Chimney of Insanity XL Charcoal Starter — Field & Stream Best Overall Charcoal Chimney — Largest Charcoal Chimney Available — Ready-to-Cook Coals in About 3 Minutes with BBQ Dragon Fan

This product worked great! The charcoal starter really held a lot of coals and the tube to insert the fire starter was a nice touch, but what really makes this product is the portable fan that you can buy that plugs right into this thing. My full chimney of coals were ready to spread in about 10 minutes. Alternatively I also hooked this fan up to my side firebox and used it to circulate the air when I added more coals to the fire. This kept my temps at a constant level and really made long cooks easier. Highly recommended by myself for backyard bbquer's and anyone who uses charcoal chimneys.

As you can probably tell from the photos: it's a charcoal chimney with a twist - it has tube in the base. The idea is you take a source of forced air, intended to be the BBQ Dragon fan but it could be about anything, and blow air through the tube and thus up through the charcoal. i.e. you're creating a mini coal-powered blast furnace at home. The forced air makes the charcoal start much faster. As a chimney *without* the BBQ Dragon or other fan/forced air source: zero advantage over the average one you find at the hardware store. A little nicer, and with cool lettering. But it won't do any better at lighting your charcoal. As a chimney *with* the BBQ Dragon or similar: GAME CHANGER. This chimney plus the BBQ Dragon on max blast really does light your coals to the point you can cook on them in 5 minutes or less. That means BBQ, steaks on the grill, smores, whatever in much less time. For best results: * use the chimney first with the BBQ Dragon as instructed * use the Dragon on max for about 2 minutes. You're instructed to not go longer because you can damage the chimney, or even melt it. I believe it. I left it on for 2-3 minutes and burned off the anti-rust coating on the dragon. Why? Remember what I said earlier: at-home BLAST FURNACE. It's not a joke * pour out the coals in layers. The bottom half are completely lit and blazing hot. The top coals are partly to completely unlit - the base gets too hot. So get a layer of unlit coals on the bottom, then top with a layer of lit coals as you pour out * then take the BBQ Dragon fan (or whatever you're using) and blow on the coals for another 1-2 minutes. In practice you stop because the heat coming off of blown coals starts burning our hand. I reiterate: BLAST FURNACE. In total this process takes about 5 minutes if you have all the materials at hand. Alternatives to the BBQ Dragon: I consider the fan to be the weak point of this setup because it costs an eye-watering $60. If you're getting an upscale gift for a grill enthusiast it's worth it. Otherwise there has to be a better way. And I think there is: LEAF BLOWER. * loosely place paper into the hole/tube and light it * point the leaf blower on low toward the hole, the fire will quickly propagate to the rest of the paper an on through and up the tube to light the coals * as the paper burns down (this happens quick, especially under forced air) get the blower closer to the hole and turn up the power * you'll know when the coals are ready about 1-2 minutes later just the same as with the BBQ dragon: fire spitting out the top * you REALLY know when it's ready when the side walls of the chimney start glowing a dull red. Because I repeat for the final time: BLAST FURNACE. Don't have a leaf blower? Use the hair dryer. The wife might try to kill you, but you're now armed with hot coals. I give you a 50/50 chance of survival. Honestly, it's worth the $40 just for a pre-made mini blast furnace. So much fun. PARTING WARNING: forced air through lit charcoal = a volcano of sparks. Part of the fun. But if you're in an area with high fire risk and lots of dry tinder easily set on fire with sparks, this is NOT a good idea. Test at home for sure before taking it camping. Kingsford charcoal seems to spark less, while Fogo charcoal (way better than Kingsford for cooking btw) seems to be about 20% charcoal and 100% made of sparks. I know that adds up to more than 100%; that's how extra the sparks are.

It's a big chimney I ordered 2 can't wait to put them to work.

Bonus here is it's made from stainless (I'm guessing 409 by the color) so assuming they didn't lie, it should last a long time and not burn out like the carbon steel ones. My only problem with this unit is it's too small. my older paper chimney would hold 30-40% more charcoal, so when I throw it in my grill, I have a nice base that fills the tray... this thing heats them up good with the blower, but when you dump the coals out, it kinda fills the middle of the pan, but the edges are empty. Handle is good, you're not going to get burnt or anything like that. If I get annoyed enough, I'll grab a piece of stainless flue pipe and remake this thing 4 inches taller so it's the same. Is it that big a deal? Not sure... but it's annoying to have red hot coals and then have to add another quart volume of unlit charcoal and spread it around and wait for that to light before starting to cook. I can't even pile them up higher at top. For a smaller grill it's probably fine, but my grate at roughly 12x18 inches is too sparsely filled to do the job on one load. As far as light it off goes, if you're using the blower, just leave it on low and make sure you put the bale of pine shavings in sideways so there's more surface area facing the tube... if you put it in long axis in, it'll burn, but you're not going to get the heat production.

His cc starter is very cool. The coolest feature is the vent pipe. I use it to burn thru this pipe with a LPG torch for a few seconds only. After that, i place a battery driven small fan and after a few more seconds, the fire is already coming out on top. Very efficient! But after 2 months of usage it already starts to corrode and I see already the end of lifetime approaching. Therefore I wish the material could be stainless steel. But it's the best starter I've ever used!

Great product. Coupled with the BBQ Dragon fan, it just makes it a breeze to light the charcoal. A couple of weekends ago, we had my wife's family visiting and at some point somebody told me something like "cousin XX is arriving in about 40 minutes, we better start lighting up the charcoal". And I said "we still have a half an hour", and though everybody looked at me in disbelief, I sat down and opened another beer. Then 30 minutes later I pulled out my BBQ Dragon and Chimney of Insanity and lit up the charcoal from zero to ready-to-cook in 8-9 minutes without breaking a sweat. Needless to say everybody was impressed and asking where to buy one :-)

Powerful fan!!! Had my charcoal lit up within 5 minutes. Worked great when deciding to reverse sear a steak. The chimney is also very large! Can't wait to try this on my Santa Maria grill!!! Very easy to use, time saver, lighting was simple & quick. I highly recommend this for the day to day griller!!!

I recently got this chimney starter after stumbling onto the Dragon BBQ fan. This chimney is designed to work hand in hand with their BBQ fan (sold seperately) My thoughts after a few months of using this chimney (PS: I BBQ 2-3 times a week on average) Pros: If you use the air fan that they sell along with this chimney, it will light up very quickly. I like it because with the fan working in unison with this chimney, there is MUCH LESS smoke bellowing out of the chimney. It also lights about 5-8 minutes faster vs. my weber chimney....which is a big plus. Cons: It does not hold as much coals as the regular Weber chimney starter, I think the Weber holds about 25% - 30% more charcoal. This is a bit of a pain because for a bigger BBQ grill, i will need to do 1.5 ~ 2 full chimney loads to get the grill going the way i need it. Another con is that this chimney rusts. My Weber chimney has been thru 3 yeasr in the rain and sun and it still has no rust. The Dragon BBQ chimney has already started to rust and it has only been a few months since I have had it. In fact it has not been exposed to any rain at all given its summer right now...so not sure what is going on there. Final con is that this is double the price of the Weber chimney, however, it does have the fan vent hole built into it. Not sure if that warrents being double the price...? In the end...I don't regret buying this chimney starter. It does work as advertised with a few cons as mentioned. I hope they come out with a verison 2.0 which holds more charcoal & won't rust 'as quickly'. Cheers!!!

Was really excited to have the chimney of insanity and use it with the bbq dragon. Sadly when unpackaged the tubing was loose. The pop rivets are poor quality and I don’t think this will last. Insult to injury because I ordered through Amazon Australia BBQ Dragon have wiped their hands of it. Impossible to get a replacement so solution is I spend my time returning for refund and then reorder and hope I don’t get another broken one or I spend my time and money and re pop rivet everything. A real shame as I expected for price a good quality chimney.

I have bought two of these. They work great, but over time, they rust and hence, why I bought the second. I live in Singapore which is hot and humid, so this doesn't help. However, they really only last a year for me before the unit rusts through and is no longer useable. Will need to buy my third this summer for sure. Otherwise, a great unit.

When I got this I cannot believe how Big this Chimney starter is, and when you Pair it with the BBQ Dragon Fan it really does Light your coals in under 10 minutes. With this design I also find you use less paper to get the coals started and less smoke when using the Fan. Also lots of room to put the BBQ fan quickly in and out of the pipe at the bottom. Price of this Chimney is quite steep though so if you are not planning on buying the BBQ Dragon Fan along with it there may be other cheaper Chimney starters out there This is a game changer as the coals are ready to be dumped into the BBQ in less than 10 minutes opposed to the old way where it would take 20 plus minutes before they were ready to be put in the BBQ

Use it to light the charcoal. Very convenient and easy to start a fire. Highly recommended. Would definitely purchase for gifts to others.

Pro -paired with BBQ fan can light charcoal in 4min! Amazing! Con - Expensive if you order from Canada