Weber 87886 Chimney Starter

Frankly, you don't need to read anymore reviews on this (even mine!), even if like me you're obsessed about knowing the "real world" performance details of a product before you buy it.
I can only echo what nearly every other person who has this chimney starter has said:
It's a must-have, and it really is better than the others.
Why? It holds more, lasts longer, heats charcoal faster and is easier to use than those that cost less -- or cost more.
I grew up in Missouri and was around outdoor BBQ cooks all my life. I'd never seen a chimney starter until I was watching some cooking show one day. Even then, I didn't rush out to buy one, as I'd developed a decent starting technique on my own after a decade of grilling.
But (again, echoing other reviewers) when I finally did get this, I wish I'd done so years before.
I use large wood chunks a lot in my grilling, and it also works like a charm getting those going.
'Nuff said.

I love chimney starters. No need to store chemical lighter fluid and no taste of the chemicals on your food. We used to have to sit there and babysit the charcoal making sure it was lit with fluid, and now we just light the paper and walk away. It lights by itself 99% of the time. It might be a large item to store but under the grill it's perfect. No fear of chemicals you are ingesting and a strong burning and even burning pile of coals at the end. Well worth the money.

I've used this without fail. Best invention ever! I can't imagine firing up a grill without one of these. It's a must have.

The product is great. It's easy to use and the charcoals heat up quickly. You use less charcoal than you usually would with no lighter fluid. The charcoals seem to burn very evenly. My husband thinks things taste better since we purchased it.

Do not feel any help from this chimney starter. Won't recommend to buy one.

my husband is not a grill master and has struggled with getting/keeping the coals hot since we moved from a gas grill when we had a minor explosion. suffice it to say we are not the adept grillers out there. This makes it simple and is so helpful when timing out your picnic.

yes I see someone has instructions for making one at home but my coffee doesnt come in a can and this is easier and very low priced! well worth it!

I Will never go back to lighter fluid again....
I must admit that I had my doubts, but once I followed the simple instructions, I couldn't believe my own two eyes. Infact, the charcoal was so fiery hot that it burned for hours. The food was missing flavor however....the taste of lighter fluid. This product is a great investment!

The item was not packed well and arrived dented. Subsequent to unpacking, I saw a similar item (different brand) in a retail store for about half the price. The item has not been used yet.

I love this product. It really does work as advertised and reviewed by hundreds of others. Great product. It anything ever happens to the one I have I will definately be getting another one.

I have used the Weber 87886 charcoal starter most of this summer. This is the first time I have tried such an item. The Weber more than meets my expectations. It will ignite an entire Weber Grill full of Kingsford charcoal in about 20 minutes. No polluting, expensive liquid charcoal lighter is needed nor desired. Two full sheets of newspaper and a match is all that it takes to completely ignite all the charcoal. I recommend this item.

I bought this for some friends of mine who have always had problems getting their charcoal fires ready to cook on. They used a ton of lighter fluid and even with all those chemicals, they wouldn't get an even burn. I sent them this as a present and they couldn't believe that something so simple did such an amazing job of preparing the briquettes for grilling.

We grilled yesterday and I had the opportunity to actually give the starter a try. It really is as simple as crumpling up two pieces of newspaper in the bottom, filling the top with standard old briquettes (Kingsford, I believe), and then lighting the paper in a couple of spots and placing it in the grill. Within 20-25 minutes, the inside was red hot and everything was ready to poor into the bottom of the grill.

The one thing I did not realize was that as the charcoal caught fire, the briquettes actually compacted down somewhat. I filled the starter to the top line with briquettes, but but the time they were ready to poor, they had reduced about 25%. Certainly not a problem of the starter, just an interesting observation.

For $15(ish), this is SUCH a no-brainer. I don't even own a charcoal grill and I'm thinking of getting one for myself so I have it when I visit state parks that do have grills.

I was not sure if this contraption would work but once I tried it I was completely sold. Just a couple of newspaper pages, some charcoal on top and in a few minutes, voila, they are all red flaming HOT. No more lighter fluid, no more burned hairs on my arms or eyebrows. It's a miracle.....

My wife laughs at how much I gush over this little $10 cylinder of metal. I would gladly do a cheesy TV testamonial for this thing.

I don't need to add any more specifics to whatever has already been written. If you have a charcoal grill, then buy this device. It works, it's cheap, it's simple, it's genius.

I've had numerous chimney starters over the years and they are all pretty much the same, except for this one. Webber for some reason put a plastic handle on it that gets waaaayyyyyy too hot to touch. In the past, they have always had wooden handles, and picking them up to dump them out was not a problem. Now I have to keep a pair of gloves by the grill just for this one issue. Otherwise it's a quality item, that seems to be holding up nicely. I gave it 2 stars just because I think its a pretty serious design flaw, with a very simple solution.

I was a bit surprised at how well this device works. It's a quick and efficient way to light your charcoal. I bought a package of small "firestarter" sticks to place underneath the device when lighting the charcoal and it works great. This device makes it unnecessary to use lighter fluid or "matchlight" charcoal.

When in the old days of charcoal you started you fire, you used lighter fluid. Small amounts of fluid would remain and end up on your food, resulting in a distinct flavor. Not exactly what you want to be serving to your family or important guests. My family has 4 weber grills, and at some parties, they've all been going at once. We used the electric starters which are much better than fluid, however they take quite a while to get going and even then they work unevenly. From the first time I've used this device I was converted. Everyone I know with a grill has been subject to my sermon, and those who were slow to purchase them received a chimney as a gift. I couldn't stand to watch the painful process of using the electric any longer.

To start a weber charcoal chimney.
1) fill chimney top with charcoal.
2) place 2 sheets of crumpled up newspaper underneath .
3) light paper.
4) wait.

It's more environmentally friendly than fluids or electric too.

I bought it for a Fathers Day Gift for my husband, he loves it. No more lighter fluid needed. He tried too much paper the first time, which made it smoke a lot, but the next time, less paper, and whaalaa, a quick and easy batch of coals in half the time, also like the big handle. Thanks

at least three time a week year around. I've used the Weber chimney starter every time. The 'old' ones were lighter gauge than the current product and they lasted about three years. The latest one is heavier gauge and perhaps it will last longer. I recommend this item.

Easy to use, it whitens the charcoal, and is easy to empty. Oh, and the handle is resistant to high temperature. A must-have for any charcoal enthusiast.

Used this in conjunction with my WSM... you can load a chimney full of charcoal and have it RED HOT inside 15 minutes without the use of lighter fluid! Great for BBQs!

I would recomend this product to anyone. The quality is heavy duty and construction excellent. It should last a long time.

This chimney really works well. I purchased this for starting charcoal for Dutch Oven cooking. Crumble a few sheets of paper for the the bottom, put charcoal in the top and lite. In a few minutes, all the coals are lit and ready to cook. How easy is that! No more charcoal lighter fumes!

I purchased another for my father-in-law. He is a die-hard charcoal BBQ man. He loves it. The older one (from a different manufacturer) he had was much smaller and he had to lite two batches of coals. This one is large enough to fill the grill!

I thought all chimney starters were alike, but I recently found out differently. I grabbed my other starter to take camping not long ago. Boy, did we have trouble getting the charcoal started! I thought the charcoal was defective. Took the rest of the charcoal home and lit them with the Weber. No problem! The Weber has extra holes on the side, while generics often have only the holes towards the bottom. The extra holes help provide additional airflow to get the charcoals burning.
The Weber always works great!
(We left the generic starter can in the campground trash can. No sense in carting that junk home.)

However, be careful when using bare hands - both handles can still get scorching hot.

Stop reading this and just buy the darn thing. This works great for starting charcoal without the nasty lighter fluid taste (believe me, if you've been using lighter fluid or minit-lite or something like that, when you stop using it, you'll notice a BIG upgrade in the taste of the food you grill.) This starter also has very nice ergonomic handles that give you the perfect touch of a Renaissance master when arranging charcoal. When you receive it and start using it, you'll wonder why they don't charge more.

The design for these has come a long way since I bought my last one! The Weber Chimney starter starts a lot of charcoal much quicker than the old design. It is also safer to use with two handles. It holds a large amount of charcoal.

This chimney starter is something I always needed. First of all it made me realize that I have always used too much charcoal while grilling which oftern resulted in burnt food. When I used the chimney for the first time and dumped the hot charcoal into the grill I was surprised how little there was (about half of what I usually used). It turns out that a full chimney of charcoal is the perfect amount!
This chimney is super easy to use. Light some paper or paper towels and forget about it. Come back 20 minutes later and you are ready to start grilling.

I bought this after seeing it in a store. It's a much better design than the regular chimney starters I usually see.
-It's much larger, so I can get a good amount of lump charcoal in and not have to immediately start a second batch like I had to with my old smaller starter.
-The inside bottom is a ring of wires instead of a sheet of metal with a few holes in it. This made for MUCH better ignition from the newspaper underneath as all of the flame was going up against the coal, instead of some through the holes and the rest out of the vents like my old starter.
-The extra helping handle is a nice touch, though I don't really use it.
-The holes on the side make it much easier to tell how far the ignited coals are so you know when you're ready to dump it on the grill.

Another great Weber product!

Although I did not purchase my Weber Chimney Starter from Amazon I am MIGHTILY impressed with it's performance!!!

The instructions are verrrrry easy to follow with outstanding results. In about 15 minutes or so I was ready to begin grilling. I've used the charcoal lighter fluid many many times in the past and sometimes had decent results but a m-u-c-h longer waiting period for the charcoal to be ready for cooking. Even mounding the briquets in a little pyramid did little to get them going to a great degree. This handy tool does the trick and quite fast!! I'm still amazed at how quickly the cooking process got underway.

The fiberglass/heat
resistant handle is a much appreciated feature along with the smaller 'helper' handle. I had checked out a few of these chimney starters at several of the "mart" and the big box "hardware" stores and there are many different brands. But they all had wooden handles and I felt like those handles might not last as long as one that is fire/heat resistant. (Remember those great cast iron hibachi's from the 70's? They did a wonderful grilling job, but those wooden handles on the grill plates were the first thing to go.)

One or two pieces of newspaper and a longnose fireplace lighter and this chimney starter was getting the ball rolling. The Weber Chimney Starter is $3-$5 more than most starters, but I think that little bit extra that is spent is well worth it and should give many years of service.

I purchased this product to start off the BBQ season right. It was recommended by a friend, and I have to agree that it makes starting the coals so much easier. This with a Weber Firestarter make lighting the Barbeque quick and easy. The extra arm gives you great control when emptying the charcoal.

This is a great, inexpensive, well-constructed product. It does a great job. Buy it.

I have had this starter for over a year. I purchased another brand at a store for half the price, however, like they say, you get what you pay for. It has rusted and the black paint on it all came off while it was burning the mesquite wood. Then I went to a local store and picked up Webers and it works awesome. I was never a fan of using lighter fluid as it is not good for you.
Just a little hint in lieu of paper to burn. I am sure as you watch it burn, paper pieces fly up and around the kettle. Weber makes little white starting cubes that are safe non-toxic and put up a flame of about 6 inches for 6-8 minutes. Put two cubes along the sides and it starts it right up.
My kettle has outlasted anything else I have owned. My family has a kettle from 1986 and it is still going strong!

My husband loves to grill but ia always frusrated with the charcoal. His charcoal lights up in no time with this chimney starter.

For whatever charcoal grill you're using, this is the lighter for it. It's fast (about 15 minutes) and uses 2 broad sheets of newspaper and a match or lighter. Simple, fast and efficient. What more do you want? I wish I'd had this years ago.

Great price and does what it needs to without being pretentious about it. And your BBQ won't taste like lighter fluid. What else can you ask for?

This worked great. Ended up being the conversation piece of the BBQ. A bit cumberson when it comes to those fixed grills that are in parks, but I blame the grill not the starter. Best bet is to bring some kind of tray that you can empty the grills on it and slide into the grill.

I've been using chimney starters for probably over 25 years now (average life span is probably 2-3 years). For some reason, up 'til now, I've never purchased a Weber brand starter - guess I always bought whatever was cheaper thinking 'a chimney starter is a chimney starter.'

However, my most recent purchase was this Weber brand starter. Wow, what a difference it makes! The Weber start is larger than others I've used and they've obviously got the ventilation concept down pat.

With other starters, I always had to 'baby sit' them through the first 5 or 10 minutes. You had to be sure the fire 'took,' they wait to see if it spread through the coals.

With the Weber starter, I've never had a problem, and the coals are always ready to go within 20 minutes. Makes me wonder why I was so patient with other starters that often required restarts and could take up to 30 minutes.

Oh, and by the way, if you're not using a chimney starter, by all means do so!

With an excellent starter like this, there's no reason to saturate the briquettes, the air and the food with a petroleum based lighter fluid and its vapors. A chimney starter is a far superior way to do it.

This is a great product, more stable than conventional chimney style starters, the extra handle makes pouring the coals into tight spots (rail type charcoal holders) for indirect grilling a breeze.

The chimney starter is a great item. You no longer have to use lighter fluid to start the charcoal. The weber chimney starter is the best one on the market. We had purchased another brand once and was not happy with the item. We keep one at home and have one in our 5th-wheel for vacations. Only a weber! thanks

Ive had it for about 6 months and i cant complain one bit!!! it works way better than my first one i bought from walmart (non weber) this one lights much better.... i used to have to use a little lighterfluid on my old one this one absolutly none! GREAT JOB WEBER!!!

This is not the only charcoal chimney I've ever had, but it is the favorite one. When the old one fell apart I was great to be able to get exactly what I wanted. Thanks for making a superior product.

This is THE BEST chimney starter you can get for your money and your grill or smoker. A year ago I thought I'd save a few bucks and bought a cheap chinese made one. I was always leary of the paint bubbling and popping on it...not to mention I had the hardest time getting a load of charcoal started. Match after match, etc. If it was a windy day, forget it. Today I used my Weber chimney starter for the first time - it's windy.. I expected trouble, but the thing lit up and got the coal ready in record time with ONE MATCH. Super impressed with this product! You'll only be wasting your money on something else.

This starter is described by my husband (for whom I purchased it) as the very best of its kind. Like all Weber products for which he is a huge fan, this chimney starter does the job. It has a nice big basket for the newspaper wadding, and the funnel shapped design of the grated floor seems to make a superior surface (greater surface area) for igniting the charcol in the top. You have options --you can put as much or as little coal as you want, but the ability to like a BIG fire is a plus. One MIGHT think this is more chimney starter than a single family needs to start their BBQ. They'd be right, in so far as it is big. But, the material is lightweight (but durable and sturdy), and the holder handles (one to grip and one with high throe above the hot charcoal) of the starter makes even the smallest man or woman capable of pouring the hot charcoal without fear. REALLY. I've tried it. My husband is the grill master, and this is the one he now will keep using --for ever more. Thank you Amazon, for having it as a option!!

I got hubby a charcoal grill for his birthday and he was using lighter fluid to get it going which added a "yucky" taste to our food. The Weber Chimney Starter works like a charm and cut warming time to 15 minutes! He loves using it and its a great price!

This charcoal starter is a must have for any grilling enthusiast. However, I paid extra to have it shipped overnight to my father for his birthday, but he didn't get it for over a week!

Greatest thing since man started cooking his kill. This chimney starts the coals FAST without the chemical taste you get with lighter fluid. If you grill with charcoal (the only true manly way,) get one of these, you won't regret it.

I started off with a no-name brand chimney starter. I wasn't sure how well they would work, and it was a couple of bucks cheaper than a branded one, like this.

They really work, and boy do they work well. They'll light up a whole raft of charcoal easily, with no lighter fluid, and no fussing with it during the lighting process. The only negative is that the charcoal is lighted outside of the grill, which means you'll need some cement or other non-flammable place to put them during the lighting process. I use a cement board grill pad on top of a concrete patio for mine. The grill pad protects the patio from scorch marks.

DiversiTech GP-42-C-BK The Original Grill Pad, Rectangle 30 Inches x 42 Inches, Black

So after seeing this, I went back later and purchased the Weber starter. It works even better, mostly because it is quite a bit larger than my noname brand version. They look the same in pictures, but a little more diameter means a lot more charcoal gets lit in one batch. The Weber is also better made, and has more vents at the bottom for better airflow through the stack.

If I were to do it again, I would have just bought the Weber and been done with it.

If this review was helpful, please mark it as such.

This nifty item really works. It saves time and frustration often associated with lighting the grill. You can have your coals ready in a very short time.

the product is find but it ended up being expensive. I found the same thing in a store for half the price.

This chimney starter is a well-made, high-quality product that works exactly like it says it does. My husband LOVES this chimney starter! Two sheets of newspaper and some plain, "no lighter fluid" charcoal and 15 minutes later you've got fire coming out the top and red-hot briquettes. Works perfectly with our Weber Charcoal Grill.