How small can charcoal pieces get before you trash them?

[shadmere]

Like, I've been throwing away any pieces small enough to fall through the charcoal basket.  But what about pieces just barely big enough to stay in? Do you keep using them, even if they're essentially big pebbles?  Or is that too small?

 

Picture of what I mean:

 

[Panchango]

Most of the time I just use them until they fall through the grate.  I haven't noticed any issues with roasting and grilling temps.  If I am doing a long low and slow cook, I normally clean them out.

[Snoozeboy]

You should see the crappy lump we get here in Switzerland. It's all like that.  Shrapnel. 

 

Use a kab and shake it each time. If it falls through the basket, it gets discarded. If it remains in the basket, it gets reused. 

[Chasdev]

Waste not, want not.

Save it, get a steel pan, fill it with chink, burn all of it at once to cook burger or fish.

[Golf Griller]

I use a KAB and never take the charcoal out of the basket. I just shake it and what ever falls through gets put into the ash bucket. I then fill up with more charcoal and light it up.

[len440]

I had 2 bags of royal oak last year that looked like that

[BURGER MEISTER]

When I open a new bag of charcoal, I screen it and separate it into large, which goes in bucket for the BJ.  Then the medium/smaller pieces go into a bucket for the JR.  If it goes through the 1/2" screen it's garbage.  Then if it burns out and goes through the KAB, it's garbage.  It's a system that works for me but probably wouldn't work for everyone.

[dman]

I put lump like that in a plastic gallon ice cream bucket inside my charcoal storage bin. After loading larger pieces of lump I’ll spend the small pieces on top of that to fill the bowl. I have a stainless steel grate at the bottom of my Big Joe. Hate er falls through gets thrown away. 

[dman]

Whatever falls through.....