Charcoal lighters

Another way of lighting your charcoal, is using charcoal lighters.
These are little cubes, containing different materials that are easy to light and burn for a long time.

Using them is very simple:

1. Buy them :P
2. Build up a charcoal pyramide and place multiple charcoal lighters at spots you can reach.
3. Light them

That's it and that's the reason why they are so popular.
In difference to lighter fluid, it is easy to control the amount of lighter you want to use, because it is cut into several small pieces.
In addition, you ain't gonna cause a darting flame.
You can use charcoal lighters in combination with the chimney aswell.

Pros of charcoal lighters:

-Easy usage
-Fast
-Save
-Cheap

Cons of charcoal lighters:

-Depending on the materials used, they can provide a chemical taste

Electric charcoal starter

Electric charcoal starter

A kind of new way to light your charcoal is using an electric charcoal starter.

To ensure a proper use, you should arrange a charcoal pyramid.
Afterwards you plug your electric charcoal starter into power supply and hold it into your charcoal pyramid. After a few minutes, your charcoals should start burning and glowing.
When they do so, you can take out the electric charcoal starter and wait until the charcoal is covered with white ashes.
Using an electrical charcoal starter is combinable with using a chimney.

Pros of using an electric charcoal starter:

-Easy in use
-No chemicals
-No smoke

Cons of using an electric charcoal starter:

-With ~100US$, they are expensive
-Not suitable for outdoor BBQs because of the need of power

Wood

Wood

A lot of people swear  that lighting your charcoal with wood is the best of all ways.

To do this, you need to place some newspaper on the bottom of your BBQ.

Afterwards you need some very dry and small pieces of wood arranged on top of the newspapers.

When you’ve done that, a charcoal pyramid is placed above the wood.

Next step is to light the newspaper, watch it burn the wood, causing the charcoal to glow.

Pros of using wood:

-Most original way

-No chemistry

-Original taste

Cons of using wood:

-If you buy the wood, it’s expensive

-It takes some time

-Wet wood can cause a lot of smoke

Lighter fluid

Lighter fluid

A way of lighting your charcoal is using lighter fluid.

First of all I want to mention that this method is dangerous and about ~5000 people hurt themselves by using lighter fluid.

It is highly flammable and needs to be kept away from children.

To use it right, build a pyramid with your charcoal. Cover every single piece of charcoal with lighter fluid and give it at least 5 minutes to soak into the charcoal.

When these 5 minutes have passed, light a newspaper and use it to ignite the charcoal.

Once it starts burning, you can’t use the lighter fluid again, because even hot charcoals can cause the lighter fluid to burn/explode, what is very dangerous.

Pros of lighter fluid:

-Fast

Cons of lighterfluid:

-Bad taste

-Very dangerous

-A lot of smoke

Chimney

The Chimney

A chminey is used to ignite charcoal. In my opinion, they are very useful, because they are very easy and save in usage, ignite charcoal quick and ensure an uniform and equally heating of the coal.

You simply put the charcoal into the chimney and place some lightened papers below it.

Afterwards you can grab a beer, chat with your guests and after about 10 minutes, your charcoal is ready.
Flip over the chimney, arrange the charcoal and put on the meat ;)

Pros of the chimney:

-Easy and save in use

-No chemistry

-No additional smoke

Cons of the chimney:

-Takes some time

-You need a chimney