Ok, I think I`ve finaly flipped my lid here, lemme give you a little background.

I needed some Potassium carbonate/Hydroxide. best way to get that for free is wood ash, I had no lumpwood charcoal only the briquettes. DAMN! I only wanted a small amount, and so I set about conducting ANOTHER experiment (the products of which I could use!).

 

1) what is the least amount of standard charcoal BBQ Briquettes that will make a self sustaining BBQ?

 

2) Will it work ok indoors and How?

 

and so I tried, I got an old takeaway tinfoild tray and popped holes in it (charcoal likes Air), placed that on my Pyro testing mount, then stacked up the charcoal briquettes, I found that 4 briquettes is a perfectly workable (although very small) BBQ

 

take a look:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/yt2095/experiments/bbqscale.jpg

 

yeah it`s an English £10 note, but it roughly the same size as USA cash.

 

Anyway,,,,,,, I was sitting next to it (about 2 foot or 60 cms away) and it was still hot, so,,, waste not want not, lets see if it`ll do some toast:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/yt2095/experiments/bread1.jpg

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/yt2095/experiments/bread2.jpg

 

there`s the bread ))

 

here`s the results:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/yt2095/experiments/toast1.jpg

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/yt2095/experiments/toast2.jpg

 

well to cut a long story short, my wife told me "NO MORE" after I`de done 5 rounds of toast (I recon I`de have got a good 20 slices done at least out of it!).

 

anyway, the point other than just interest is this; What is the Ideal configuration using the minimum amount of briquettes to make a self sustaining and USABLE BBQ?

I figured on 4, 3 to make a triangle and one on top to contain the heat, any better ideas are welcome

 

Bon Appetite

/me thinks someone has to much time on their hands

 

Interesting experiment though. Did you make a lot of different BBQs with 3, 4, 8, 10 or 16 briquettes, or only one with 4?

 

And how did it go with the original experiment?

I started with One, initialy, but it was hard to maintain a sulf sustaining burn, 2 was a little better but very slow and incomplete, 3 was almost complete but difficult to light, 4 seemed to work the best. I can only assume that more than 4 would jest get better, but 4 seems to be the minimum needed for a good all round mini BBQ

 

as for the original experiment, I got all the Potassiom carbonate and Hydroxide I needed, it`s on the heater now evaporating the excess water I want 100 ml from the 300 ml I started with. I need it to displace Calcium ions in a calcium hyper phosphate solution, so far so good