looftlighter, starter cubes, or electric starter?

dougcrann

Depends on how much of a fire I need. Burgers, pizza etc weed burner. Low and slow, starter cube (1). Tried a Bison, it broke after 1 use. Have contacted them. Their response time to my emails is about 5 weeks so it has taken a while, but they will be replacing it. Tried the oil soaked paper towels, works well. 
Our problem...the lump we use pops alot when being fed a supply of air. Hit it with the weed burner with any sort of force and you get hot embers flying. We tend to be very dry in the summer...so we need to pay attention to this when lighting it. I ALWAYS have a pressurized garden hose at the ready during drier times...

fishlessman

if you do this with oil and papertowel the oil spreads out and dries to the towel, no messy oil on your hands and you have a years worth in 5 minutes

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1143722/napkin-and-oil-trick-was-messy

Chris8938

I use a napkin with a little cooking spray (canola oil).  Works fine and is about as cheap as can be.  

fishlessman

Chris8938 said:

I use a napkin with a little cooking spray (canola oil).  Works fine and is about as cheap as can be.  

if you soak the oil in a can with veggie oil the napkin comes out the same as a sprayed piece at even less cost than the spray can oils

HeavyG

fishepa said:

I like the idea of a looftlighter, but I don't have easy access to an electrical outlet close to where I egg.  It would involve me getting out an extension cord which I don't want to do.  I'll stick with starter cubes.

For me it is a MAP torch and a cheap good old fashioned bellows to fan the nascent fire



Depending on the size of the cooker I'm using this on an extra length of pipe I can slip onto the end of the bellows help preserve my arm hairs.

avibug

I did the oiled towel thing for a while.  Lately I've been using these fire starters.   Work well, relatively cheap, and I kept forgetting to restock the oiled towels.  

hapster

I have a looftlighter... works great when it's dry and sunny, and even then I still spend more time than I do with my recent jar of oil dampened folded paper towels... Looftlighter isn't so good when it's raining, electricity is dicey when its raining or wet, and you have stand there with the egg open with the looftlighter switch constantly engaged for it to work. On the other hand... Not sure how much a pita it is, unscrew jar, grab oil soaked folded paper towel with tongs, place said oil soaked folded paper towel in the lump, light with a match or lighter. done

Darby_Crenshaw

A little napkin and oil is the fastest way to light the grill and be back inside prepping. Tried em all. With fresh lump, it's as fast as the weedburner (in terms of "d!cking around and standing there" time)

HendersonTRKing

It was like $25 on sale at True Value and I don't think it'll ever run out.  (Now, guaranteed to run out next fire . . . s'ok, I have a spare can!)

GuitarEC

For a virgin pile of lump, I'll use starter cubes.  If it's a lump restart, I go with my looftlighter.

sctdg

Paper towel,oil and no sparks to put hole in my shirts .Winner!

stompbox

I use weber starter cubes. Easy and cheap enough, I just set up a price watch on camelcamelcamel.com and purchase when the prices are low.

bgeaddikt

bgeaddikt

bgeaddikt

$23 for the heat tool and works perfectly in less then a minute.

pgprescott

hapster said:

I have a looftlighter... works great when it's dry and sunny, and even then I still spend more time than I do with my recent jar of oil dampened folded paper towels... Looftlighter isn't so good when it's raining, electricity is dicey when its raining or wet, and you have stand there with the egg open with the looftlighter switch constantly engaged for it to work. On the other hand... Not sure how much a pita it is, unscrew jar, grab oil soaked folded paper towel with tongs, place said oil soaked folded paper towel in the lump, light with a match or lighter. done

Certainly didn't mean to upset you. I am just lazy and don't like the effort it takes to prepare the jar of towels. This method is wildly popular which means I'm surely in the minority. I just prefer the torch or store bought starters which are similar to the towels, only dry and prepared for your use. I just don't sweat the 10-20 bucks a year cost. Sorry for the unintended diss. 

hapster

pgprescott said:

hapster said:

I have a looftlighter... works great when it's dry and sunny, and even then I still spend more time than I do with my recent jar of oil dampened folded paper towels... Looftlighter isn't so good when it's raining, electricity is dicey when its raining or wet, and you have stand there with the egg open with the looftlighter switch constantly engaged for it to work. On the other hand... Not sure how much a pita it is, unscrew jar, grab oil soaked folded paper towel with tongs, place said oil soaked folded paper towel in the lump, light with a match or lighter. done

Certainly didn't mean to upset you. I am just lazy and don't like the effort it takes to prepare the jar of towels. This method is wildly popular which means I'm surely in the minority. I just prefer the torch or store bought starters which are similar to the towels, only dry and prepared for your use. I just don't sweat the 10-20 bucks a year cost. Sorry for the unintended diss. 

Didn't take it that way... just saying that my looftlighter isn't super fast, I have a box of the Rutland cubes and they have been what I use about 90% of the time... I just made the jar and towel up to find a way to get rid of some oil I used for making fries, found that it is simple and very effective, esp if I run low or out of cubes.

jeroldharter

I have tried multiple methods:

Starter Cubes - work well but they are expensive, you can run out, and they are not available universally

Paper towels with oil - easy buy messy

Looflighter - relatively expensive, takes awhile, especially in cold weather, fun to use

Torch - can run out of fuel, can over do it at times

Electric Starter - easy, never run out of electricity, relatively inexpensive, reliable, good in cold weather

In the end, I prefer the electric starter and use a looflighter as my backup. Without easy access to electricity, then any other method would work fine.

I have a friend who simply throws lawn clippings on top of the coals and burns them off. He might be smarter, but I have more toys.

StillH2OEgger

This is not directed at anyone in particular and everybody will figure out what is best for them based on what is most important. I am curious though how or why some have mentioned the paper towel with oil being messy, although I can see that being the case if the entire paper towel is soaked. I just fold it a few times and roll it up and then dip about 2/3 of it in the bottle of vegetable oil, place in the egg and light the dry end. Depending on the cook I may use two or three. No reason your hand should even touch the oil.

NibbleMeThis

I've tried all of them for extended periods and my personal favorite has been a MAPpro gas torch (MAPP was discontinued years ago, MAPpro is a similar replacement although not exactly the same).  A little more expensive than propane but last time I checked the propane handheld torches have gas flow problems when used inverted, causing sputtering.  

malligator

Home Depot has Rutland starter squares on sale right now. They're normally $12ish for 144. Site shows on sale for $10ish. When I got to the store they were $5ish. I'm sticking with the squares since I also use them when I go camping.

westernbbq

Sports page and chimney starter.  One match.   Works everytime, without fail