Chimney starter

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Drawing of chimney starter from U.S. Patent 3,167,040

A chimney starter, also called a charcoal chimney, is a device that is used to start either lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes. It is usually a steel cylinder about 8" in diameter and about 12 to 18 inches tall. Chimney starters have a plate or grate with several holes that is welded horizontally inside the cylinder about 3" from the bottom. The chimney has large holes drilled around its circumference below the grate. This is to allow air to flow up underneath the charcoal, which rests on top of the grate. They also have handles that are frequently insulated. The chimney starter works by placing newspaper underneath the grate and lighting it on fire. This fire, which is easy to start, goes through the holes in the grate and lights the charcoal on fire. It is commonly used in situations where the use of charcoal lighter fluid, a toxic petroleum derivative, is inappropriate or banned.

Although the chimney starter is now sometimes considered a "traditional" method of starting charcoal, a basic device used for barbeque grills was invented in the 1960's by Hugh King, Lavaughn Johnson, and Garner Byars of Corinth, Mississippi and marketed under the "Auto Fire" label.^[1]

[edit] Use of a chimney starter

Chimney Starter in use

A chimney starter is used by placing charcoal (as lump charcoal or briquettes) in the chimney so that they stack on top of the grate. The chimney is usually filled to its top with charcoal. Balled-up newspapers or other papers are placed underneath the grate and lit on fire by sticking a match or piezoelectric lighter through the holes in the bottom of the chimney's sides to light the paper on fire. Once the paper lights on fire, it will start the charcoal that is just above the grate on fire. The fire spreads up through the charcoal until the entire column of charcoal is on fire. Once the charcoal is all on fire (it will appear glowing red in the bottom and ashed over on the top), the chimney is picked up by its handle and the lit charcoal dumped into the grill.

Chimney starters generate substantial amounts of heat and should not be placed on a surface that can melt or burn, or a surface that conducts heat easily. Also, care needs to be taken when transporting or emptying a lit chimney starter due to the high temperature of the burning charcoal.

TV chef Alton Brown occasionally uses a chimney starter as a high-intensity heat-source for flash-searing fish kebabs and similar applications, likening it to cooking over a jet engine.