Taking forever to light and keep heat high enough in smoker

I seem to be plagued with the problem of it taking forever to start the charcoal in my water smoker. Usually I use Kingsford charcoal, drown in with lighting fluid and then light it.

There's the big flair of fire, which burns off quickly and then more often then not seems to go out and I have to play firebug by adding more fluid (YES, I know that's not the most sane thing to do, but I haven't scorched myself yet!).

I am using a brinkman smoker. One of the ones that is verticle, and has a rounded top.

Also, when I finally do get the stuff lit, it seems like it takes forever to get the heat up to the IDEAL range on the gauge, and more often then not it doesn't get hot enough and it takes forever to cook the food.

Thoughts?

Hi,

I use a Charcoal Chimney (actuallly 2 of them). There are several brands, I use Webers.

I put however much charcoal I need in a chimney. I light 1 Weber firestarter (a little white cube) on the charcoal grate of my Weber kettle, and center the chimney over the lit starter cube. Approx. 20 minutes later the coals are ready, I dump them out of the chimney into whatever grll I need them in.

The nice thing about a chimney is that you can light up a load of charcoal (or lump or whatever) in anticipation of when it will be needed in your bullet smoker.

Hope this helps.

-egkor

Hi,

I had the same probelm.
Ever since I switched to Charcoal Lump (not briquet), the problem is gone.
Lump is natural wood, burns faster and longer and hotter and the flavor is better.Hope this helps.

Cam
Chicago, IL