Lighting charcoals with minimum amount of smoke

[gromov]

Hey smokers!

So I have "acquired" dad's Weber 22,5 (I think) because it just sat there for over a year unused because he has a full blown tandoor for all his grilling/smoking needs.

The tricky part is I live in an apartment block with some posh residents and I don't want to piss them off by having clouds of smoke escaping the balcony...oh to make it even better, there's a fire station across the road and the will also bound to get curious if there's lots of smoke.

Now, I've tried it out today and was successful, those stakes kicked some serious ass for the first timer. I have an electric cooker and a little chimney that I use for my hookah charcoals. It would take 3-4 minutes to light the charcoals until they are red. Trouble is I had to do at least 4 batches of charcoal to have enough to get the temperature just below 300 F. I suppose ideally I would need to run 6 batches to have "proper" amount.

Obviously I'm looking for 1 run solution but need to eliminate smoke. Unfortunately those electric cookers come in standard size, however there's an option to get the double cooker and have another chimney made up at the local metal chop shop (~$30 total). That's my only option that I can think of right now/. Not worried about the smell of food but smoke I'm a bit OCD about.

Any other solutions that I don't know about?

TLDR. Live in an apartment building, need a solution to light up charcoals with minimum to no smoke

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

I say fire that bad boy up & when they come over to complain, give em a taste of your Q ! Then when ya fire it up each and every other time, just put a few "sample pieces" on to keep em quiet ! :biggrin: Just my 2 cents as I don't think ya can fire it up with minimal smoke.... Maybe someone else has an idea, but my experience with charcoal is that won't happen ! On the flip side, I think there is no better aroma than a smoker doing it's thing ! :th_wsmsmile0ly:

 

[paulmart]

I cant believe you're allowed to use charcoal in an apartment setting. Most have rules about that

With that said..no idea how to minimize the smoke

 

[alblancher]

That maybe why it's important to minimize the smoke ---  Ok to smoke with electric but no no on the open flame.

I've never had a smoke problem when lighting charcoal with a standard chimney and the chimneys are large enough to get a sizable fire going.  I know your not charcoal lighter and newspaper burns pretty clean.

Have you tried a good quality lump charcoal?