Customer Rating: 
Summary: I would give it 10 stars if I could
Comment: I am a huge fanboy of these chimney charcoal starters.
Here's why: I didn't start out grilling. I started out smoking, smoking on a brinkman SNP to be exact. The direction for smokers is that you can never, ever use lighter or starting fluid. I bought a nice, but somewhat small version of this from W*LM*RT for 7 dollars. That model worked nice, but it was just too darn small. Maybe good for the Weber Smokey Joe 14 inch grill. Anyhow, the original chimney starter was good, except it started to get rusty. I gave that to a good friend (who is a starting fluid junky) and bought the Weber model because Weber brand is coated with aluminum which will reduce the rate of corrosion and rust. When I opened the box, I was like, "damm!!" It is twice the size of my old one. It easily holds enough to start my smoker (which I add logs to later) or the Weber 18 1/2 Gold I have. My neighbor has the 22 1/2 and I can tell you that it will hold enough for that too.
Anyhow, I can taste lighter fluid a mile away, and this product will prevent that taste. Also, it is faster. Yes, as of may 2006, Kingsford did a slight change to the shape of their charcoal and it takes exactly 16 minutes (with less than 3 MPH breeze) to get all the coals ashed over and ready for grilling. Although my lighter fluid friends think they are faster, I timed one of them and it takes over 30 minutes for them. I guess the chimney starter is so simple (it does 99% of the work) that it is boring to them. Well I will tell you that their burgers taste like a little Exxon or Mobil was added, and mine do not.
Bottom line: Get this--
1) Faster
2) Easier
3) Cheaper (never buy starting fluid again)
4) Better for the environment
5) More even charcoal burn rate
6) Light it and set the stove timer for 16 minutes
7) Big
8) High quality
9) No oil taste in food
10) Did I mention it's faster?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Every single woman should have one.....
Comment: I've been divorced for several years, and one of the rare times I think of my ex (not a bad guy- this is not a slur review) is when I grill. I'm a pretty fab BBQ-er; however, he could ALWAYS get the charcoal lit without lighter fluid. I can't. Lately, no matter how I try, no fire. Then I opened my new favorite grilling cookbook (Weber's Big Book of Grilling- LOVE IT!) which mentioned the chimney starter. So, off to Amazon I go to read all these wonderful reviews. IT WORKED! What an amazing, quick, easy blaze! I was able to spend more time experimenting on sauces and less time begging the Fire Gods to give me a break! DEFINITELY WORTH THE MONEY AND MORE! Everyone, buy this and have a fabulous grilling season!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Works great...no lighter fluid taste
Comment: This chimney starter works great with the regular Kingsford charcoal and either a wadded piece of paper or the Firestarters that Weber sells separately. My charcoal is ready to go in a little more than 5 minutes. It works so much better than mounding up the charcoal, dousing them with lighter fluid, and then almost lighting your house on fire just to have to relight the charcoal again because the fire went out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simple design, but better than everyone else
Comment: After my last night grilling where I sacrified one box and a half a book of matches trying to get a starter log to catch under some hardwood coals, I finally decided I was fed up with the process and decided to buy a chimney starter. This was actually the only one that my local BBQ specialty shop sold, and I figured that the price would be covered inside two cookouts (if I were to go back to lighter fluid, something I still refuse to do for taste, safety, and effectiveness). So after getting the standard eye-roll from my wife for getting ANOTHER gadget that does exactly one thing, I found excuse to grill some burgers. Like everyone else says, two sheets of newspaper and one match later, the ball was rolling. Twnety minutes later I had a can full of hellishly hot glowing hardwood lump charcoal. Even better, the huge size of thise let me FILL my grill with hot-right-now coals. That night my sister and wife were both raving over how good the burgers were, and I was fairly impressed myself. The difference was being able to use the coals I wanted with no extras like fluid, and being able to cook over a super-hot flame the get the perfect sear.
The starter features a very simple design with a few intelligent enhancements: a conical grill to increase exposed coals on the bottom, intelligently placed airholes for stronger directed airflow to light all the coals, and a double handle for easier pouring. At the end of the day, the small difference in price is easily justified by the vast improvement you will get in your grilling. A definite buy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: very impressed
Comment: Great product. I read reviews, but I was skeptical about it's usefulness. I just lit about 40 briquettes (not all the way full) in 10 minutes in 50F temperatures and drizzle. Now, I'm a believer.
I just stuffed some newspaper in the bottom, put some charcoal in the top, lit the paper with a match, waited 10 minutes, and dumped red hot coals into my waiting Weber. It couldn't be easier.
Also, this product pays for itself after a few uses because there's no more need for lighter fluid. I won't be grilling without one of these ever again.
|
