USE of NON CHEMICAL PERMEATED CHARCOAL in WOOD BURNING OVENS

[xfire]

In various readings and blogs, I have seen where it is not recommended to use
charcoal briquettes at any time in a wood burning type oven.

I would like to better understand what the reasoning is behind this and if in fact it is true.

I realize that "cooking" with briquettes would affect flavoring in the food, however, my thinking was to use charcoal in a fire starter to initiate the wood fire. Is this thinking flawed? Do the briquettes leave some sort of unwanted residual on the oven wall?

Any advice and experience in this area from those more knowledgeable than this beginner would be of value.

[david s]

Good question, I would also like to know why. FB say use of coal or charcoal wil void their warranty, I wonder why? In the manufacture of brickettes there are some nasty chemicals contained in in the coal, uranium often included. Uranium and other nasties are also often present in fly ash used to make powdered cement. This is probably why they tell you to use a mask when handling the stuff (but nobody does)

[Neil2]

Coal burns at a much higher temperature than wood. I suspect this is why FB does not approve of it in their ovens.

Anthracite 14,000 - 14,500 Btu/lb

Wood (dry) 6,200 - 7,500 Btu/lb