Char-Broil Half Time Charcoal Starter Chimney

[fzxdoc]

I'm liking the look of this Char-Broil Half-Time Charcoal Starter chimney:



Seems like with all that ventilation, it'd get the charcoal up to temp faster than the Weber chimney that I have. I like a short chimney especially for the Pit Barrel Cooker because it makes pouring the coals easier.

Anybody got one of these? It's only about $11 on Amazon.

Kathryn

[Jerod Broussard]

And less time means less chance of TKO'ing a gas burner

[fzxdoc]

You're killin' me, Jerod Broussard .

[MBMorgan]

Seems like with all that ventilation, it'd get the charcoal up to temp faster than the Weber chimney that I have.

I'm thinking that with all those side vents, you won't get the benefit of an actual chimney effect ... instead, it'll probably act more like a pile of charcoal mostly in the open. I'm curious to hear from any actual users but my money's on it being much less effective than the Weber chimney.

[bep35]

Weber has a short chimney. Been trying to find one in the stores.

[cgrover60]

I bought a compact weber chimney at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Weber-7447-Compact-Rapidfire-Chimney/dp/B009IH0ICG/?tag=amazi0a8-20

[RonB]

I looked at it on Amazon and it looks nice. I would like to know how much charcoal it holds compared to the Weber Rapidfire 'cause that's how I measure charcoal. Just sayin'.

[Steve B]

I'm kinda thinking on the same track as MBMorgan. Looks like there won't be enough updraft to fire up the coals on top. Just alot of air swirling around. But maybe that might work?

[fzxdoc]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing MBMorgan and Steve B , not much chimney effect, perhaps. I did purchase a short Weber chimney and like it a lot for the ease of pouring coals into my PBC, but it takes 5-10 minutes longer for the topmost of 42 coals to ash over compared to using the regular sized Weber chimney. Not that 5-10 minutes more is all that much, but I do find it a teensy bit of an annoyance.

This guy is doing a side-by-side comparison of sorts, which is where I found out about it, RonB . But, even by his own admission, his initial comparison was not valid. More to come, he says.

Kathryn

[MBMorgan]

Thanks, Kathryn. I've gone back to using my full-size Weber chimney for precisely the same reason that you find the short one annoying. So for now, we'll just have to wait to see what our friendly starter tester has to say ... Initiating drum roll ...

[RonB]

fzxdoc - The way I read that man's statement, he thought the test was invalid because he used a different amount of charcoal in each. In order to test the time to "ashed over", you would need to use the same amount of charcoal in both chimneys.

[fzxdoc]

Yeah, I noticed that, Guest. Not how I would have set up the test, but I'm going to keep an eye on that 'blog and see if he tests it the right way. He was probably so excited about having a new toy that he didn't think of keeping all parameters the same except the chimneys themselves.

[fzxdoc]

I test drove and compared the Char-Broil Half Time chimney with the Weber Compact chimney over on this topic, for those interested in a followup.

Kathryn