Cold weather charcoal chimney question

[duffman]

Not sure if this is the right place but here we go.

It is subfreezing here this morning, about 30, I think it got down to about 28 over night. In warmer weather I fire up my chimney with charcoal and then set it on the patio and let the charcoal get lit. I did that this morning and after awhile the patio pavement cracked and popped knocking my chimney over and leaving a whole in my patio. I can level the patio back out in the spring but my question is what do other cold weather smokers do to light their chimneys in cold weather like this? Or do I just have a crappy patio?

 

[JckDanls 07]

I made a stand for mine to sit on ... But I would think you could set it on the grate of the smoker (pending what smoker you have) ...

 

[chopsaw]

You heated the moisture in the surface layer of the patio . I just put mine on the charcoal grate of the grill , but I don't know what your cooking on .

 

[duffman]

Thanks for the ideas. I have an old grate and some cinder blocks I can build a little stand out. I don't do a ton of cold weather smoking but know I have a plan for my next one.

 

[Brokenhandle]

I use the side burner on our gas grill, it works great! About the only thing that burner gets used for

Ryan

 

[normanaj]

I have a firepit so the chimney goes in that.

 

[normanaj]

I use the side burner on our gas grill, it works great! About the only thing that burner gets used for

When I still had my larger grill with side burner I did the same.Great way to get the charcoal going.