How to Light a Charcoal Grill

I know lighting a charcoal grill can  be nerve-wracking if you’re inexperienced with how to do so, but if you break it down it is nothing more than completing the fire triangle: Fuel, Air, and Heat

How to Light a Charcoal Grill: First remove the cooking grates. You’ll need to crumple up some paper and tuck it under the charcoal grate. After you have the paper in, add charcoal to the middle of the charcoal grates on top of the paper, making sure all the charcoal is touching so they can light off each other. Make sure you have both the lower and upper vents open. Now just light your paper on fire and close the lid. Wait for the charcoal to have white ash over it. Your grill is now ready to cook on. 

Now that you have the basic idea down, let’s go into a bit more detail on how it’s all done. This way you’ll get a more in-depth idea of what you’re getting into and a few things that are going to make your life easier.

Lighting Charcoal in a Grill

Getting Ready

The first thing you’re going to need to do is to get the cooking grates out of the way. The cooking grates are the ones at the top of the grill and should lift right out.

As you can see in my picture, I did not clean my grill from my last cookout. So before I do anything I’m going to go ahead and make sure that the grill is nice and clean and ready for the charcoal. It is always a good idea to clean your grill after every use so that the ashes don’t hold in moisture and cause the bottom of your grill to rust away.

You’ll see another set of grates at the bottom of the grill. In some grills, these just sit against the side of the grill body, and in others, it’s a whole pan with a bottom to catch the ashes. This type is much easier to clean afterward since you can lift it all right out and dump your ashes into a metal garbage can.

Now that you’ve located your charcoal grates, its time to add the paper. It’s going to be easier if you put your paper under the grates before adding the charcoal. Most commonly people will just use some old newspaper.

Pro Tip: Put some cooking oil on the paper and let it soak in. This will make it burn longer and light the charcoal faster. The longer the charcoal is exposed to direct flame the faster it’s going to burn.

Adding Charcoals

Now let’s add the charcoals. Pour the charcoal about 2 layers deep into the grill. Now use tongs or a spatula or even just your hand and make a pile in the middle of the grill. If your going to use your hand, make sure to put a glove on. If you don’t, your hand will get black with dust from the charcoal.

Some people will tell you that you need to stack your coals in a pyramid. That is not necessary.  The most important thing is to make sure they’re all touching so that they can light off one another.

Before you attempt to light the charcoal, make sure that you have your lower air damper all the way open. Good airflow is the key to getting any fire going. Without good airflow, you’re going to find getting your charcoal lit, or lighting any fire for that matter to be extremely difficult. You don’t want to start on the wrong foot and already be frustrated with your new grill.

Lighting The Charcoals

Now that you’re all set to light the paper, it’s going to be best if you use a long match or barbecue lighter. This way you’re not putting your hand close to the source of heat – I wouldn’t want you to get burned. If you don’t have either of these, you can use a regular lighter but make sure you use something to protect your hand, like a glove so you don’t get burned.

Now that you have the fire started, you can go ahead and reinstall your cooking grates on top while you’re waiting for your charcoal to be ready. Now I’m not saying if flames are shooting out of the grill you should put your hand in there. Do it before the fire gets large or after it dies down a bit.

Putting the cooking grates back in now will allow them to have time to burn off any residue from your last cookout. You should have of course cleaned them from your last cookout as well. I’m just talking about little particles that you may have missed.

Should The Lid be Open Or Closed

Now that you have a fire going, you’re probably wondering if you need to close the lid on your grill or just leave it open. This is a very common question among people who are new to using charcoal.

No matter what you decide to do, your charcoal is going to light since it’s already on fire and consists of pure carbon. I find that closing the lid on my grill helps to trap the heat inside, causing the fire to spread across the charcoal quicker and in return, I feel the grill lights faster.

Some people say you should leave it open so that the smoke doesn’t cause buildup on the inside of your lid. It is true that if you close the lid on your grill while there’s still white smoke coming off your charcoal, any chemicals in the smoke will cause a build-up on the inside of the lid.

You may notice that the inside of the lid starts to get a black film building upon it. As long as you clean your grill regularly this isn’t going to be a problem. It’s only a problem if you don’t do proper grill maintenance.

When is the Charcoal Ready to Cook On

So now you’ve got a nice fire going but there is a lot of smoke and your not sure when to add your meat to the grill. It’s a common question “how long before I can start cooking over the charcoals”. The best thing is to wait until all of the coals have a layer of white ash on them. This can take about 20 to 30 minutes.

After the charcoal has its layer of ash, you can spread it out across the charcoal grate, or for better control while cooking move it to one side to create a direct heat cooking zone over the charcoal and an indirect heat zone where you don’t have any charcoals.

If your not familiar with making cooking zones in a charcoal grill. You can learn all about it in my article How to Cook with Indirect Heat on a Charcoal Grill.

Keeping Your Charcoal Grill Lit

So now the party has been going on for a bit, and you notice the grill is taking a bit longer to cook things. You look down and see the charcoals are all most gone but there’s still food to be cooked.

It’s okay just finish cooking what’s on the grill, then remove your cooking grates again and move the remaining coals back into a pile and add new charcoal right on top of the lit charcoals.

Remember the cooking grates are hot. Some grills come with a tool to remove hot grates. If yours doesn’t, you can use a long fork or another utensil that fits in the grates to lift them with. Make sure you have a glove on to protect your hand.

Now give yourself a break from the grill for a bit and enjoy your party. Once the new charcoals have a layer of ash on them, spread them back out, or back to your direct and indirect cooking zone so you can get back to grilling.

Other Ways of Lighting Charcoal

Now that we covered the traditional way for lighting charcoals, let’s talk about some other ways you can light them that will make things easier for your next cookout. Remember easier isn’t always better when it comes to good grilling. Sometimes the harder way produces the best results.

Non-Chemical Starters

• A Chimney Starter – A chimney starter is going to be you new BFF if you like cooking with charcoal. This is an incredible appliance that makes lighting your charcoal a breeze. A chimney starter is essentially a metal tankard that allows you to easily light charcoal in double-quick time. With a chimney starter, you’ll be ready to start grilling in about 15 minutes. The best part about using a chimney starter is that you don’t need lighter fluid, which produces fumes that can find their way into your food. These fumes can give your food some weird chemical taste while affecting the desired flavor. A chimney starter will only set you back about $20 and will save you the money that you would have otherwise spent on lighter fluid.

• Electric Charcoal Starter – One excellent choice for a charcoal starter is the electric charcoal starter. This is an excellent choice like the chimney starter, because it does not require the use of chemicals to get your coal going quickly! These are relatively inexpensive and really get your charcoals going fast.

• 100% Natural Charcoal Starters – Charcoal starters are a great option for lighting your charcoal and work even better when used with a chimney starter. Whether you use them on there own or under your chimney starter in place of paper there sure to make your life easier.

Chemical Starters

• Lighter Fluid – While lighter fluid is commonly used to light charcoals, it does add unnecessary chemicals into your grilling process and could add unwanted flavors to your food.

• Paraffin Cubes – While using a chimney starter is the best way to go, you can also opt for the chemical option such as paraffin cubes. But we DO NOT recommend this method for the above-mentioned reason. So if you can’t find a chimney starter, try to start the fire without paraffin cubes or lighter fluid and you’ll enjoy the tingle that it gives.

• Match Light Charcoal – While Matchlight or Instant light charcoal may seem like a good option, it’s nothing more then briquets that are infused with lighter fluid and other additives. If you go with this option, please make sure you let them burn long enough to burn off all the unnecessary chemicals. Otherwise, it’s going to add chemical taste to your food.

What Is Charcoal

You might be wondering at this point what exactly is charcoal  – well simply put charcoal is pure carbon. Typically charcoal used in barbecuing is made from burning hardwood down until there’s nothing but pure carbon left.

In the case of charcoal briquets, most manufacturers get hardwood sawdust from sawmilling operations, then it gets burned down into its carbon form and pressed into the familiar square shapes we’re all used to seeing. There are however other chemicals added in to help them burn longer and keep their shape. If you’d like to learn more about charcoal you can read my article What is Charcoal.

Does Charcoal Go Bad

Charcoal is pretty much pure carbon. It has an indefinite shelf life as long as it’s kept in a dry place. If your charcoal gets wet it can still be used after it’s been dried out but will burn slower and not quite as hot.

This is due to the fact that even though the charcoal appears to be dry to you, there will still be some moisture trapped in the middle of it. Also due to this added moisture, it’s going to produce a lot more smoke.

For tips on storing your charcoal and how to dry it out you can read my article Does Charcoal go bad.

Now if you’re using match light charcoal, it doesn’t necessarily go bad. The chemicals that have been added to make it easy to light may have gone bad themselves. The charcoal can still be lit using a traditional method. I don’t recommend match light charcoal due to the fact that it has added chemicals in it.

How To Put Out Charcoal

The best thing you can do is just let the charcoal burn out naturally. The two main options are to leave the lid off and the air intake all the way open to make it burn fast and hot. You can also put the lid on and close the air intake and the exhaust and try to smother it out.

If you are in a hurry you can add water and try to extinguish them that way. This is not a practice I would recommend as it is not good for your grill and will make a mess.

For more on putting out a charcoal grill you can read my article The Best Ways To Put Out a Charcoal Grill.

As always, happy grilling!