On Sep 13, 2:35?am, "Mike S." > wrote:
> I recently purchased a charcoal chimney starter, followed the
> directions, and it basically did nothing. I stuck 2-3 pieces of wadded
> newspaper in the bottom, filled the top part with charcoal (not to the
> the very top), then lit the newspaper on fire in multiple places.
> 20-30 minutes later the whole thing was barely warm. The bottom
> charcoals were barely warm.
>
> What happened? Any ideas? I'm thinking that it may be the charcoal.
> The kind I'm using is 60% bigger than Kingsford's charcoal which is
> probably the standard size. Although, I really don't see how the size
> of the charcoal would make that much difference. But, this year I've
> had problems with the charcoal not getting hot enough with lighter
> fluid. I didn't have this problem last year. When using lighter fluid,
> I use two different brands and sizes of charcoal. But I still never
> had this problem last year.

Use more paper. but don't pack the paper so tight air can't flow
thru. If there is no air movement thru the paper and the charcoal the
draft can't work to light the charcoal. I use lump in mine and only
when I pack to much paper in it does it not work great. Hope that
helps.