The CHEAP UGLY Charcoal Lighting Basket

The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket is just as much about charcoal management
as it is about starting your charcoal safely and efficiently

We grill and smoke food almost every weekend at my house. Been doing so for many years. We use all types of smokers and grills. We have everything from small PK's to trailer mounted reverse flow smokers. In doing so a couple of issues came into play and we resolved these issues with Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket. One issue is lighting charcoal. And the other is fuel management. Good charcoal is expensive so management saves money and keeping a good consistent bed of coal is important. It gives good consistent heat. Lighting charcoal is a pain and rather dangerous as well. The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket resolves both of these issues and a few more as well.

We have made what we call a must have for any grill or smokers. We call it the Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket. The basket serves numerous duties. First off it was originally made as a better method of starting charcoal on fire. I hate lighting charcoal. Seems I always get burnt and many times having near misses with getting ash in my eyes. My wife won't have to do with lighting charcoal just because it's a safety issue. Lighter fluid is not allowed so we had to come up with something better. We did. Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket

The most common method or tool to use to start charcoal is the CHIMINEY. This is the tall can looking thing with a handle. It has two compartments. The top is where you fill with charcoal and the bottom is where you fill with crumbled newspaper. Light the paper and this starts the charcoal. What I don't like about the chimney is it's dangerous and not enough charcoal at one time. Its taller then the grill so if there's any wind it's blowing ash everywhere and then when dumping the chimney into the grill hot coals flying everywhere. And this is just the start. After you dump it you have to add more charcoal to get a grill full and the charcoal is all over the grill. It's hard to get the hot coals spread evenly to get consistent heat.

The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket resolves the issues that we experienced with the chimney The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket is made of stainless steel wire mesh material that breathes. You fill the basket with charcoal and place the basket on a charcoal starter. If your lighting two baskets place one on top of the other. I use an electric charcoal starter. Any starter will work I just like the electric method better. Get the coals red hot and place the basket where you need it the grill using gloves or a poker. Put the grill grate on and cook away. No transferring or dumping hot coals like you do with the chimney Holds 5 pounds of charcoal in each basket. The basket is made of stainless steel so it will last forever. It's very light weight but heavy duty and it folds flat when not being used. Cleaning up the ashes? Piece of cake. Just dump the Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket in the trash. No mess no fuss.

When using the Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket once you get the temp your looking for it will hold very consistency. It's best to shake the Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket every time you open the grill. Helps keep it aerated. Dropping chunks of wood in the baskets help a lot with smoky flavors.

The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket works really good in offset smokers as well. You can stack them in the firebox. One with wood one with charcoal if you like. Very easy to start. Don't need a torch unless you want too. When you need to add fuel just pull The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket and refill or pull one out and switch it out. It always a consistent amount of fuel. Which means after you use it with your smoker you can set a watch to it. For an example your smoker meet need to be refilled very 45 minutes. You can add the same amount of fuel at the same intervals to keep temp consistent and your firebox door isn't opened as long.

Dancing Fire Inc. has been manufacturing fire pit safety screens for almost 20 years. We still use one of the first screens we built almost 20 years ago. We use the same stainless steel mesh on The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket as we use in our fire pit safety screens .These should last forever.

PK GRILLS AND WEBER GRILLS

The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket is 9" x 11" and 3" tall.

Weights about to 2 pounds not 40 pounds like other heavy over killed baskets

The Cheap Ugly Charcoal Basket will fit the PK Classic and the PK 360 among other grills. This also means being 3" tall it fits under the grill grate. This isn't just for the PK 360. You can use this system on any smoker. If you want consistent heat control with little if any baby sitting this system is what you want. The killer is the price. Its cheap.

What you will save in fuel will pay for THE CHEAP UGLY CHARCOAL BASKET LIGHTING SYSTEM