Odor free lighter fluid???

[dale5351]

I recently notice a lighter fluid that claims to be odor free.  I'm wondering if any of you have experience with using it.

I rarely use charcoal any more, but when I did I was quite vocal about not using either lighter fluid or match-light charcoal because (IMO) both left a residue smell and taste.  I used one of the chimney starters where you put the charcoal in the top of a tube and newspaper in the bottom.  It worked like a charm everytime for me and did not add any artificial smell to the charcoal.

And while I am soliciting opinions for those who use charcoal -- how about some votes on lump charcoal versus brickets?

 

[richoso1]

Personally, I would stay with using the chimney starter.I use lump because there is much less ash to deal with. I usually end up with 1/10th the amount of ash using lump over briquettes.There are times when I use both lump and briquettes. The best solution for you is to try it different ways. It's all good my friend.

 

[alblancher]

I think they should ban lighter fluid and briquet's soaked in lighter fluid.  Just nasty stuff.   Lump for me all the way but I have been known to use a bit of charcoal to get the logs in my slow smoker started. 

 

[tjohnson]

Piece of newspaper and the charcoal chimney starter = Easy, Quick and safe!

TJ

 

[scarbelly]

I dont use charcoal very often so I dont have the chimney so I use a butane torch which seems to work pretty good.

 

[athabaskar]

I bought something called Frontier Brand Eco-Start Natural lighter fuel at Whole Foods. It is a gel product. While I use the chimneys exclusively for starting cooking fires, I wanted something to help start the fire pit faster. We like to have what we call Cowboy Coffee outdoors in the mornings on weekends (so technically, yeah I'm cooking with it). Anyway, I'm impressed. It is non petroleum and has no odor. Lights quickly and the gel clings to the kindling well.

One more tip. When it comes to lighting fires, nothing works better than dryer lint. That stuff goes up like gasoline! Just be aware that the odor is terrible due to all of the polyesters and such in our clothes. You don't want to be down wind of it. 

 

[eman]

One more tip. When it comes to lighting fires, nothing works better than dryer lint. That stuff goes up like gasoline! Just be aware that the odor is terrible due to all of the polyesters and such in our clothes. You don't want to be down wind of it. 

We  use the dryer lint down here for fire starters. 
 Take a handfull of lint and roll it in between your hands to tighten it up. tie it w/ some string and dip it into melted parafin. the wax coats and makes the lint waterproof. Light weight and easy to carry in my pack when out in the woods. 

 

[mballi3011]

Fluid there's folks out there still using it. I thought with the invention of the chimney that the fluid producers would just wither up and go away.

 

[nwdave]

I don't use the bricks much but when I do, the only refined petro product that comes near it is the trigger operated propane torch flame.  So much more efficient than paper and definitely cleaner than the other route of lighter fluid.

 

[meateater]

I just use kingsford blue bag and a chimney with about 8 pages from the phone book, works great. But now I'm restricted to the watt burner.

 

[jirodriguez]

LOL... I haven't used lighter fluid in over  20 yrs., once I discovered chimney starters I never looked back.

 

[Bearcarver]

I love my chimney starter!

I don't use charcoal much any more, since I got my Weber "Q", but when I do it's Kingsford Blue Bag.

I tried that lump stuff once. I had to move it far away from my deck due the magnificent fireworks it created! 

Bear

 

[pit 4 brains]

Chimney start only for me. I use the side burner in my grill to get the coals going. I use both lump and briqs depending on what I'm doing..