Lodge A5-1 Charcoal Chimney Starter

My old chimney, same style, lasted for twenty years. I'm glad they haven't changed the style. It works.

The other reviewer pointed out some safety issues. These are valid for any chimney starter and are best solved by keeping in mind that there's a fire going in the chimney.

There are a few things I really like about this model. 1) Lots of ventilation to get oxygen to all of the coals, even when totally full. 2) You can easily lift it up and put new paper under it if your paper fizzles out (happened to me) and you need to restart. The small holes in the side also help you see what's going on as the heat rises. 3) Most important, it gets charcoal good and hot good and quick.

Now for what I don't like. 1) Lodge coated all of the metal surfaces, including the grill inside, with some kind of coating. I guess it's supposed to make it look like "nice" unfinished metal. Problem is, this coating isn't very heat resistant and quickly melts/evaporates, leaving odd streaks of exposed metal after just a couple uses. A better approach would have been to leave the metal alone. 2) Even a large charcoal briquette can slip through the grill in the bottom. Not sure how I'd fix this and keep the system well ventilated. 3) It only holds enough to cook a crowded meal for 2 on charcoal. Easiest way to solve this is buy 2 or more, depending on how much you plan to cook at a time. This seems to be the case for every starter I've seen. They're all basically the same size.

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This charcoal chimney starter is effective and performs as described in the product description.

There are two flaws in the design that relate to safety:

1. The metal handle is exposed in the separation on the sides of the 2-piece wooden insulators. Conceivably, a bare hand could be burned when grasping the handle to dump out the prepared coals. Be sure to use an insulated glove or potholder.

2. The spacing of the outermost ring in the bottom grate sometimes allows a briquette to fall through and out of the chimney. This can occur when a briquette is oriented edge-wise down. A user typically has his/her attention on the open end of the chimney when pouring hot charcoal. A hot briquette could fall out unnoticed from the other end when tipping the unit. My personal experience is that a briquette fell out of the bottom when I dumped the coals into my grill. It landed on the plastic top of a patio table. I did not discover this until the table top had been partially melted and deformed.

Use with caution. Supervise youngsters.

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This would be 5 stars if Lodge could have made a grate that didn't allow charcoal to fall through. I used a current name brand charcoal and tried to light three chimney's worth this weekend. About 10% of the bricks will fall through during the pouring in (annoying) or pouring out (dangerous). Why in the world would you not make the grate smaller? Unless I modify it myself, it is too annoying to use. Thanks, Lodge.

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Wow, talk about an item that does exactly what it is supposed to do!

12 minutes for 30 regular Kingsford charcoals to be fully ready to cook. This is with three newspaper sheets, one match and NO FUEL.

The only negative thought is the top rim is extremely sharp and could pose a cutting danger to the user. The bottom rim seems to be better rounded and does not pose this hazard.

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