Kingsford Pellets closeout-Lowe’s

[Waterboy]

I was in my local Lowe’s today and saw they had Kingsford Classic, Signature and Maple 20# bags on clearance for $5.99. They are on the website for that price as well (plus shipping).
I’ve never used them, are they any good?

 

[Greg Jones]

I saw someone else post the same thing for in-store clearance, but I’m still seeing $19.98 for 20# online. And yes, well worth $5.00/20#.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Looks like this is regional and only some stores have them in stock at that. If they do, odds are pretty good you'll see the $5.99 clearance price. Rather than take my word for it, use Brickseek to get an idea but know that this isn't always perfect. It's been relatively accurate in my experience over the years:

Classic [brickseek.com] (just click and enter your zip code for local stock levels)
Signature [brickseek.com] (just click and enter your zip code for local stock levels)

Know that a store's inventory levels can be off too which will affect the above. Looks like none of the stores in my region have them in stock which is a safe bet that they never did.

Good luck to others though!

Edit: Looks like this clearance sale started before 11/28 so it may be more of a case of late to the party than regional, sadly.

 

[C. Keeper]

I was in my local Lowe’s today and saw they had Kingsford Classic, Signature and Maple 20# bags on clearance for $5.99. They are on the website for that price as well (plus shipping).
I’ve never used them, are they any good?

My Lowes doesn't have Kingsford in stock but the Weber brand is 50% off. Thank you!

 

[Ostrichsak]

My Lowes doesn't have Kingsford in stock but the Weber brand is 50% off. Thank you!

It looks like Kingsford, Pit Boss and Weber all all 50% depending on what brand(s) your particular location carries.

 

[Cokeman]

Do we like Pitboss and Weber?

 

[Traveler]

I used pitboss hickory this past weekend for my first cook and it was great. Temp was steady and no issues. I thought there was plenty of smoke flavor as well but I started the smoker on low.

 

[C. Keeper]

Do we like Pitboss and Weber?

No issues here

 

[Cokeman]

Cool. I see Pitboss everywhere.

 

[gwrace1]

That is a good price. I try to buy 40 lb bags at Walmart (Pitboss) or Academy (B&B) for 14.99. So far they have both burned as expected in the 700 and Bullseye.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Do we like Pitboss and Weber?

I personally haven't used either of these two to be able to speak from first-hand experience but I've read neutral to positive things about Weber and neutral to negative things about Pitboss pellets. The Weber are low ash and some even say they're on-par with the tier 1 pellets if not slightly below them at a good price making them possibly a better value in some instances. I've read that the Pitboss pellets cut corners in materials used and manufacturing that yields a higher-ash product and many say that their lower "sales" prices are more on line with what they should normally cost. I've even heard some say to stay clear which is why I've personally never tried them given how many solid options are out there these days and the minimal price differences between known commodities versus unknown and/or questionable options.

 

[gwrace1]

Pellets are all basically made the same way regardless of manufacturer. They start out as large piles of sawdust sorted by wood type. Then pushed though machinery that compresses them into the desired shape then dried and packaged. Here is the Pitboss process. And I don't work for Pitboss.

 

[charlesrshell]

Pellets are all basically made the same way regardless of manufacturer. They start out as large piles of sawdust sorted by wood type. Then pushed though machinery that compresses them into the desired shape then dried and packaged. Here is the Pitboss process. And I don't work for Pitboss.

Thanks @gwrace1. Neat info.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Pellets are all basically made the same way regardless of manufacturer. They start out as large piles of sawdust sorted by wood type. Then pushed though machinery that compresses them into the desired shape then dried and packaged. Here is the Pitboss process. And I don't work for Pitboss.

I don't know if I would go so far as to say that all pellets are basically the same (if you'll allow me to paraphrase what I think you're saying) as different brands can have a pretty wide range in performance. The term "Performance" as used here can be measured via several metrics with some consumers weighing these differently of course.

For me, I look towards the amount of ash used as higher amounts of ash are cheaper for the manufacturer to use to achieve similar weights of pellets but they yield less thermal energy (read: more pellets to achieve the same temp/duration of a smoke) and produce more airborne ash that can get in your food and/or create more leftover mess to clean up.

While many may share a similar production process there's a direct correlation with the amount of fillers like ash and cost of product... all of which the manufacturer has control of. I've seen some brands that you'll rip through a bag (given similar variables, of course) and have a mess to clean up afterwards and I've seen others that contain a noticeably higher amount of thermal energy when burned requiring less to be burned with less of a mess to clean up afterwards.

Of course, I may have misunderstood the message you were trying to convey and may have just read a little bit deeper between the lines of the point you were trying to make. I, too, don't work for Pitboss or anyone else mentioned here and don't have a horse in the race. Just sharing the info I've achieved either from research (which I tend to note to avoid confusion) or first-hand experimentation.

 

[C. Keeper]

I made a trip to my local Lowes. They had the standard Pitboss pellets on the shelf at regular price, I didn't see anything discounted. I did get my Weber pellets at half price but I ordered online.

 

[ARCbbq]

I personally haven't used either of these two to be able to speak from first-hand experience but I've read neutral to positive things about Weber and neutral to negative things about Pitboss pellets. The Weber are low ash and some even say they're on-par with the tier 1 pellets if not slightly below them at a good price making them possibly a better value in some instances. I've read that the Pitboss pellets cut corners in materials used and manufacturing that yields a higher-ash product and many say that their lower "sales" prices are more on line with what they should normally cost. I've even heard some say to stay clear which is why I've personally never tried them given how many solid options are out there these days and the minimal price differences between known commodities versus unknown and/or questionable options.

I've been using Smokehouse premium blend from Sam's ($15/40 lbs) in my 590 for a couple of months. Work fine with no problems holding temps, including multiple 500 deg pizza cooks. They don't seem to produce any more ash than others. I burnt a bag of RT competition blend which may have had slightly less ash. Hard to tell without directly comparing with same cook temp & time. I usually vac out after 3 to 5 cooks, probably 10 hours of burning. Just bought a couple of bags from Sam's. One bag is for a friend who has a Traeger, so we'll see how they work for him. $15 for a 40 lb bag is about $0.38 per hour of cooking, which seems very reasonable. Propane tank refill (20 lbs) at Home Depot is $24, which is $1.20 per lb. or since a grill uses about a pound per hour, then $1.20 per hour. So pellets are less expensive than propane. If we paid $20 for 20 lbs (Traeger cost of their pellets), then about $1 / hour.

Cooking a boston butt for 10 hours would cost $10 (Traeger), $3.80 (Smokehouse), $12 (propane). Seems like Traeger is pricing their pellets to be just a little cheaper than using a gas grill.

https://cookinpellets.com/fuel-cost...grilling-vs-charcoal-gas-and-electric-grills/

 

[DonDonDiego]

My Lowes doesn't have Kingsford in stock but the Weber brand is 50% off. Thank you!

Grabbed 20 bags at that price!

 

[KatyTxSmoke]

I used the Weber brand pellets to start with and they were great. Fast heat up to 400 for break-in and nice smelling when burning. Temps rock steady even at 45F ambient and fast cooking at 450F. Happy so far. Would buy again. Didn’t try any higher temps as didn’t need.

 

[Ostrichsak]

I've been using Smokehouse premium blend from Sam's ($15/40 lbs) in my 590 for a couple of months. Work fine with no problems holding temps, including multiple 500 deg pizza cooks. They don't seem to produce any more ash than others. I burnt a bag of RT competition blend which may have had slightly less ash. Hard to tell without directly comparing with same cook temp & time. I usually vac out after 3 to 5 cooks, probably 10 hours of burning. Just bought a couple of bags from Sam's. One bag is for a friend who has a Traeger, so we'll see how they work for him. $15 for a 40 lb bag is about $0.38 per hour of cooking, which seems very reasonable. Propane tank refill (20 lbs) at Home Depot is $24, which is $1.20 per lb. or since a grill uses about a pound per hour, then $1.20 per hour. So pellets are less expensive than propane. If we paid $20 for 20 lbs (Traeger cost of their pellets), then about $1 / hour.

Cooking a boston butt for 10 hours would cost $10 (Traeger), $3.80 (Smokehouse), $12 (propane). Seems like Traeger is pricing their pellets to be just a little cheaper than using a gas grill.

https://cookinpellets.com/fuel-cost...grilling-vs-charcoal-gas-and-electric-grills/

One quick point of clarification on what I said since you quoted me: you likely won't see a difference in temperature as the smokers algorithm will simply pump more pellets to make up for any decrease in thermal energy of the fuel. This means that on a short smoke you likely will never see the difference in temp from a good pellet versus a bad pellet at most ambient temps people smoke at.

Where you may see the difference between a good pellet and a bad pellet would be in a longer smoke or over the course of a full bag. Since lower quality pellets will have more ash and thus less thermal energy it will require more to keep that temperature. This is magnified in really low ambient temp smokes. It could quite literally end up absorbing whatever "savings" you saw on the front end in more pellets burnt up to maintain the same temps over the course of a bag.

There's other potential negatives to more ash content in a pellet but I just wanted to clarify something I glossed over in case someone finds this discussion that isn't fully in-the-know on this info.

 

[ARCbbq]

Good point about comparing over an entire bag. I've burned full bags of RT competition blend and full bags of Traeger and Smokehouse also. I haven't noticed much difference in ash or consumption with those brands with our ambient temps (S Florida - temps rarely below 50). So just a matter of price.