Charcoal lighting on performer

[mrbill]

Coals in the Chimney and then over the gas assist.  Press the button and in minutes, I shut down the gas. 

+1

[Neil_VT00]

Depends on the cook for me.

-Direct cooks like burgers, etc. I go with a pile of coals on the charcoal grate. After they are lit I spread them with my grate brush.
-Slow n low I use the mini chimney to start a handful of coals.
-Indirect/charcoal baskets I use a standard chimney.

I've never had good luck lighting the charcoal baskets directly. It just seems to take a long time and I never seem to get them fully lit.


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[greenweb]

Nice to have many starting options. I have tried Weber starting cubes and  using charcoal baskets. They work but my choice of starting charcoal is.....









I use chimney on my Gasser side burner to startup my other kettles sometimes.

[kettlecook]

Not a big fan of the baskets, although their portability is nice. After you've used a Vortex though, you see how much hotter charcoal will burn when it's all together and contained in something more like a cylinder...like a chimney, which I usually use to light over the burner. If I want a whole chimney of charcoal lit I divide it between two chimneys because the fact it gets done much faster shows that much less charcoal will get burnt up while still in the chimneys. I fill each up using the top row of holes as a half full mark, place each side by side over the burner, and switch positions over the flames a couple minutes after the smoke. Gotta be there to switch and turn off the burner but fast and efficient. I haven't cut the bottoms down or reversed the chimney cone in the bottom but I can see how that would help, especially on a windy day. Most of my leftover charcoal goes in my Vortex.


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[HoosierKettle]

Great responses so far. Thanks. I like the lighting 2 chimneys at once idea.  Also like the idea of starting just a few coals to start a low and slow or snake. Trying to light 10 coals in a big chimney doesn't work that well because it doesn't cover the cone. I need to get one of those mini chimneys for a few uses that I can think of. Especially for on the road cooks with the 18.


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[haeffb]

I always use a mini chimney over the burner tube for everything except a pizza cook - then I use a full size chimney.

Normal practice is to add whatever amount of briquettes to the mini chimney it will take to fill the baskets that still hold leftover charcoal from the last cook. Light the gas for a couple of minutes, then let the chimney go until mostly ashed over, then dump half the chimney into each basket.

I'm usually only using 10-20 new briquettes and a chunk or two of wood each time - a bag of charcoal lasts a long time.

[charred]

that's it...i've been avoiding buying a mini chimney for a couple years...just ordered one.

i don't need one, but they're so damn cute.