of wet ashes and let the WSM sit in the sun for a day to make sure everything dried up inside.

I'll find out tonight if I did a good job for some overnight butts I'm doing 8)
Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: toolhead on June 17, 2016, 03:09:09 AM
When my wsm gets wet including leftiver coal...let it dry out n then use in my wsm...it always burns
Title: Re: Use wet charcoal?
Post by: Darko on June 18, 2016, 10:31:08 AM
The lump would dry out fine, it's the briquettes that are the problem. The moisture will weaken the binder and you basically get "mush".