Char broil half time chimney starter


 
P

Paul Pearson

TVWBB Super Fan
I just saw one of these at Walmart this past weekend. The sides have a series of slots stamped in them for more air flow. I was wondering if anyone had used one yet and how it compares to the large Weber chimney?

Kind of makes me want to enlarge / increase the number of the air holes in my weber to see if it helps any.
 
Interesting.

You want to test on your chimney first? : )) I despise waiting on a chimney to be ready. ugh
 
I have two of the large chimneys so i am thinking I will modify one and run a test sometime to see just how much difference it really makes.

I used one of the old style Char broil chimneys yesterday at someone else's house and it was horribly slow to light, but it has no holes in the side so im thinking it could make a difference.
 
Paul Pearson said:
I have two of the large chimneys so i am thinking I will modify one and run a test sometime to see just how much difference it really makes.

I used one of the old style Char broil chimneys yesterday at someone else's house and it was horribly slow to light, but it has no holes in the side so im thinking it could make a difference.
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Let us know when/if you do.

I think adding holes mid section would help, how much, dunno.
 
Here's a time lapse test that claims 60 briquettes ready in 15-16min. My 2/3 full Weber chimney usually takes 20-22min before its ready to dump.
 
It doesn't look like a good design to me.
The side holes are too high up and the whole thing is too short and wide to give a good chimney effect. It did outperform that off-brand starter in the video, but I wonder how it would perform compared to a Weber Rapidfire starter.

But hey, I could be all wrong. Of course, there is my 27 years of experience designing charcoal chimney starters for the CIA to be used in a top-secret project.
 
Depends on the starter/ignition media. If you use newspaper it should be faster, paraffin cubes will make it faster, and lighting over a gas flame would be the quickest.
I use a propane torch on the Weber chimney and coals are ready in 5 mins for lump and 8 mins for briqs. ( about a brewski ):cool:

Tim
 
timothy said:
Depends on the starter/ignition media. If you use newspaper it should be faster, paraffin cubes will make it faster, and lighting over a gas flame would be the quickest.
I use a propane torch on the Weber chimney and coals are ready in 5 mins for lump and 8 mins for briqs. ( about a brewski ):cool:

Tim
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That may be my issue. I use a simple pine starters from hd.
 
It seems a little pricey to me. It was 45 bucks on Amazon. The Weber chimney is 15 bucks. Don't know that it's worth the difference in price.

Bill
 
Bill Freiberger said:
It seems a little pricey to me. It was 45 bucks on Amazon. The Weber chimney is 15 bucks. Don't know that it's worth the difference in price.

Bill
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Def not worth that price!

I just looked and I have the weber rapid start chimney; think I need a better lighting media as stated above..
 
I don't recall when Weber came out with the rapid fire chimney, but do remember when Jeff Smith ( The Frugal Gourmet ) said the best way to light charcoal ( naturally without starter fluid ) was using an old coffee can with holes punched in with a church key.
That was back in the 80's and I'm sure folks were using it long before that.

Tim
 
Mac LA said:
think I need a better lighting media as stated above..
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Try a couple paper towels with a little cooking oil. I use / keep my grease, and oil soaked paper towels in a milk jug. It works pretty well, and they were just going to get thrown away.
 
timothy said:
I don't recall when Weber came out with the rapid fire chimney, but do remember when Jeff Smith ( The Frugal Gourmet ) said the best way to light charcoal ( naturally without starter fluid ) was using an old coffee can with holes punched in with a church key.
That was back in the 80's and I'm sure folks were using it long before that.

Tim
Click to expand...
My Dad used that technique way back before any one heard of Jeff Smith (BEST Lamb recipes ever). I'm thinking about mid-late sixties.
I really should not read this forum before breakfast! I want to spend the whole day farting around with my grill!
 
back in the early sixties, my dad used gasoline to light the charcoal. then the electric starters came out. in the early eighties, he bought a gas grill.
 
T MacGreggor said:
Here's a time lapse test that claims 60 briquettes ready in 15-16min. My 2/3 full Weber chimney usually takes 20-22min before its ready to dump.
Click to expand...

Yeah half start doesn't appear to be honest. If you get the fire under the coals going strong at the beginning you can easily get a full chimney ready in 20 minutes
 
I am going to grill some chicken breasts tonight so i think i will take the drill out with me and enlarge / add some holes to one of my weber chimneys and see if i can tell a difference. I know sometimes if i have a lot of reused charcoal the small pieces can stifle the airflow bottom to top so some side air may help
 
Just finished round 1 modifications. Should get a chance to try it out tomorrow night. I tried to follow the existing hole pattern but freehanded it.

20160505_211752.jpg
 
I had the same irritation with the old coal stifling the lighting process, then the light bulb got bright! Now I put about a third of a charge in the bottom and the old stuff on top takes off just fine.
I'm too lazy to drill more holes and too cheap to buy another chimney.
 
The black chimney in the "test burn" is a Char-Broil model too.
Notice there are no holes/slots/openings in it above the bottom portion.
So yeah, the one well vented will light faster.
 
Paul i like the idea of just adding some more holes as that would not hurt your chimney from burning out or melting down. Keep us up to date on this mod please. When i watched the video the first thing that popped into my head was add more holes for more air.
 
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