We accept lump from manufacturers and distributors for reviewing and inclusion in the Lump Database with the following understandings and guidelines:

• We are not professional or skilled at the art of reviewing charcoal. Please read our reviews to see what we do and how we do it. This is totally an amateur effort with the goal of helping to inform charcoal users. You can read how we conduct our reviews by clicking here.

• Lump submitted will be reviewed in the order in which it is received, and will be done as soon as we can do it. We have a day job and reviewing requires good weather, so we may take some time to get a review done.

• The review will note that the lump was donated by the manufacturer or distributor so our readers know that we got it free. Yes, there are cynics out there.

• We only review products which are available to the average backyard chef in reasonable quantities. So, your product must either be available in stores, or by mailorder/weborder in quantities that ordinary people would buy. If we can only buy this buy the truckload, we don't really want to review it.

• If we receive a quantity of lump charcoal to be reviewed and it arrives all banged up in little pieces, etc., we will note this if customers primarily buy your product and have it shipped to them. If your shipping method results in crushed lump for us, we presume it will also result in crushed lump for your customers.

• Needless to say, we reserve the right to produce an independant review.

• We will be happy to include in the review any special information that you would like us to include, as long as it is not "advertising fluff". For example, if you want us to say it is 100% natural, we consider that fluff unless you can provide some information of substance to demonstrate why your brand is natural, and other brands are not. On the other hand, if you want us to include information like the types of woods used, we consider this useful information and will include it.

• If you disagree with some factual matter in our review, we will work with you to resolve any errors. If for some reason you think the bag you sent us did not represent your normal product, we will re-review your product if you send us another sample. Our goal is to provide an objective review of each product.

• On the other hand, we reserve the right to express our opinions also. For example, we believe in using healthy sized chunks of lump and will express a negative opinion of any product which is primarily little bitty pieces.

• The bottom line here is that we simply are trying to provide our readers with information about the various brands of lump charcoal available. We don't want to get into arguments or legal battles with anyone. Read our existing reviews, and if you don't think our review will make you happy, please don't send us a sample.

• If you still want to send us a sample after reading all of the above, please contact us via email by clicking here. We can then make arrangements for you to send us a sample. (Don't forget to enter your email address in the email form, or we will be unable to determine how to contact you!)