Lighting process


 
I've used a weed burner when I'm in a hurry, but lately I've been having great results from 2 or 3 cotton balls with a light coating of vasoline. It's a lot cheaper then the cubes (which also work great) and are always in great abundance at my house.
Good luck,
Tim
 
I use the weber starter cubes (1), but I don't really wait that long. For example, today I lit the cube and when it went out, I looked at the charcoal in the chimney and it was started. By started, I mean that there was a core of hot coals in the middle of the pile. Basically, about 6-8 coals were pretty well lit. So I dumped it and started my minion fire. The main thing to do when there are just a few coals lit is to concentrate them in the center of your charcoal pile. Trust me, they will lite. So, if you want to have another beer, take your time and get the whole chimney going and you'll have no trouble getting your fire going. If you're impatient like me, go ahead and dump it once you have a few coals going and as long as you concentrate them, you'll be fine.

I would agree with a couple of the posts here - if you don't use starter cubes, a paper towel with vegetable oil works great and generates a lot less ash. I tried the newspaper once or twice and did not like all the ash at all. Plus, who has a news paper around anymore? Not to mention the ink in it.
 
I save the oiled paper towels from re-seasoning my cast iron skillets in a 1 gallon ziplock that I keep in the cabinet (let them cool first or they can melt the bag), when I'm ready to start a chimney I grab a lighter and an oiled paper towel or two----------works well & no added cost or waste.
 
Agree wholeheartedly with James & Bob - use Weber cubes with a chimney. If you happen to run out of cubes, in a pinch, you might use a lightly rolled newspaper sprayed with PAM, but the cubes are inexpensive and avoid the undesirable newspaper flakes.
 
I use the cubes. One cube and my charcoal is usually ready in 20 minutes. I have also put the chimney directly on my propane turkey burner but this didn't seem as safe as using the cubes.
 
I've done this on several occasions and I know it goes against the grain of what most here believe but I'll soak 6-7 briquettes with fluid no more, place them in the bottom of the chimney and I'll use 2 starter cubes that I place on top of an old tuna can under the chimney which is sitting on a small grill I have , this raises them up a little, and the coals are usually starting to ash over in about 15-20 minutes, now I only will do this if I'm doing a whole chimney of charcoal, the juice burns off completely before the chimney is ready. Just recently I did buy one of those small bernzomatic torches on sale so I can try to get away from everything else. I use to use the side burner on my Chargriller until the head collapsed..
 
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If you are using the WSM & doing a Minion Method start, you don't need a full chimney of briquettes.
Try using 1/2 a chimney (or less) & the time to get them going is much reduced.
 
ECGreen said:
Yes sir. Two sheets of newspaper rolled and placed in the bottom. Maybe I'll try the cubes next. Not sure how the wife will feel about me dropping $70 bucks on a lighter (although it sounds well worth it)...have to work on the sales pitch for that.
Click to expand...

I take one sheet, bundle it up, light it, when it burns off after 20 seconds I add another and then add another 20 seconds later. by the 3rd time it's usually smoking pretty significantly. the cubes work great too.
 
Robert-R said:
If you are using the WSM & doing a Minion Method start, you don't need a full chimney of briquettes.
Try using 1/2 a chimney (or less) & the time to get them going is much reduced.
Click to expand...

Yep, I only use maybe 20 briquettes and the cubes do a great job getting it going and pretty fast to.
 
Thanks guys. Appreciate the insight.

Cubes have been ordered...added them on an Amazon order which saves me a trip to HD.
 
I lit a chimney today that took 40 minutes to get about 75% burning from an opened bag of charcoal that was on my porch all winter. Just a thought, if your charcoal wasn't fresh your mileage may vary.
 
Picked up myself a SnowPeak GigaPower Torch
gt-100-f4.jpg
http://snowpeak.com/collections/stoves/products/gigapower-2way-torch-gt-100?variant=671134045

Took me about 1 min to light 15 briquettes. 25min later, the temp stabilized to 225 for my 5 hours cook for ribs. The great thing about the torch is you can use propane or butane cylinders.

Almost forgot, it outputs 14000 BTU! It's like having a hand held weed burner.
 
Bob Ivey said:
Have you used it with propane cylinders similar to the ones we use for Performers?
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Yes, I tested it out first with the coleman's 1lb camping cylinders first. The charcoal started glowing white in about 20 seconds compared to the butane in the video. My local grocery sells 5pack butane for $2.99. I'll stick with whatever is cheaper.

I mainly Maple Leaf Briquettes and Lump. Not sure how fast it will be for other brands of charcoal.
 
Are you sure your charcoal isnt damp? I had a bag of kingsford that got damp sitting in my storage for a month during winter and I had a very difficult time getting it lit. I finally gave up on that particular bag and purchased a fresh bag ive had no problems since.
 
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