tips to speed up hot coals

jerryp · May 2012

I was wondering if anyone has a few tips for speeding up a hot bed of coals. I use the paper towel in oil method. I don't want to buy a weed burner and I don't like to use a chimney in the egg. The towel method, I'm looking at about 45 minutes to an hour for a GOOD hot bed of coals. Any advice would be great.

misu · May 2012

More oiled towels worked for me but I switched to a small torch and it's 15 min if I light it up in 2-3 places
You can also point a fan at the bottom vent

Jasper · May 2012

Electric starter, MAPP torch, paraffin wax cubes, Looftlighter?

Doc_Eggerton · May 2012

Multiple ignition points, either by Rutland (or other brand) cubes, or I use a Looftlighter. This shortens the ignition time, but you still have to wait for the the dome to soak in the heat.

jrbguns · May 2012

An old hair dryer blowing in the bottom vent speeds things up.

jerryp · May 2012

I'm a little embarrassed that it never occured to me to light it up in multiple locations.

njl · May 2012

If it's taking that long, something's wrong with your lump or (more likely) your air-flow. I've been using the oiled towel method, and can generally be cooking in 20min or less. If I'm really in a hurry (or having air flow issues), I bring out the home made eggcelerator (12v old PC fan in a project box) and sit that on the bottom vent. It doesn't take huge volumes of air to make a big difference.

travisstrick · May 2012

More air

Ottawa_Eggman · May 2012

An old hair dryer blowing in the bottom vent speeds things up.

Yup works every time
:-bd

Lit · May 2012

Heat gun

Botch · May 2012

Some of the comments here got me to thinking, and I found this on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products-TM-Automatic-fireplaces/dp/B007ULUEW6/ref=sr_1_9?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1336230943&sr=1-9

There were no ratings yet, but for $12 I ordered one, will report back.

Mickey · May 2012

An old hair dryer blowing in the bottom vent speeds things up.

Bingo

The Cen-Tex Smoker · May 2012

Use bigger chunks of lump and don't dump the small pieces in. I place my lump in by hand. you don't have to do this but it helps with airflow and airflow = heat. Try not dumping for the next few cooks. Use hand kicked larger pieces and see if that helps.

Ragtop99 · May 2012

When I need more air, I go old school:

No batteries or electric cords needed. :)

jaydub58 · May 2012

Here is what I use,

Bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Battery operated, gets to cook temp fast!

Duganboy · May 2012

The problem has to be in your air flow. I can use an electric coil starter, or the blocks from BGE and be up to temp in 20 mins.

gerhardk · May 2012

Once I have the coal burning I give it a a bit of a stir it really speeds the spreading of the fire. For low and slow I just light it in two three spots.

Gerhard

jerryp · May 2012

It isn't a matter of being up to temp. My egg gets hot quickly. It's about having a glowing layer of hot coals on the entire top of the coals.

Ragtop99 · May 2012

It isn't a matter of being up to temp. My egg gets hot quickly. It's about having a glowing layer of hot coals on the entire top of the coals.

If you need hot coals over a big area you need to start the fire in multiple areas. If I'm cooking 6 big T-Bones I'll start 2 chimneys (using my gas grill side burner; it is mess free) and spread the hot coals out over a wide area.

If you are doing the paper towel method, I'd suggest doing 3 - 4 spots so the fire can spread from more than a single location. When those spots are really going strong, give them a stir to spread them around.

burr_baby33 · May 2012

I don't normally use the paper towel with oil but tonight I did. Twenty minutes and a very hot clean fire. One towel pretty well soaked and that's all.

njl · May 2012

I'm about to do steaks. I did my usual

stir up the left over lump from the last cook

make sure the fire box and fire grate air holes aren't clogged with ash

add some new lump to the old lump

Only thing I did differently was this time, I dug a hole in the center until I could see the fire grate. I used one paper towel with probably about 1-2 table spoons of waste corn oil poured into it sort of bunched up like a cup. I stuck this in the hole in the center and lit it, then loosely placed a few large pieces of lump over it. 12 minutes later when I went out to check on it, dome temp was just over 600F. I was only wanting around 400F...so I had to shut things down a bit and let it cool off before putting in the plate setter...I'm going to try something a little different from my usual for steaks tonight.

Little Steven · May 2012

I keep a stainless shop vac on the deck for cleaning out the eggs. If I'm in a hurry, I stick the hose in the exhaust end and shove the other end in the lower vent. Pretty much instantaneous. :\">

eggo · May 2012

I keep a stainless shop vac on the deck for cleaning out the eggs. If I'm in a hurry, I stick the hose in the exhaust end and shove the other end in the lower vent. Pretty much instantaneous. :\">

That works for me too, hair dryer works well too.

cortguitarman · May 2012

Gasoline...ok, that's a bad idea bit it would get it up to temp. Same as others have said. More air flow. I've read some posts about folks using leaf blowers.

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