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We got a Cobb recently.

The instructions ive details for charcoal, briquettes and their own product a one piece cobblestone. So no the Cobb does not require specific fuel.  In fact its name comes from the fuel burned in the original (which was apparently designed as a cooking system for pople in rural Africa) which was a plentifull free supply of dry corn cobbs.

From theCobb website 'The Cobb is very fuel efficient , using 8-10 briquettes, 1 Cobble Stone or 300 grams charcoal for over 2 hours of cooking.'

Compared to others I have cooked on the Cobb is efficient and if people choose to use the Aussie heatbeads then the efficiency at offsets some of the other carbon footprints.

Cheers.

People should be using these then.  I read up on heat beads and on the Auzzie sites they use them with wood chippings and dont like to use them right away. As they are coal based apparently they can give the food a nasty taste is not all the chemicals are burnt off and as they are not wood then they dont give a smokey taste to the food. Might as well use gas then. I bif of googling as well as looking at the british BBQ society recommend "resturant grade" lumpwood for the longest burn. Apparently its bigger hardwood lumps designed to last longer than the normal lumpwood we get in the shops which is more for impatient grillers.

Something like this has to be better than imported coal based fuel and probabally a lot tastier as well!

elanman,

whilst you have very valid point to make it seems that you are "picking" on cobb owners. I am sure byou have a mass of products manufactured and imported from abroad when there are probably more expensive and inferior products available in the UK. Do you only ever buy food from a farm shop that is seasonal or do you pop into tescos to buy your veg only to find that its flown half way around the world to get to your table?

I use my cobb with heat beadsas with one set of 8 beads i can cook breakfast lunch and dinner.

The biobbq cobbs look good and i shall try some but i doubt they will produce the heat needed by the cobb to do the roasting. I know they use them in south africa but the ambiant temprature has a huge effect on the cooking times and cooking temprature.

I mentioned using penn beads and they are are so bad compared to the Aussie heat beads that i used twice as many.

Anyway rant over I only came on here to find the cheapest place to buy heat beads..

Quote: Originally posted by elanman on 10/5/2012

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Am I the only one that thinks its outrageous to buy burnt wood shaped into squares all the way from Australia! Thinks of the carbon footprint. I try to get local charcoal and burn it in my Webber go anywhere feeling content that although I am emitting some CO2 while burning it I am not burning up twice as much getting it to me. Doesnt anyone else think about stuff like that???

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Not at all mate.  The world is full of liberal do-gooders like you who go on about things like carbon-footprints and climate change. 

We live in a global village.  It's normal to buy goods of all kinds from all countries of the world these-days.  Are you sure that the charcoal you buy is 'local'?  Maybe it is - but how about your wine rack at home?  No Australian, or Chilean, or Argentinian stuff in there?  All English wine is it?

The reason why some of us buy things like "Aussie" heat beads is that they are FAR SUPERIOR to anything else - including the Weber briquettes. And as for Penbeads sold by B&Q they are garbage.  The Aussie Heat Beads give off more heat and burn for much longer. I regularly cook a sunday roast on the Weber kettle barbeque. I bang the meat on the grill and leave it to slow cook for a couple of hours - it's perfect.  And the Aussie Heat Beads are still hot for a good hour or so afterwards.

Tell me a "local" charcoal briquette that gives me that kind of performance and I'll change tomorrow. I've tried dozens of different types and i'm afraid nothing compares with the Aussie Heat Beads - so stuff the carbon footprint and let's crack open another bottle of Aussie Red as well whilst we're at it?