We initially reviewed Kingsford® Charwood in January of 2006. You can read the review here: 2006 Review of Kingsford® Charwood
We gave it an Average rating due to its average burntime, but most notably due to its horrific sparking that deposited a gritty ash on your food.
Well, now Kingsford has brought out a new version of their charwood which is made in the USA, so we decided it was time to give Kingsford® Charwood another look.
First all, we noticed that there is a date code printed on the tape used to sew the bag shut. An interesting idea. You can tell when your charcoal was manufactured and bagged.
When we dumped the charcoal on the ground for sorting, our initial impression was that the charcoal looked pretty average. As you can see from the table below, indeed, it is pretty average. There are very few pieces that could be called large, the amount of small pieces is quite high, as is the amount of chips and dust. What also stood out was the large amount of uncarbonized bark in the bag. We usually find a piece or two and don't bother including it in the total weight of the bag or in the percentages. But this was extraordinary. A full half-pound of the bag, or 5% of the bag was not carbonized. If you add this to the 16.7% of dust and chips, you have almost 22% of the bag which many would consider to be unusable. 22% unusable would place this charcoal 5th worst of all brands we have tested. We also found a piece of metal in the bag, as you can see in the photo below.
Since we had two bags, we opened the second bag and basically observed the same type of distribution of sizes. We don't believe that these bags were victims of jack-booted thugs on the loading dock since both bags were in pristine condition. Also, as you can see from the following table, the bag contains well over the 10 pounds on the label, so if you get a back without the large amount of uncarbonized wood, you will be getting a generous amount of charcoal.
| Large |
0.6 pounds |
5.7% |
| Medium |
2.4 pounds |
22.4% |
| Small |
5.4 pounds |
50.2% |
| Chips/Dust |
1.8 pounds |
16.7% |
| Uncarbonized |
0.5 pounds |
5.0% |
|
|
|
| Total |
10.7 pounds |
|
|
Now to actually burning some charcoal. First of all, in our chimney starter test, this charcoal took 4 sheets to start which is average. During the test, there was very little sparking and no popping. The charcoal burned with the typical pleasant American hardwood smoke. While we cannot say what types of wood were used to make this charcoal, we are fairly certain from the look and smell that it is your typical American hardwood blend.
Next in our maximum temperature test, the charcoal burned at 850 degrees which is average compared to other brands we have tested. And like when it was burning in the chimney starter there was very little sparking and no popping. So, it seems that Kingsford has totally eliminated the sparking problem that plagued their first attempt at lump charcoal. There was no ash or grit landing everywhere around the cooker, and of course, no ash and grit will be deposited on your food. As far as starting this charcoal with a MAPP torch goes, you do need to be careful. There was significant sparking then, and if you happen to direct the torch at the wrong piece of charcoal you can get a violent pop. This is no different than most charcoals, so exercise caution when using a torch.
The charcoal burn time was very high compared to other charcoals while the ash production was low. So all in all, Kingsford has done a pretty good job of turning their lump charcoal around, improving the burn time, keeping the ash production low, but most importantly eliminating the horrible sparking and gritty ash deposits. Unfortunately, they have fallen down on the distribution of sizes with half the bag being small pieces and one-fifth of the bag being chips, dust and uncarbonized bark. As a result Kingsford's Charwood just misses our Recommended rating and gets the Above Average rating. Perhaps if they are reading this they can make the adjustments at the screening/bagging operation to increase the usable amount of charcoal in each bag.
