The Best Charcoal Fire Starters

Resembling mini marshmallows, these starter cubes ignited quickly. Because they were made entirely of paraffin wax, they were the most water-resistant product we tested—and because they are individually packaged in foil and plastic, it’s unlikely that they’ll get wet in the first place.

These squares of paper, cardboard, and wax burnt down to charred gossamer-weight piles of ash that disintegrated upon contact, adding almost nothing to cleanup. They lit quickly when dry but did absorb some water during the 2-hour soak, so it took slightly longer to light them after they were blotted dry in the soak test.

Nearly identical to the Meeco’s Red Devil squares in appearance and performance, the Rutland squares lit and cleaned up easily. Like the Meeco’s squares, they took a little longer than our winner to light after being blotted dry in the soak test, but they still worked fine.

This highly portable fire starter is volcanic rock contained in a burnable cellulose pouch; you can stick the whole thing under the chimney and light it. Despite the presence of flavorizing pellets made from applewood and alderwood, our tasters didn’t notice any extra flavors in the zucchini or flank steak. While the pouch needed a bit of a pat-down with a paper towel to ignite when wet, our only true gripe was that the volcanic rock particles are never consumed by the fire, leaving a small pile of kitty litter–like pebbles in the bottom of the grill and adding to our cleanup.

Made with shreds of pine, these macaroon-like nuggets were a little trickier to ignite both when dry and when wet, requiring us to fuss with the matches for longer than with other products. And they burned down to tiny, sprinkle-like charred bits that blew around instead of filtering down into the grill bottom.