Lighting up a Charcoal chimney for UDS

I'm sure that more than half of us well understand the workings of a charcoal chimney and how to light one. You may have even developed your own methods for doing so unlike any other but, there are some who might not have any idea and feel a bit too embarassed to actually ask. I can remember being there at one time myself. So, I've come up with this picture tutorial on getting a charcoal chimney lit and ready for use with a UDS.

Step 1:
Take one paper towel and pour about a Tablespoon of cooking oil onto it, then wrap it loosely with a second paper towel and place where you intend to set your chimney to light it.

Step 2:
Place chimney on top of the paper towels. I like to use my small grill for lighting my chimney on because it allows for good air flow and doesn't cause scorch marks on anything.

Step 3:
Add charcoal to the chimney, I usually will only fill up the chimney about half way. The truth is you can light a UDS with anywhere from a couple lit pieces of charcoal all the way up to a heaping ton but, if you use alot, it's hard to control and if you use too little, the charcoal might not burn evenly or may take forever to get up to your desired temp. If just starting out, I recomend the half load, you can always go bigger or smaller with future lightings.

Step 4:
Set the paper towels on fire. I normally I will try to light the paper towel from 2 sides to insure even burning.

Step 5:
Let it burn. The paper towel may seem like it is going to burn up very quickly at first but, if you wait a minute you will see that that the oil gives the paper towel a slow burning candle effect.

Step 6:
Wait until the smoke goes away before dumping the charcoal into your UDS. The charcoal will smoke for a good 10-20 minutes.

Step 7:
Once the smoke has died down and you can clearly see the heat coming off the charcoal it is ready to dump into the charcoal basket of your UDS.

All that is left is waiting for your UDS to come up to temp.

Hope this has helped out a couple of people out there. Thanks for looking.

Muscrat said:

I'M in the process of building a uds. Can I just put the coal or wood in the bottom of the barrel in the basket and then light it or do u have to use a chimney?

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You don't have to use a chimney but, the idea behind the UDS is that it is a fuel miser. You don't want to start a fire in it that will cause all your coals to catch at the same time. I originally would start my UDS by putting a layer of coals down and starting a fire then would pile on coals on top of that once the original layer had started to gray, I found this worked pretty good but, the burn was a little uneven at times. Like someone mentioned, the minion method is the one I spoke of where you would load your charcoal basket in your UDS and then add the hot coals from your chimney to it. Some people will also use a torch to start a small amount of coals on the top of the basket on fire and this works but, you have to be careful as your torch may burn down farther than you think. Also the use of fire starts can be used. The idea is to create a concentrated hot spot that will slowly burn through the fuel.

---k--- said:

I'm still experimenting with lighting my UDS, so that was helpful. I got those steps down, I think. But, I'm still trying to figure out when to add the wood, how much wood to add, and how much to let it burn before putting the lid on.

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Part of the wood ratio is dependent upon the size of your charcoal basket but, usually a couple hand fulls of chips mixed in with the charcoal or a couple of fist sized chunks is enough. I sometimes will throw a hand full of chips on just before putting the meat on. Normally my procedure goes, load basket, add hot coals, put grates on wait a minute, put lid on top, let sit until up to desired cooking temp, brush off now hot grates, add extra wood chips if desired, replace grates, and then put meat on. Watch the temp as it may continue to rise after putting the meat on from opening up the lid.