Oklahoma Joe's® Halftime XL Charcoal Starter - 9848125R04

This thing is amazing at starting charcoal - you dump your coals in it, put a fire starter underneath and in no time you have ready coals for grilling, smoking or barbequing. Saves so much time and you don't need any lighter fluid so your food tastes amazing and doesn't have that chemical smell from the lighter fluid. Its perfect and works just as described. Even has a metal guard so that when you're ready to pour out the hot coals onto your grill you won't burn your hand from the hot coals and the heat they radiate.

This starter lives up to its claims. All starters like the Weber Chimney and the others work very well. I’ve had one for years that I wouldn’t grill without. There are tons of reviews for those other products explaining the benefit of using a starter.In this case, though, the large diameter separates it from other starters. Different is definitely better.It does light faster when you use the same amount of charcoal as you would in a typical starter. It also lets you use a lot more charcoal when you want to make a bigger fire. That’s a very nice feature.But the reason I really like the larger diameter is because I can use this starter as a mini-grill. I light it like normal with it sitting in my kettle grill. When the coals are ready, I don’t dump them out. I have a small grate that sits on top of the starter. I can quickly cook a couple of steaks right over the screaming hot fire. Then I close the grill, the fire goes out, and I save the coals for next time.This method sears the meat as well as a restaurant, and better than I’ve ever seen on a home gas or charcoal grill. I don’t need no stinking grill marks when the whole steak has a nice brown crust. I can do this on my old starter, but it's so small I can only do one at a time.It also works quite well for fish, pork chops, and burgers, and it’s great for finishing if you use a sous-vide cooker. You can also cook flank steak right on the coals if you want.My trusty old Weber Chimney has been replaced.

This thing works great. I waited a couple years to review it. No problems at all. No rust, has paid for itself a few times over since I don't buy lighter fuel anymore and even saved me more than that. Charcoal lights up good and I use up the cardboard shipping boxes things get delivered in as fuel for the starter. I cook outside a couple times a week at least and use this thing a whole lot. Can't go wrong getting yourself one.

The unique design of this chimney truly outperforms all the other typical products on the market. Well worth the little extra money up front as this is a very well-made item. Would highly recommend!

If you regularly go through the pain of firing up a second batch of coals, trying to keep consistency between the batches and control temperature, you know what a pain it is. This charcoal starter has taken away that annoyance for me. And even when I only need one "traditional" batch, I just put less in this one and all is good. There's no downside, so go for it.

Compared to the Kingsford, the cut outs are great for allowing more air to ignite the coals. And it's wider than other coal chimneys. But it's also a bit shallower. So the whole XL concept is kind of lost in the transition...

When they say this Chimney is big, They mean BIG!I can smoke on my Weber for HOURS AND HOURS with just one chimney full of lump charcoal.I’m going to get a small grate, and use this Chimney for a grill when camping. It would suffice for one large steak or two medium steaks. 🥩 and 2-3 burgers at a time.Needless to say, I like this starter Chimney.

Good airflow design. I noticed my coals are ready sooner. What I cared about most is even heating and this does it. I’ve done about 10-15 cooks so far on it and it’s held up well. Nice bronzed stainless look now, no weld issues. It’s awesomeIf I could change one thing, it would be to make it slightly taller but it’s great.