On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:35:26 -0700, "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.
>

Not enough information given. Specifically - was there scorched but unbrunt
newspaper at the end of that 20-30 minutes? Did you stay and watch what
happened to the newspaper on fire? Or did you leave the scene to return
20-30 minutes later? And if you did stay to watch, what exactly did you
observe? Did the fire just smother without coming to a blaze? Or did the
fire in fact "catch", created a blaze, and then died out after consuming
*all* the newspaper?

When you say "wadded" what precisely do you mean? Was the paper loosely or
tightly "wadded"? Try "wadding" another sheet of newspaper the same way,
hold it in the air in one hand (or prop it on something) at one end, and
light the other end. How does it burn? Does it kind of struggle to stay
lit? Or does it burn with gusto?