Crater in my patio


 

Karen Elliott

TVWBB Member
Monday night I cooked 3 pork butts and one fat hen for the geezers & geezerettes at my church. Everything turned out great - lots of compliments! That's the good news - here's the bad news: I now have a shallow crater in my patio!

My WSM sits on my cement patio. When I light the charcoal in the chimney, I just sit it down on the cement until its ready to add to the WSM. Well, when I cleaned up the patio the next day, I found that the cement had flaked away where I sat the chimney.

I guess I need to come up with something else, fire bricks or something. Experiences? Suggestions?
 
I put mine on the grate of another grill that I have. This way I can set up the WSM and light the coals without putting the starter on the ground.

Also you can put the starter on the charcoal grate of your WSM to keep it off of the concrete.
 
yikes. Yeah... I think everyone learns at some point to never light a charcoal chimney on cement or asphalt.

If I'm lighting Minion Method style, where I can't use the charcoal grate of the WSM to rest the chimney(s) on, I always light mine on the charcoal grate of my grill or smokey joe. If you don't have another grill to light it on and you are doing minion method, you can light it on the grate of the WSM. Then when it is ready to go, put it on the cement for just a minute while you fill up the ring with charcoal. Then throw the lit coals on top.

Another wise under-$10 investment I learned about on this site is a oil drip pan that you get at any auto store. It can sit underneath your WSM, and it is big enough to set your lid down without marking up your patio. I wouldn't, however, light the charcoal chimney directly on it, as I think it would get scorching hot and stay that way for some time. For me, I know I'd burn my foot on it at some point.

Good luck. Hope the butts keep coming, but the craters don't!
 
Yeah, I was using the Minion Method. My grill is a Weber gasser with porcelin covered cast iron grates. I'm paranoid about damaging the porcelin so I'll probably have to work something else out.

Now, who's gonna come fix my patio?
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I sit my chimney down on our Jenn air grills (gasser) little side burner to start it. I'm not sure what the burner grate thing is made of, but it's all bubbely now, looks like it would flake off, but it doesn't, so I keep doing it.

In the past I always sat the burning chimney down on the gravel path.

I'm sure you could just set 4 bricks down on your pation and set it on top of that. Maybe time to get a planter or something to gover up your crater.
 
I set up the smoker under the eve outside my garage (protection if it rains),not on my patio were my grill is. I just use two ordinary bricks.
Jim
 
i have a asphalt driveway. i have a spot that i use everytime i light mine. i have about 20 lights on that spot and it hasnt done to much dammage but i like the spot. when i have people come over i show them the magical spot. some people have even tosses coins in it. my advice, turn it into a money pit and let people know its for the good food they just ate.
 
I pretty much always fire using minion method. I fill my ring with charcoal, then put the chimney on top of the coals and put a few less in the chimney than that I want lit since when I light it the paper burns on top of some of the "unlit" coals and lights them. Never had a problem with shortened burn times or anything and it is nice and simple.
Jamie
 
I had a bunch of bricks leftover from a paver patio I layed recently. I had tons of leftover pavers, so I use a couple under the chimney while I fire it up.

Cheap and effective.
 
I put mine on my Smokey Joe Gold. It's perfect for it. Even has a windsheild witht he lid in place. It's one of the reason that I picked one up. The other being for a steak for just me.
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I use the brinkman waterpan in my smoker. So I use the pan the came with WSM turn it upside down on the concreate and set the chimney right on top. Works well for me. I also learned the hard way not to put the chimney on the patio. I a black spot burned onto my concreate from where I had the chimney the first time I fired it up.
 
Hello Karen,

I actually picked up one of those oil drip pans from Auto Zone, and there's plenty of room on that to sit the chimney down as well. They are around $6.00 vs the $25-$30 Home Depot and Lowes charge for the patio saver thing.
 
Don't set it down on the oil drip pan unless you want to have burn marks. I have a nice circle where I set mine down.
Now when I use the Minion method I fill the charcoal ring and then light the chimney on top of the unlit charcoal and when the chimney is started. I dump and then spread the lit coals. A little of the unlit charcoal gets an early start, but it is no big thing
 
Set it on a couple of bricks. You can fill the crater with a patching cement found at your local mason supply yard. Tell them you need a product that you can feather edge down to zero and they sould know what you need!
 
Thanks friends! I've got lots of alternatives now - more than I could have thought about myself!

That's the cool thing about the Virtual Bullet: learning from the mistakes and successes of hundreds of others helps you become competent without as much trial and error.

thanks
 
I've always set my chimney on the side burner of the Weber gas and fired it up , I don't use the burner for too much else , works great just like a Weber should . I know it costs more , but I'm having fun doing it .
 
Karen,

I put a piece of heavy duty foil folded in half twice on the porcelain grates of my Weber gasser, under the chimney, and have not had any problems in almost a year.

Al
 
Yowzer, Batman! A crater!!! Well, that chimney does work to light the coals.

I use a 3" thick, 24" across concrete stepping stone from Home Depot (a whopping 1.19 if I remember). It has char marks but has withstood dozens and dozens of full chimney burns for my charcoal grill.
 

 

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