I happened to be at someone's place this arvo, and they were gearing up for a Weber cook tonight, using Heatbeads. He had the usual Firelighters (white, and Kerosene based he said). The black smoke coming off the lighting chimney was atrocious! Like hanging around a bitumen truck. Of course that settled back once the stinky Firelighters were exhausted but I have to wonder about the effect on the heatbeads themselves.
It was good to see this rig in action - he had the large capacity ash catcher. An idea came to me a few days ago, to replicate this. I have two 10 litre stainless steel buckets that I use for emptying the slow combustion heater in the house. No reason I can't stand one of these under the Weber in place of the disc, leaving enough room for air flow through the vents.......hang on a sec, just going down to test the height.........yep, thought so, a good fit.
Anyhoo, a little research shows that the beads themselves seem to be relatively harmless (I had always thought there was a coal element to them for some reason). Their composition according to their website:
https://heatbeads.com.au/hints-and-tips ... ttes-made/
is hardwood charcoal fines, mineral carbon, and a food starch binder. That makes me feel friendlier to them, so I'll give some a burst.
The lighters that I purchased were wax and sawdust(?) which don't burn as effectively as the petrochemical type but don't let off the same disgusting pollution either.
What I noticed this arvo was that the temperature seemed to be considerably higher than straight charcoal - not so good for direct cooking as I noticed his chicken was charring way too quickly - black bits after only perhaps 5 minutes, but no doubt very good for indirect cooking. However, that high temp is probably better for doing steaks med-rare.
O'course what
is good about heat beads for direct cooking is their uniformity of size, allowing for the heat to be the same distance from the cooking grill - difficult if not impossible to achieve with lump.
This week I'm going to do some Atlantic Salmon (or preferably Ocean Trout)
indirect. I'll probably use some of the Mesquite chips I purchased on the charcoal.