Wet Briquettes

[troymeister]

Last week Sunday night, a large portion of basements in the Chicago area flooded. I myself had about 5" of water in my basement.

I also had about 12 bags of KBB stored on my basement floor and the bottom of the bags got wet. Because there was a lot of other work to do...I wasn't able to tend to the bags of charcoal right away. Anyway the bottom 1/4 of the bags were more or less soaked.

I was thinking I was going to have to trash about $100.00 worth of charcoal. So I took the plastic that holds the 2 bags together off and turned them upside down the hopes it will eventually dry. I think I will be able to salvage at leas most of the briquettes.

Anyone else have any experience with this? I'm hoping Home Depot will have a super sale like the usually do for Memorial day..But so far no sale is advertised.

[Troutman]

I would first try to separate the good from the bad. Then after the bad dries, do a test batch. Only experience I’ve had is briquettes getting wet in a cooker and they wouldn’t burn right, even after drying. Again give some a try and see.

[Attjack]

My condolences. I returned for a month in California to find my basement flooded once. Fortunately, the drain was working. As for the charcoal in my experience you can just let it dry out and it should be okay. You might do a test. If I'm wrong then you can just use the portions that didn't get wet.

[rickgregory]

Your main issue will be mold. If you can quickly dry them (fan, put them outside if it's warmish and will not rain)