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i've found with the lump that density of the chunck has a real effect on the speed at which the coals burn and being a natural product its impractical for them to produce a consistancy that the briquette has when it comes to density/burn time, i really love the flavor of the lump [ as long as its not cabinet shop scrap ( real trash ) ] but i really like the control i get useing briquettes, but the chemical flavor is terrible on the finished meat or whatever, a sure way to ruin a great ribeye or any other meat, veggie, fruit etc. so i'll look into the kroger, nature glo, wildfie,holland brands or any other natural briquettes, anyone know of sources for retail hands-on purchases. royal oak claims to be natural but i read a breakdown of ingredents and they included coal, anthricite, and the other usual suspects and to top it off royal oak claims it is necessary to put these ingredents in to manufacture a briquette and all mgf's use the additives. who do you believe NOT a salesman thats for sure do we have to analyse all brands or what

I use lump in my WSM using the Minion method, and never have to refill, even on long, 8+ hour pork butt cooks. One other benefit to using lump is, you can throw the ash right in the compost pile. You can't do that with briquette ash.

Let me clear up one myth- lump does not burn hotter. Cooks Illustrated Magazine investigated this a few years ago and found that the temps of both were about the same. I think the idea that lump burns hotter comes from the fact that lump burns faster. I think it was a guesstimate that if it burns faster it must burn hotter. But, per Cooks Illustrated, this was not proven true.

All of that said, I prefer lump because it has a cleaner flavor. If you are cooking steaks or burgers it probably does not make a flavor difference. However, when I crank up my Weber for an overnight smoke of a pork butt, the difference is readily noticable. If I smoke for say 12 hours using Kingsford, the coal taste from the charcoal is easy to taste. The lump is a pure BBQ smoke flavor which I prefer.

Maybe Kroger brand charcoal contains no coal but I know that Kingsford does (see www.virtualweberbullet.com). To each his own. Some may like the coal flavoring. I know of a pizza restuarant in Florida that bakes its pizzas using a coal fired oven and the pizza crust does pick up the coal flavor. Hower for pork BBQ I don't want the coal flavor.

I think that the issue of lump burning faster can be an issue if you are open top grilling because the lump can burn out faster. That said, for smoking, I have never had a issue with lump or charcoal running for say 12 hours with only one reload.

let's see, there are people who like briquettes casue they " don't burn as hot"... not quite sure what scientific evidence there is to that , but I do know that if an ember is coated with ash, the heat will be diminished, maybe that is why it "don't burn as hot"
... AND they, the briquettes, burn longer, another legend I'd like to se proven..

Facts are facts.. if you do any smoking that last more than a few hours, that briquette stuff will produce so much ash that the fire gets choked....

try smoking a brisket using them chemically pressed briquettes, and see how much ash is produced.. if you learned how to use lump charcoal, or all wood, you wouldnt have that problem

as well, some of the proponents of briquettes are grilling, not smoking... have it man, but once you've tried grilling with lump, you'll never go back

just my humble opinion

Once I went lump, I could never again return to that other crap again.