So, we have enjoyed a couple of months of warm weather (sometimes downright hot) here in Michigan. Generally, the arrival of warm weather signals the commencement of outdoor grilling. Now, I am certainly not a grilling aficionado, but I attempt to put forth an honest effort for a properly grilled meal. Over the years, I have experimented with various grilling accessories to enhance my grilling experience. One evening while searching the Internet for grilling advice, I discovered an interesting accessory constructed to ignite charcoal briquettes via an electric current. The design is quite simple. A looped metal wand, it is activated by plugging it into an outlet. The cord is fairly short, so an extension cord is highly recommended. Fortunately, I not only have an outdoor extension cord – a heavy-duty 100 foot cord to be exact – but I am lucky to have a nearby outdoor electric outlet.
For years, my preferred method of igniting charcoal briquettes was employing the service of a chimney charcoal starter. However, I had grown tired of the fuss related to stuffing the chimney starter with newspaper and igniting it with a long stick lighter. Sometimes I had to deal with a pesky breeze and the ash produced from the burned newspaper irritated me. It took longer than I desired for all the charcoal briquettes to eventually become aflame, and I was not a fan of the smoke. The videos related to the electric charcoal starter seemed relatively easy and cleaner. And so, for $20.00 I was willing to evaluate its performance. The set-up was simple enough. I laid a briquette base inside my grill, inserted my electric wand, stacked more briquette in the form of an irregular pyramid, and finally plugged it into my outlet.
As previously documented in my latest Daddy Diary post –