The Grill Lighter My Dad Swears By To Fast-Forward How Long It Takes To Heat Up Charcoal

Courtesy Looft US

This is a story all about a toaster, vacuum, and charcoal. Just kidding. Well, sort of.

Ask any dad who likes to grill, and he'll agree that waiting on the charcoal to heat up can really grind a good man's gears, especially when all of his family members (ahem, mainly me and my little sister) come out every two seconds asking when dinner will be ready, even as adults. The solution? Well, contrary to his daughters' ill-advised recommendations, it's not to get a new grill "because yours isn't fast enough." It's finally getting a trusty Looftlighter.

If your family is starting to ramp up the outdoor grilling due to spending more quality time at home or just trying to make the most of warmer weather, it's the single-handedly most useful tool to have in the house, particularly for all the grill-happy dads out there. For the how, let's get back to the story, shall we?

It all started when the founder of the Looftlighter (undeniably, also a dad) burnt up a chicken until it tasted like it was marinated in lighter fluid. In a huff, he threw some charcoal in a toaster and used the vacuum to blow extremely concentrated heat in order to light his charcoal in seconds without having to douse the whole mess in lighter fluid. Still with me?

That's the idea behind the Looftlighter, which happens to look a lot like a curling iron, to every daughter's delight. It blows out a highly concentrated amount of heat to light all of your charcoal in just a minute or two. Therefore seriously fast-forwarding through the 20 to 30 minutes you typically wait for your beloved Big Green Egg or old-fashioned charcoal grill to be ready to cook all of those burgers and steaks to go with the family's world-famous deviled eggs.

To say that this simple grilling tool eliminates so much family drama is an understatement, which is like music to any dear old dad's ears and totally justifies the higher one-time price point. Between the sheer convenience factor and how much you'll actually want to use it, it's more than worth it. In fact, we've been told by more than one Southern man that it was the "best gift he has ever received." Take that, pocket knife.

So really, this story is all about dads helping out dads.

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This grilling season is set to be the best yet. Now get that charcoal fired up and bring out the deviled eggs.