Vision Grills Professonal Blend Lump Charcoal nakedwhiz.com       Home       Lump Review Index       Quick Stats Date Of Review: April, 2017 Purchased From: Provided by manufacturer Date Purchased: October, 2016 Price: $29.99 Advertised Weight: 20 pounds Type of Wood: Beech, Birch and Oak Strange Material: Plastic tie, plastic strips Scrap Lumber: None Smell: Moderate wood smoke Country of Origin: Poland Key Performance Indicators Chips and Dust: Lighting: Max Temperature: Burn Time: Ash Production: Quick Links Other Information: Click Here Statements From The Bag: Click Here Lighting Instructions: Click Here Safety Instructions: Click Here Unusual Or Unique Statements: Click Here Photos of Contents: Click Here Other Photos: Click Here Photo of UPC Code: Click Here Contact Information: Click Here Rate And Comment On This Charcoal: Click Here Commentary This is our first review of a charcoal that is made in Poland, so we thought we'd help you all out with a map of Poland so you'll know where it came from. This is Vision's high end charcoal, if you will, as distiguished from the less expensive charcoal it sells in stores like Sams. It was provided to us by Vision Grills for review, so let's see how it does. First, we dump the charcoal out on a plastic sheet for sorting. We found a few interesting things in the charcoal. We found a rock, two of the plastic strips used for making woven plastic fabrics like you see some charcoal bags made of, and a yellow plastic tie. Needless to say, rocks are normal but plastic is not. Vision needs to tighten up on their quality control so unwanted items don't get into the charcoal. When we sorted the pieces by size, we found a somewhat disappointing distribution of sizes. Three quarters of the bag consisted of small pieces, only 6.5% medium pieces and no truly large pieces. As you can see from the following table, we also found 18% of the bag was unusable chips and dust: Large 0.0 pounds 0.0% Medium 1.3 pounds 6.5% Small 15.2 pounds 75.5% Chips/Dust 3.6 pounds 18.0% Total 20.1 pounds We asked the manufacturer about this predominance of small pieces and this is what they told us: "...the carbonization of the charcoal I sent you is the reason for the smaller pieces, it kind of goes like this. The higher you carbonize a charcoal the smaller the pieces become because as you take water content out of the charcoal it basically becomes smaller or shrinks. That’s why the size of our bag is so much bigger than any other 20 lb. bag. We have to put more wood in it to equal 20 lbs. because we have most of the water weight out of the charcoal which makes it burn longer and eliminates sparks and reduces smoke to a minimum. In short we ordered the charcoal in the small pieces if they were larger they would not be as highly carbonized." Nonetheless, owners of ceramic cookers would still probably like to see a distribution with more large/medium pieces and fewer small pieces, not to mention a smaller percentage of the chips and dust which most users don't want. Fortunately, things get better from here. A lot better. In our chimney starter test, Vision Professional charcoal only took 2 sheets of newspaper to get going. It just doesn't get much easier to light charcoal than this. During starting, there were some sparks, but no popping. The smoke during lighting was very mild. In our maximum temperature test, this charcoal hit 1134° F which is very high compared to other charcoals. In fact, it's the fourth highest temperature we have ever measured to date. During this test, the fire spread quite quickly with again, little sparking and no popping. And again, the smoke was mild smelling during the test. Next, on to our burn time test. Vision Professional set a new record as far as out testing goes to date. It just burned and burned and burned. And finally in our ash production test, this charcoal produced an amount of ash that was very low compared to other charcoals we have tested. So, as you can see from our key performance indicators, Vision Professional Lump Charcoal got 5 stars in every category except for the amount of chips and dust. The poor size distribution, large quantity of chips and dust, and the presence of the plastic that we found in the bag means we can only give it our Recommended rating. Vision Professional Lump Charcoal is sold at pool and spa outlets. To the left is the rating that our readers have given this charcoal. If you have used this charcoal and would like to rate it and leave your comments, Click Here To view reader ratings of all brands, Click Here. Other Information None Statements From The Bag "Blended with Beech, Birch and Oak Woods", "Highly Carbonized for Longer Cooks", "FSC Certified", "Starts Faster", "Burns Hotter", "Lasts Longer", "Clean & Natural", "Product of Poland", "100% All Natural Blended Lump Charcoal" "Our custom blended Oak, Birch and Beech Lump Charcoal will make your Steaks, Chicken, Pizza, Seafood and everything you grill more delicious. This blended charcoal provides a sweet authentic smoky flavor that barbecue lovers desire. You will find the charcoal is fast lighting, has consistent heat and provides longer burn times, while producing less ash. Ideal for grills and smokers, it brings real hardwood flavor to whatever you cook or grill." "KEEPING IT GREEN: Our charcoal is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) compliant. This means that for every tree that is cut down for our product, a tree is planted in its place. No chemicals or fillers are added. We use all natural highly carbonized charcoal. Almost the entire log is used in our preocess of manufacturing lump charcoal. We, at Vision Grills, are proud to be good stewards of the land." Lighting Instructions "Please note: Do not use lighter fluid when starting your charcoal in a Kamado Ceramic Grill. Directions: Use a chimney style charcoal starter using paper as fuel or an electric starter charcoal lighter. Check your grill temperature gauge for your desired temperature and start grilling! If you intend to use charcoal lighter fluid (Not recommended), please follow the manufacturer's directions for use of their product." Safety Instructions None Unusual or Unique Statements None The Ruler Used In The Following Photographs We use the following ruler in the photographs which follow. The black and white segments are 1 inch long. The upper scale is in inches, while the lower scale is in centimeters. The distance between the centers of the two targets is precisely 9 inches. Photos Of Contents This photo is an overall view of the contents of the bag. Here is a closer view. Here are the larger pieces we found in the bag. Here are the rather odd things we found in this bag. A rock (not so unusual), bits of plastic strips, and some sort of plastic tie. Here are the contents of the bag sorted into medium, small, and too small/chips/dust. There were no truly large pieces. Other Photos This is how the bags arrived. The professional blend charcoal was in the box underneath the bag you see on top. Photo of UPC Code Contact Information Vision™ Grills 1531 Fairview Ave., Suite B, St. Louis, MO 63132 Phone: 877.917.4273            314.428.3166            314.427.2802 (Fax) Email: help@visiongrills.com Web: www.visiongrills.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/VisionGrills/