Just stumbled across this today. I use a Looftlighter and get my flame going in about a minute. The end of it has to make contact on the coals until you see sparks. Then you pull it away and let it blow hot air on the lit coals for about 30 seconds. Works every time! And you can stick it deep into the pile of coals, unlike the heat gun.
I much prefer the chimney - light the paper under it and walk away. Not interested in standing around blowing air on coals. That being said, If you're willing to stand around with the gun, I bet the heat gun on a chimney would work pretty well!
If the heat gun’s hot air outlet is too short for comfort, just extend it with a metal tube. If you don’t have one the right size, just make a tube out of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Note: Don’t use galvanized pipe or brass. They bothh contain zinc, and zinc produces toxic fumes if it gets hot enough.
As a welder I’m not worried about the warm hand. That being said, you could buy a set of mig welding gloves from harbor freight or as it has been suggested go buy a piece of cut off aluminum tube from a metal supplier.
Had the same thought. $4.95 set of welder’s gloves at HF. Warm hand solved! Probably a little safer too... Never thought of using the heat gun. Chimney is my go to. Great video. Thanks
They make attachments for the heat gun too for fairly cheap. Might be something to consider. The welding gloves are a good suggestion. I have a pair and use them when dumping my chimney as a precaution.
Nothing wrong with Kingsford charcoal, don't be ashamed for using it. Never thought of using a heat gun, interesting. I usually just wad up some newspaper under my chimney, quick and easy. I can walk away and season my food while the charcoal is warming up.
Awesome review. HF has an accessory kit for the heat gun and included is a narrow attachment gives you two more inches and possibly more focused heat. Doing lots of research before I dive into a charcoal grill. I've only used gas so far and pretty good at it.
My first looftlighter lasted about 2 yrs. I bought a 2nd one and so far no issues, after a yr. When it does go, I’ll try the heat gun. Even with the Looftlighter, I wear fire gloves .
I like all of them. I haven't got a Looftlghter but it looks cool and it does the job. I have used a heat gun for many years, up until 10-12 years when I got the chimney and it's still going. The chimney for me is the best: 1) No need to stand there forever until they are all lit. You can do anything else you need to do while they are getting ready. 2) Buy off one cost and that's it 3) Light's up all the coals minimising the danger of having some coals not heated properly. 4) I can prepare more out of the barbecue as it is not good to add coals underneath your food due to toxic smoke which will stick on your food. Coals should be covered in ash before you cook on them.
Thanks to Alton Brown. I put old cooking oil or bacon grease on the newspaper or used paper towel at the bottom of the chimney. Makes the paper burn longer.
Nice vid ! We like to bbq ('braai') our meat in South Africa using a good quality wood fire, though we do use good charcoal in a chimney as a backup on the side. Nifty idea with the heat gun, for those times the wood is damp !
just stumbled across this vid, didn't think of using my HF heatgun to start charcoal. I usually use a chimney but the heat gun will come handy if i have damp charcoal that is hard to get going
Good for you! 😃 👍🏾 And Kingsford charcoal is NOT "cheap" charcoal! Actually, lump charcoal is used for high heat cooking, while briquettes are used for a more traditional cook. Don't diss the Kingsford, bro! 😃 Great video!
I have a chimney starter but it causes TOO much smoke. The neighbors are giving me the side eye. I'm looking for an alternative to reduce the amount of smoke on start up so this video helps with research. Per your video it looks like the smoke output on the heat gun wasn't too bad...
You can use the heat gun at close range to light a few coals and then just blow on them from further away to spread the heat. I'm curious to try the looflighter in the chimney, though remove it before the rising heat melts the top/burns your hand. I don't know if it's designed to be buried in a pile of charcoal for best results.
I have gone to lighting a chimney with a heat gun from the top. It condenses the charcoal so the top part gets lit really fast. I can dump the pile out and not have any lingering coals in the bottom to burn my deck if I miss them. Then the fire just rises naturally when I spread it out.
I always use a napkin soaked in vegetable oil, light it up and put it into the charcoal, 5 minutes later I always have a big fire, try it and save some bucks :) Good advice tho!!! Thanks!
I bought a heat gun and I no longer use it. The fastest way to light your coals is by using a fan with a charcoal chimney. I can get my coals red hot in 3 minutes. Try it yourself. The fan method is the best by far
Start a few coals in the chimney with the heat gun, then load it up and let the chimney work and turn off that noisy thing, is my method when electricity is convenient.
Great idea, going to try it. I really like my chimney, the concept is perfect for lighting coals, start a few on the bottom, get them red hot, add more and let nature take its course. I have been using newspaper, but it smokes too much and I don’t think the neighbors care for it.
I was wondering about this method. How much smoke does it put out after you put the lit coals in the chimney then top it off with unlit coals? I’m looking for minimal smoke so I don’t bother my neighbors.
One drawback with chimneys is they produce a lot of smoke, while I see to little to no smoke with the heat gun. Although it seems to me that both of em' accelerate the ashing process compared to lighter fluid. Nevertheless, I'm picking up one of those HF heat guns, takes all the guesswork out if you're only trying to light a few coals. And I feel you on the haters, pshhhhh...but what can you do. Great vid BTW.
Let me know how it works out for you! If you sign up for HF emails or texts they send out coupons almost weekly so you can save a little more on the heat gun. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and for the kind words!
@@BreakItYourself I had to stop using my chimney because of too much smoke and it is a problem as I live downtown. I happened to have a Roofing torch around and holy hell did that work. One minute and the charcoal is going with comparatively very little smoke. Works pretty much exactly the same as the "Grill gun"
Weber Performer or Summit Gas Start + Chimney = Tossed out my heat gun and starter cubes long ago! Still cool to see a Harbour Freight/Princess Auto heat gun taking on the Loof though!
A lot of newbies are being jerked by all these companies making these products. Especially the Spin grates and Slow and Sear products as well as the Vortex, Which is nothing but a $5 stainless steel bowl you can buy and just cut the bottom out and flip it over and Viola, you have Vortex for $5 and not $55. Thanks for the Video.
Chimney is slower, but it's more practical. You can't take the electric heat gun camping, but you can take the chimney anywhere. Speaking of camping, I'd also used the the chimney to start bonfires.
lol great you saved me some cash my 14$ harborfreight heat gun works great or the chimney or even the old coil that takes 7minutes to light coals good job on test
Those particular harbor freight heat guns have a molded plastic fan to push the heat out, and if they are on too long that fan will melt/warp/fail. Ask me how I know.
Never knew about the heat gun! Looks pretty cool. Kingsford is not the cheap stuff lol.. if I was testing, there would’ve been zero markings on that briquette and zero ridges.
with a chimney, you light the newspaper then walk away to prep your food with a heatgun, you have to stand there until it’s done (albeit faster) but then your coals are piping hot and you have less time to prep your food in reality, a better comparison would be the time to light a newspaper vs time to use a heat gun
I recently bought a looftlighter (technically a different brand, but same product for all intents and purposes) and I gotta say I'm not all that impressed. Maybe I just need to give it a few more tries, but so far I much prefer lighting a starter and putting a chimney on and then walking away while I go prep everything else. Come back in 20 or so minutes and my charcoal is ready to go. Seems like the looftlighter should get things going in half the time, but it's much more active and hands on meanwhile the chimney is passive and takes care of itself
Try 5, or 6, well placed cotton balls soaked in alcohol. Just light the cotton balls, and walk away. It works, and works well. No standing around watching and waiting. No smoke at all. I keep a quart jar full of cotton balls and alcohol ready to use anytime I want to start a charcoal fire. Lump, or briquettes. I've retired my chimney.
no or very little smoke is the main advantage of the heat guns vs the chimney, I too am using a chimney but am going to go over to a heat gun so as to reduce the amount of smoke I produce.
Hey whats up, you didn't use the chimney on the charcoil grates. This way on a flat surface your reducing the amount of air into the chimney... One time using my chemney on my weber go anywhere I had a flame of 3 feet commin out of the chimney in 10 min. Great video but not fair for the chimney.
ahh good point. usually i start my chimney in my weber on the grates and it still takes me about the same amount of time... maybe it's user error on my part haha
I've been using a Harbor Freight heat gun (a somewhat nicer one than this, but... still HF) with a flexible exhaust pipe, 1-1.5" in diameter. Measure the nozzle on your heat gun - at the wider point behind the tip, not the tip itself - then start checking your local auto parts stores. Just press it onto the nozzle and run it for 15 minutes to burn out anything nasty before you use it to light any coals. It probably loses some heat, and more heat the longer it is, but it's a very cheap solution. You can aim at any angle, and even embed the pipe all the way into a pile of coals if you want (unlike a $60+ appliance, the worst you can do to a cheap pipe is discolor it.) Just make sure you keep a close eye on it... if something slips out of place, an unattended heat gun WILL cause a fire, which is almost certainly why LooftLighter only has a momentary switch. You can use it WITH a chimney by propping the chimney up on bricks and curving the pipe so that it blasts hot air up from underneath, which gives you a combined effect. Works best with a taller, narrow chimney like a standard Weber, less well with a wider, shorter one like Oklahoma Joe. It's tricky to do this on the grill, though... I usually do it on pavers, and it does make a bit of a mess. One day I'll figure out a way to make this work on/in the grill. There's a new chimney called the Barbienado on Amazon that basically just has an inlet for their Looftlighter knockoff (and there seems to be no reason a heat gun shouldn't work) but I do have doubts. It looks to be better built than the BBQ Dragon chimney, but the asking price of $50 is insane, and from what I can find, there's no bottom ventilation - so it may *only* work with forced air, and require it to be applied for the entire time.
You can use a hair dryer. Hair dryers blow harder than heat guns, so you can be further away. Also if you have a grill with a vent you can blow the air that way.
Heat gun all the way in my opinion. Just buy an Ove Glove type product. I bought gloves resistant up to 500 degrees for $5. They work great and work well with the heat gun.
I usually use a chimney with balled up newspapers on the bottom. When using my electric smoker, I toss an aluminum tube full of pellets. I light then with the hf heat gun. Works well and pretty quickly- under 2 minutes. Was gifted a looftlighter. Haven't used it yet, but sad to find it is a little slower than my $10 hf heat gun :/
Since the heat gun is designed for construction/remodeling applications, why not just put on a work glove (also used for construction/remodeling) and forget the concern that your hand might be/is getting hot?
Seems you aren’t using the looflighter correctly. You need to hold the end in contact with the coals until they ignite then move it back. I would think it would comfortably win if used per the instructions.
Since asking I've tried this. It's easy to modify a chimney with an old can to divert the heat from a heat gun up the middle of a chimney. Starts in 2-3 minutes with minimal to no smoke. Video to follow.
I remember watching a tv show/documentary of a bbq competition and everyone was making a big deal about not using lighter fluid... than they showed this one guy who couldn't care less about it... lighter fluid dude went on to win the competition.
Old comment here but I don't love the gun. The Luff lighter has a larger heating area and a strong blower so if you look at 1,28,13 you basically have a few burnt and soon to be useless coals from the gun and some fire around it but the Luff has heated up the whole base of the coals and is ready to BBQ at 1,28, you didn't need to go any further. Also interesting to see how each did with hardwood. My problem with the gun is that it's heats a small areas really quickly but doesn't spread the fire starting to coals around it unless you burn through the main coal you've been heating..hard to explain. I have a large green egg and it's lit within 2-3 mins with the Luff, shut the lead and I'm BBQ'ing within 5 mins.
@@BreakItYourself I'm gonna grab a heat gun (as you say they're so cheap) and give it a try. i have a large sized Green Egg so will need to hit 3-4 spots with the gun (as I do with the Loof) - the other thing that sucks about this method is you breath in a lot of soot and smoke whether you're standing over it for 3 mins or 5.
Which method produced the least amount of smoke during lighting?? I don't want to make my neighbors mad. I know the chimney smokes like a choo choo train, which is the method I'm using now.
I have a Weber performer. It comes with a propane burner (takes the 16 oz bottle) and it shoots a high flame up and hits the charcoal perfectly. It’s cool but I only use it when I’m in a hurry. I usually use newspaper just because I don’t want to have to get back up to turn the gas off.
You have got to get a Texas match! Get you the harbor freight weed burner. What is taking you 9mins will only take 2-3 mins. I like the one with the piezoelectric igniter (with the coupon it was $20).
Besides coals, I use that Harbor Freight propane lighter to start my wood pellet fire ring too. What was 10-15 min. is now like a minute or two. Plus it’s friggin’ dramatic when I hit the “afterburner” trigger. Use a 25% off coupon on the $24.99 regular price.
I'm suprised that you didn't read the instructions for the Looftlighter. If you had been using it right it would have been far more efficient...just saying.
If you are trying Harbor Freight products.. check out their "weed burner".. crazy overkill but fun and maybe a little dangerous. A very popular RU-vid channel (Sous Vide Everything) uses one to sear their steaks.
There is also another plug in lighter that you can use. www.homedepot.com/p/Vision-Grills-Electric-Charcoal-Starter-CS600/205367430. It does warn you to not leave it unattended as you can melt the metal after the coals are started. However, both of the methods you used here are quite faster. Personally I like the chimney method with newspaper in the bottom as I can go and do my prep while the coals are getting ready. Great video!
Thanks for the kind words! I agree, I like to use the chimney so I can do other things while they get going. Although these heat gun types are great for just a few coals. Cheers!
I have now moved on from even lighting with news paper. I now use a folded price of kitchen roll soaked in cooking oil, in fact waste cooking oil I now collect for this. Works every time and completely free except for one match and two sheets of kitchen roll. Beats heating the planet by using electricity to light a BBQ.
What determines when the clock stops? Clearly you can see that not every piece of charcoal is lit. I say redo. - use the same amount of charcoal - light up all the briquettes - complete ash over with no flame = clock stops and determine the winner
Man, forget those fools who gave you shit on the snake method video. I prefer using the fluid. I like the taste it adds to the overall flavor. You absolutely can use too much and it overwhelms everything, but as long as you don't over do it (which you didnt) there is nothing wrong with using fluid. Do you like these new ways more than the fluid way? If not, screw them. It's your meat, not theirs
I really do like using the heat gun or looftlighter because it's a more active way to light just a few coals and playing with fire is fun haha now for lighting a lot of coals i'll stick with the chimney. Thanks for the kind words! I always just assumed that if i used fluid i would wait a while for it to burn off before putting the meat on.
