Looftlighter Classic Electric Charcoal Starter & Fire Lighter

Maybe takes a little more time than some of the high-powered gas options, but it's super effective for a fraction of the price. Still a huge time-saver. Using with a Kamado Joe.

A family member recommended this Looftlighter for our Kamado Joe Jr. grill. I balked at the price, but after using starter blocks and another brand electric lighter, I decided to give the “real deal” a try. I am not sorry. This is a wonderful product to start a charcoal fire. No chemicals, easy to use and it produces great results. You MUST follow directions in order to get the most out of it. I bought a heavy duty extension cord as our deck does not have an outlet. This lighter fires up around 1500 watts, so if you must use an extension, get a good one that is heavy duty and rated for outdoor use. Place the charcoal to your liking with a bit more at the center of the pile. Touch the Looftlighter directly to the wood and wait for sparks and a glow. Immediately pull the lighter back a few inches concentrating on the same spot. This will allow the fire to come up quickly at a nice burn rate. If you want to speed things up a bit, you can light another section in the same manner. You do not want to keep the lighter touching the wood directly for a long time as you will damage it. The fire will spread on its own. Timing and temperature is up to you according to how you use your grill. On the Joe Jr., I close the lid after it gets going with top and bottom vents fully open until it reaches the desired temperature. Then I adjust the control tower and bottom vent to stabilize. By the way, I am a 74 year old woman completely new at this. If I can do it, so can you. I highly recommend the Looftlighter as a great accessory for grilling. It makes Kamado grilling pure joy!

Failed on first use. It worked for about 45 seconds and then failed. I tried other outlets to make sure it was the unit and not a power issue. Very disappointed. I still believe that this will be a valuable tool for grilling. It appears to be well made and capable of doing what it's supposed to. Lemons happen. I will update this review when the issue is resolved. I contacted Looft customer service to see if I was the cause of the problem by misusing the device somehow. They immediately sent me a new one. Wow! I thought that kind of customer service had long gone out of style. I will update once again after a few uses. Final Post: Looft sent me a replacement. I received it in 2 days. The new one works great!!! Hate that I had to start out with a rare dud but I am delighted with this product.

Hi, So I was using a loop style electric starter and it was good, but one day I lost track of time and part of the handle melted so it was time to buy something new. So I've used this about 10x already and I really like it. Unlike the loop, once I get the fire going, I don't have to come back and pull out the hot iron and place it on a plate since I have a deck and not a patio. This guy stands by itself but I still put the plate underneath just in case, but it never fell or anything. Now, there are videos and things about how to use this starter. I've found what works best is to build a small mountain like pile of lump charcoal. Then I press and hold the starter on it and after a bit you'll get sparks. I tend to see if the coals are list or not yet and I might hold it there a little longer. After the coals are going, I start to pull away slowly and hold air on to the coal so it gets very Red-Orange. Usually by then it is lit and I let the other coals start to heat up on their own. Another benefit is I can lower the grill quite a bit now and when guests want to make smores, I just remove the top grill (mine has a middle part of the grate that can come off) and blow some hot air on the coals and they get nice and hot and re-light well. I couldn't do this in the past with the iron-loop. One thing I don't like is sometimes the air is so strong it can throw more sparks in the air, so just be careful and aware of that. But not nearly as much as when I had to pull the iron out of bottom of the charcoal. So maybe this one is neutral. Lastly, my coals don't move now. I can set them how I want them and they light and stay in place. With the loop, because it was on the bottom, when I pulled it out, the coals would be displaced and I had to re-arrange them to help even the heat. So it works well. I'm pretty happy with it. I've even used to to re-light unlit coals from a few days ago, but it took a little more time to catch, but it did light. I'd suggest using a few pieces of new charcoal mixed in and you you finish off the stuff from the previous burn. I hope this helps others. Good Luck and Great Grilling!

It failed after one use. Don’t waste your money and get another means to start your briquets.

LooftlighterBy way of background, we've owned the Looflighter for a month now and have used it 3-4 times per week. We've owned a Kamado Joe Classic ceramic egg for about a year now, and we've become grill hounds. Our Kamado Joe has is our summer oven. They're a wonderful device! I'll cut right to the chase: Every ceramic egg, whether a Kamado Joe, Green Egg or whatever the name, should NOT be sold without a Looftlighter. Period. Please read on. Forget the paraffin "fire starters." They're difficult to light and STINK once lit. And they produce OILY SMOKE. Conversely, the Looftlighter is an amazingly clean, simple, 100% reliable tool to start your fire AMAZINGLY FAST with consistently successful results no matter what the outdoor conditions. I used to dread starting our Kamado Joe, cursing my way through each charcoal lighting evolution. No longer! The Looftlighter starts the charcoal in a matter of 2 minutes. But don't believe me. Go to Youtube and watch all the Looftlighter videos from satisfied customers. They're all as stunned as I was regarding how well this thing works! PLEASE folks. Do yourself a favor and splurge on a Looftlighter! You'll enjoy your ceramic egg SO much more!

I bought this for my new Big Green Egg and it works as advertised. It pumps out a good steady stream of heated air and it can get my BGE going in about 5 minutes. It took some time to get my technique right. I tried to decide between this and the ring based coil heater option. I opted for the Looftlighter because I didn't have to bury it under the coals and leave it there for 15 minutes. All you do is aim and fire with this guy. And you can use it on other grill types (not just charcoal). Pros: - VERY hot in almost no time at all. - Good long cord for when an outlet isn't right next to the grill. - Simple usage... only one button: ON. - Good, solid build quality. Made out of high grade aluminum so the tip cools quickly. - Hefty in the hand and well balanced. - No burying required and multi use. Cons: - There's no lock for the ON button so my thumb gets very tired after a few minutes of heating. - No hand shield to protect your knuckles from sparks and reflected heat. - Expensive when compared to coil-based igniters. Conclusion: If you can swing the $75 price tag, it's worth it. The extra 5-10 minutes this saves you is welcome, especially in inclement weather. I would have given it a 5-star rating if I hadn't burned my knuckles the first time using it. Now I know to back off on the coals a bit earlier. Bonus use: I sometimes use it to cook off meat left on my gas grill's surface.

This has made my life soon much easier. I hope it will help you too. I am from Argentina and an absolute big fan of backyard BBQing. The only struggle that I have is making the charcoal to start burning, it usually takes me about 30 minutes using some cardboard to swing some air, I've tried the blowdried method but it's just too weak and cold, plus you still need matches (maybe quick fire as well). My second attempt was trying with the chimney style charcoal starter (sold by Webber), for $15-$20 didn't hesitate to grab one, and while it does start the fire as soon as 20 minutes go by in the grill, the heat starts to go away. But now this is the real deal, it took me two months to make the decision to peel $65 from my wallet, but when I got it, the result were amazing. You just pile up the charcoal (or wood or briquettes) and touch them with the tip of the Looftligher while pressing the button on the handle, which has this metal tube on the inside what goes from cold to smoking red hot in just 5 seconds. After the charcoal has been ignited you step away a few inches and let the hot air the the trick. The power cord is quite large to in most cases you won't need an extension. I promise, you'll just feel that you have a BBQ's magic wand in your hand. Even if you grill just once a month it is an absolute must for BBQers or Fireplace lovers. This bad boy was made to last.

I own a Pit Boss 24" kamado grill and let me tell you, the Looftlighter is an incredible product. It gets your charcoal burning as fast as advertised, saving you a ton of time compared to using a charcoal chimney or building a pile and lighting some fire starters underneath. I was looking for an alternative to those cheap fire starter cubes after I noticed they created thick smoke with a strong waxy scent to my kamado grill. I definitely don't want to inhale that or taste it in my food, which is when I decided to try the Looftlighter. This product is certainly a game changer for charcoal grillers. It may be expensive, however, in the long-run I think it will be worth every penny. It's an efficient, more natural way to get your charcoal started, and you won't have to keep running back to your local BBQ store to buy more fire starters. If you're serious about grilling and can afford to spend a little extra on one of these you won't regret it after your first cook.

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Bei dem Grillanzünder handelt es sich um ein absolutes TopGerät. Die Grillkohle beginnt nach ca 10-15 Sekunden im heißen Luftstrom zu Glühen. Es handelt sich natürlich um eine Anzündhilfe. D.h. man stellt einige Glutnester her, den Rest erledigt die Physik/Chemie. Ohne große Rauchentwicklung. Natürlich kann man auch jedes Stück Holzkohle / Brikett einzeln anzünden, dass ist aber nicht Sinn dieser Anzündhilfe. Auch logisch dass man das Teil während der Benutzung in der Hand halten muss. Es ist letzlich ein sehr starker Heißluftfön (den legt man auch nicht in ein offens Feuer). Zu der vorherghenden Beurtelung möchte ich nur sagen, wer mit diesem Teil oder einem Weber Anzündkamin(sorry aber der ist absolut idiotensicher) kein Feuer hinbekommt sollte besser die Finger vom Holzkohlegrillen lassen. Also sowohl der LooftLighter als auch derr Weber Anzündkamin sind beides Top Produkte und bei mir seit Jahren im Einsatz.

This is a very efficient way to light bbq charcoals as long as you have access to a mains socket (a battery-powered version is also available but this does come at a substantially higher price - I purchased the mains-powered version). in a matter of minutes, your bbq coals will be lit and 10 minutes later, they will be ready for cooking. In operation, you really do just point the unit at the centre of the coals and in 60 seconds you will see the coals sparking up and lighting. I do have also have a bbq chimney and this is a useful alternative to using the chimney. Two additional points - the unit is slighter bigger than I originally anticipated but this not a problem. Also, the unit comes with a very handy built-in stand to allow the unit to be put down safely whilst cooling after use. I would advise extreme caution after use, do allow the Looftlighter to cool properly before storing but the looftlighter does cool very quickly, even the 'business end' does not stay hot for long. All in all, an excellent purchase and this will be added to my list of 'things that I wished I had bought much earlier'!

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