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See why.The Best Charcoal Fire Starters
Charcoal fire starters promise to light charcoal—even when wet. Do they work?
By Published July 1, 2016
Top Picks
See Everything We Tested
What You Need To Know
Charcoal fire starters—flammable tiles, cubes, or nuggets—are advertised as waterproof alternatives to the newspaper used for lighting charcoal briquettes in a chimney starter. To see how well they worked, we bought five fire starters (made from materials like wax, wood chips, volcanic rock, and paper), priced from $0.13 to $1.25 per unit, and used the lowest number of units recommended by the manufacturers (from one to three) to light chimneys filled with charcoal briquettes. Then we grilled zucchini and flank steak over the coals and tasted each food for off-flavors.
All five starters did a good job of lighting the charcoal, taking about the same time as four sheets of newspaper to heat the charcoal for cooking, and they imparted no off-flavors to the food. To test how waterproof they were, we submerged the starters in water for 2 hours and then tried to light them; while none would light straight out of their bath, all ignited without much trouble after we blotted them dry with paper towels.
Differences were minor; some of the starters ignited more quickly than others, and some made slightly more of a mess in the bottom of the grill basin, but they all worked. Our take? If you don’t keep newspaper around, any of the fire starters make fine substitutes. They may even be preferable if you grill in inclement weather. A bonus: You can use these starters to light a wood fire or, in a pinch, to light charcoal without a chimney (you’ll need to move the charcoal around a bit to get it evenly lit).
Our favorite charcoal fire starters, the Weber Lighter Cubes ($0.14 per unit), took less than 10 seconds to light. Made entirely of paraffin wax, they were easy to clean up afterward and were the most water-resistant of the bunch.
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Clean Flavors: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Ignition: 3 stars out of 3.
- Water Resistance: 3 stars out of 3.
Resembling mini marshmallows, these starter cubes ignited quickly. Because they were made entirely of paraffin wax, they were the most water-resistant product we tested—and because they are individually packaged in foil and plastic, it’s unlikely that they’ll get wet in the first place.
Recommended
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Clean Flavors: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Ignition: 3 stars out of 3.
- Water Resistance: 2 stars out of 3.
These squares of paper, cardboard, and wax burnt down to charred gossamer-weight piles of ash that disintegrated upon contact, adding almost nothing to cleanup. They lit quickly when dry but did absorb some water during the 2-hour soak, so it took slightly longer to light them after they were blotted dry in the soak test.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Clean Flavors: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Ignition: 3 stars out of 3.
- Water Resistance: 2 stars out of 3.
Nearly identical to the Meeco’s Red Devil squares in appearance and performance, the Rutland squares lit and cleaned up easily. Like the Meeco’s squares, they took a little longer than our winner to light after being blotted dry in the soak test, but they still worked fine.
- Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
- Clean Flavors: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Ignition: 3 stars out of 3.
- Water Resistance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This highly portable fire starter is volcanic rock contained in a burnable cellulose pouch; you can stick the whole thing under the chimney and light it. Despite the presence of flavorizing pellets made from applewood and alderwood, our tasters didn’t notice any extra flavors in the zucchini or flank steak. While the pouch needed a bit of a pat-down with a paper towel to ignite when wet, our only true gripe was that the volcanic rock particles are never consumed by the fire, leaving a small pile of kitty litter–like pebbles in the bottom of the grill and adding to our cleanup.
- Cleanup: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Clean Flavors: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Ignition: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Water Resistance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
Made with shreds of pine, these macaroon-like nuggets were a little trickier to ignite both when dry and when wet, requiring us to fuss with the matches for longer than with other products. And they burned down to tiny, sprinkle-like charred bits that blew around instead of filtering down into the grill bottom.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Miye Bromberg
Miye is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She covers booze, blades, and gadgets of questionable value.
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