Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter
My father always started our charcoal grill by crumpling up newspaper in the bowl of the grill and making a pyramid of briquets on top of the grate. This works when the wind isn’t too strong, but it’s a lot messier than pouring the briquets directly into a chimney and using the energy of the fire to draw the flame throughout.
This device works by pulling up air up through the chimney to provide more oxygen for the fire, as if you were standing there fanning it. The result is hotter and more evenly heated coals that let you start cooking sooner.
The Weber chimney holds just the right amount of charcoal for the 22″ Weber Original Kettle Premium Grill. You can read my review on America’s favorite grill here. Simply load it up with charcoal, pour on a bit of lighter fluid, making sure that the fluid lightly saturates the top third of the charcoal. Light it immediately. I always set the lit chimney directly on the grill grate to prevent someone from tripping over it and to start heating up the grill.
You can put crumpled up paper or newspaper in the bottom of the chimney before you add the briquets if you prefer to avoid lighter fluid. I have never noticed any hint of fluid in my cooked food when I use it in small amounts, but some people insist that they do.
One note of caution – be mindful of the wind’s direction to avoid damaging the polymer handle. While the handle is well-built, it is still plastic and will start to melt if it gets too hot. I ever so slightly blistered the plastic handle on my chimney one time when high winds were blowing the flames back onto the handle.
As with Weber’s grills and smokers, you are getting thicker steel that is galvanized better to last longer than the cheaper competition. You can tell just by looking at the competition’s chimneys on Amazon that they are thinner and not as sturdy as Weber’s unit. This is a product that you should only have to buy once if you purchase quality from the start and take care of it.