Heat Beads vs Kingsford - the test results

There have been opinions in here recently, including my own, that the new (to Aus) Kingsford briquettes burn much faster than our own standard briquette for many years, being Heat Beads. so tonight i decided to put them both to the test and the result wasn't surprising.....

Weight
I weighed individual briquettes so that the same amount of fuel was being tested. Doing it by counting them and having equal numbers would have skewed the results.
The weight of a Heat Bead is 40g, a Kingsford 20g. (To the nearest 5g as that is how my scales are calibrated)
That's interesting since there's very little difference in size.

Lighting and Burn Time
The Weber kettle was used to test the lighting and cooking time with equal amounts (by weight) in two separate Weber baskets.
To make up approximately 600g of fuel, I used 23 Kingsfords but I only needed 13 Heat Beads for the same fuel load.

Two cardboard (Samba) fire lighters were placed under each basket.
Right from the start, the Kingsfords gave off a lot more smoke.

15 Minutes
The Kingsfords are well alight but the Heat Beads are hardly going.
I gave the heat Beads a helping hand with a gas torch so that I could get them to the same stage as the Kingsfords.
This would make the burn time more accurate but it showed that Heat Beads need a lot more fuel and time to get going.



30 Minutes
Kingsfords - going well and not as much smoke now.
Heat Beads - coming along but catching slowly.
The Kingsfords are producing more heat at this stage.
The lid was placed on the kettle at this point



60 minutes
Both going well, the kettle is showing 200c and both are too hot for my hand test (holding my hand palm down at lid level above each basket in turn)

90 minutes
Kingsfords - hand test is 10 seconds (time to remove hand when it gets too hot). Quite a bit of ash developing.
Heat Beads - hand test 4 seconds, much hotter. Not much ash.

120 minutes (2 hours)
Kingsfords - hand test 25 seconds. A lot of ash now
Heat Beads - 7 seconds. Ash still not too bad.

150 minutes (2.5 hours)
Kingsfords - I could hold my hand there all day. Only warm.
Heat Beads - 10 seconds

210 minutes (3.5 hours)
Kingsfords - dust and basically out.
Heat Beads - ashy but still producing heat, 15 seconds on the hand test. (Maybe I could have held longer but they were hot)

Conclusion
There's no doubt that heat beads, although harder to light, burn far longer than Kingsfords.

I think there's a place for the flavoured Kingsfords. Used sparingly as staters to help the heat beads would be worth considering and I'm still keen to get a bag of Kingsford hickory and try it out by putting some under the heat beads. They could add flavour early in the cook with the heat beads maintaining the temperature better and that could help justify their extra cost.

On special down the road tomorrow, (Maxi Foods) so think I'll stock up, even though they aren't the hickory I would like.

It looks like they are struggling to move them at the normal price.

Interesting that Kingsford (or the importer) have placed a label on their bags next to the claim that they burn longer.....

You can't have a briquette that lights faster (which they do) but burns longer (which they don't). Physically impossible I think.