Bullseye Kingsford Pellets Beware....soot?

[Sharpcard]

I have recently been trying out Kingsford Pellets (hickory ,oak, and cherry) in my Bullseye and have noticed that they put out a weird film of "soot" on the food and all over the inside of the grill.

I primarily use the Bullseye for grilling and have tried many different pellets but have used Pitboss competition the most because of availability. I have never seen this type of soot with any other pellet that I have used.

The soot is easily noticeable on the food,foil, and you can see it as it's burning that it's giving off a black smoke like a Tiki torch or burning plastic.

It makes the food look gross, chicken will look a disgusting gray color. I took a cooked hotdog and "cleaned it" with a napkin and was shocked by the nasty soot that came off it. I don't want to eat that stuff.

I cook a lot of stuff in foil packs and they will be covered in a thick film of soot and look like they're way overcooked or burnt but they're cooked perfect but they're just covered in thick soot.

The pellets may be ideal for low and slow cooks, but I'm not so sure because I can still see that weird nasty black smoke at low temps too.

I will try to get some pics and maybe sacrifice some food this week to show what I'm talking about.

 

[BillsCamino]

I recently picked up a bag of the same Kingsford pellets from Lowe's.

I don't like these...
I've experienced excessive ash and occasional 50+ temp spikes. I emptied the remaining Kingsford, cleaned out the ash and refilled the hopper with the RT brand.
All's well again....

 

[Waterboy]

I tried Kingsford pellets and stopped using them after 1 1/2 bags because of the ash. Threw the other 1/2 bag away.

 

[Jim6820]

Interesting; I have used a bunch of Kingsford 100% Hickory and have never encountered the soot/ash problem described. I’ll keep a closer check on things in the future.

 

[chadinsc]

i have been using kingsford for about a year now because i got them on clearance for $4 a bag. i like them. but won’t pay $20 for a bag of them

 

[Lager1829]

Maybe this is why recteq stopped promoting Kingsford pellets ??

 

[Greg Jones]

Maybe this is why recteq stopped promoting Kingsford pellets ??

My guess, unlikely that was the issue. The Kingsford/recteq deal was dissolved around the same tIme that recteq received an equity partner. In my personal experience, I’ve used a lot of Kingsford pellets purchased during the big clearance sale mentioned above, and I’ve not experienced any problem with them. But, I wouldn’t pay a $1 a pound for them either. I just topped off my Bullseye and RT-340 with a bag of Kingsford Maple. They perform well for me.

I have used recteq, LJ, Cookin pellets, Bear Mountain, Kingsford, and Rural King pellets and LJ were consistently the dirtiest of all. In fairness to the LJ, some suggest that they are dirty because for some of their blends, they include the bark which gives more smoke flavor. Find a pellet, or pellets, that work for you and roll with that.