BBQ Dragon Charcoal Starter Fan — Lights Charcoal in 10 Minutes | Cordless Variable Speed Fire Blower for Grills, Smokers, Fire Pits, Fireplaces & Campfires

I’ve owned this product for 8 1/2 years now. It’s always worked great. I stopped using batteries because it does consume the batteries very quickly. Now I use a power bank and a USB cable to run the fan and that works perfectly . The only complaint I have is that it is loud. It rattles quite a bit. It’s easily adaptable to any grill so that is a plus. The size in the product is also a plus.

I've never used lighter fluid because it tastes awful. I've always used charcoal because it tastes amazing! This is a great tool, I just wish the chimney was more durably designed to use with this (rust after 1 use) and you can only use it for 3 minutes per chimney instructions. I got the XL (chimney) to light lots of charcoal, but can't get a great ember for the whole chimney, (it does say to not over load it). Perhaps I just need to go back to more time and my paraffin and sawdust starters. I will try again at some point and will update if there's improvement or a different system proves more successful.

Great concept, poor quality. I have owned two of these. The first lasted a few cooks, but the second lasted ONLY ONE cook before the wires disconnected from the fan. It appears the manufacturing and quality control lack any concern. Each of the units I have owned, a wire has broke loose from the fan motor. I have been extremely gentle with this unit, and make sure I do not twist it around too much, but to no avail. I have attempted to get a hold of Customer Support, but no luck. The outer construction appears to be well designed and durable, but the wiring is a weak link. After multiple purchases, and no luck getting a hold of customer service, I absolutely cannot recommend this product. As for my second one, I was not willing to let it go to the trash, so I re-soldered the wires, hoping to get a little life out of my purchase. One should not have to do this, as the product should be at least a little durable. My recommendation, find something else. First purchased in 2017, then again in 2024. Over the course of seven years, it appears the quality of this product has not improved.

If you are used to starting your grill and waiting for 45 minutes to get a good blazing fire to cook on wait NO MORE! The BBQ Dragon Fire Supercharger is a great product that makes starting your grill and getting to grilling amazingly FAST! I start my grill with an electric charcoal starter so there is NO fumes or taste of lighter fluid in eight minutes. Then I used to wait for another 35-40 minutes for the coals to get to a nice white to start grilling. Now after the eight minutes I hook up this well constructed sturdy and powerful little fan and in another ten minutes tops the coals are ready to go and I start grilling. The variable speed control is great to get just the right amount of air flowing over the coals and the ability to use rechargeable AAs and a usb or car charger to recharge the batts keep it always ready to use. A great product that I will use for years to come!!!

UPDATE: After two grilling seasons, I have to admit I'm not using this to light charcoal anymore. If you're lighting charcoal in a chimney, this will get you cooking faster, but I think it adds a new problem: by the time the top coals are lit, the lower ones have burned through quite a bit. So overall it feels like I'm getting a faster light at the expense of wasted fuel. Considering the short lifespan of a briquette, that can mess with the cook. It's not really worth it to save 10 minutes, but I guess it's nice to have the option if I'm in a hurry. What I am using it for is as a supplement to the Slow-N-Sear, and for that it's AWESOME. I've been relying on the reverse sear lately for just about everything but for steaks especially, I've never grilled such good food before. The concept is that you bank all or most of your coals on one side of the grill, and cook your food with indirect heat until you're about 10 or 15 degrees shy of your target temp. Then you put the food over your coal pile, which is way hotter than you'd normally cook with. That's where you get dark, flavorful crust (no grill marks; the whole surface is a giant grill mark) with total control over temperature. The problem with this setup is that even with a big pile of charcoal, it's not going to be that hot after 10 minutes of covered indirect cooking because it's been oxygen-starved. Enter the (BBQ) Dragon ... you can turn the coal pile into a glowing red inferno in a minute or two. The BBQ Dragon isn't so much a time-saver anymore; it's saving moisture in your meat while you quickly get your sear zone hotter than would otherwise be possible. I don't feel any differently about the quality or features of the BBQ Dragon, but its role in reverse-searing has turned it into a must-have for me. ORIGINAL REVIEW This product sat in my cart for a long time before I decided to pull the trigger. I knew what it does, and knew that I really wanted my charcoal lit as fast as possible ... I just couldn't get past that price. I felt like I was going to get ripped off buying what is nothing more than a common fan, probably only priced as high as it is because it's marketed to grill enthusiasts (and we love to spend money on this stuff). Well, I can't say that I think it's worth, for example, half the cost of an entry-level Weber charcoal grill. I'd feel pretty good paying about $30 for this. But I was wrong to think that this is not a unique product. You're paying for a good idea. Nowhere else will you find a small fan that a) is built to be heatproof, b) has a long, flexible neck, c) is cordless, and d) can be recharged. Those features are why you can't "just use a hair dryer." Well, you can, but you'll have to stand there holding it, and you'll need to be near an outlet, and you will only have one free hand to get your charcoal lit. There's no possible way to position anything else correctly without holding it. I tried a regular fan once and after seeing the difference some moving air makes, I knew I had to buy the real thing. Let me mention some common beefs in other reviews: That Battery Latch: Yes, it's weird. Basically the entire end of one part of the handle comes off, and that's where the batteries go in. This end cap is your battery latch, and it's held in place by two flexible plastic clips that mate with holes on the handle. It's a design that I don't remember seeing before, and probably with good reason. My problem isn't that anything feels cheap or flimsy, it's that it's hard to get it back on once it's off, to the point where you feel like you're forcing it and may break it. Maybe some earlier reviewers had a different product run with thinner clips that are easier to insert but also easier to break? With mine, I would not enjoy taking it off and putting it on a lot, but with rechargables I don't have to think about it. USB port: I think it's great that you can bring your own batteries and charger to this system. The USB port is probably the worst part of this product, though. I have a really hard time getting the cable in there correctly. BBQ Dragon needs to tighten this up a bit. The handle: I haven't seen much mention of the fact that the handle can serve as a really sturdy base for the fan, making it free-standing. This would make it great for a campfire or fireplace. The flipside of that is that the handle is enormous - so big that it's difficult to squeeze with one hand. Documentation: No complaints here. There are diagrams for placement of the fan for different situations (for example, if you're lighting a chimney you should point the fan downward on the other side of the grill so that air loops around and travels up the chimney. This seems to work pretty well). If they didn't explain the USB charging before, that's been fixed now. Build quality: It's built like a tank, especially the handle, the neck, and the case of the fan (which is stainless and not plastic like you might suspect). Two exceptions are the terrible USB port, and the wiring inside the fan tube. I was a little surprised to see fairly bare soldered wire connections inside the fan. I'd think you'd want that stuff sheltered from the filth that's being constantly sent through the fan body. We'll see if that becomes a problem when this unit has been out there a few more years. I love this fan, and as long as it lasts more than a few years I'll be happy with my purchase. The build quality is great, it works well, and I love the recharging function. With some tweaks to the USB port and battery cover, and a $10 price reduction, I'd have zero complaints. 4 stars.

I've used this product for just about 10 time for 1 month. First off, this device is not amazing. It is not awesome nor superlative. It's just a fan attached to a flexible neck anchored to a clamp. But what it does is amazing and any superlative you can imagine. It so very drastically accelerates the burning of partially lit coals until they are raging hot. Additionally, the blowing air off the hot coals rapidly cause other coals to ignite and burn. This is such a HUGE time saver and, as childish as it may seem, its entertaining to watch the fire just glow and spread incredibly fast. Like watching a forest fire. Now the con: This is important in reviewing any product. It uses batteries. That's fine as I have rechargeables in mine. But the designers thought it would be clever to include a charging port on the device. Sounds great at first but It uses a USB port. Really? I'm gonna hook this up to my laptop to charge? Or my PC to charge it? No wait, I have to buy an adaptor to plug in the USB cord so I can then plug it into a wall. (no USB cord included) so I can then charge it. STUPID! I just charge the rechargeable batteries in their own charger as I am sure ALL users would do. Would I recommend this? Oh heck yes. I absolutely love this device. Very easy to use, the clamp is very powerful and holds the device secure and the flexible neck is rigid to stay where you aim the fan. This device is a must for any person who needs to accelerate partially lit coals in a big big hurry. Swell product and a big hats off to the developers. I'm impressed.

Works fine and priced right

Don’t get me wrong - this thing does its job very well. The problem is, much of it is made of plastic. And while the business part that contacts the chimney is metal and pretty much impervious to heat, the other parts aren’t. If you get them near the heat, they are quite literally toast. You might say, don’t get them near the heat. And I’d say, sure, but eventually you will. You’ll sit the blower too close to hot coals and the plastic will melt and it will be done for. The answer on the manufacturing end would be to make at least the entire blower part of metal. Don’t have the back end be plastic. And protect the motor with insulation. I’m sure the price would go up but that’s better than this kind of planned obsolescence that just waits for you to be a little distracted - which you eventually will be - to be in the position of having to pay for it all over again. Or, in my case, again, and again. But as we all know, it is much easier to make a flawed product you know the consumer will have to pay twice - or three times - for, than it is to just build it right to begin with. And that’s why, three stars - five for function, and minus two for durability.

Muy buen producto, no es indispensable para prender el fuego ni mucho menos, pero facilita y ayuda muchísimo a elevar rápido las temperaturas, muy recomendado.

Combined with the chimney of insanity, this will start your lump charcoal real quick, just a few minutes. I was told it was fast, it is faster than I imagined. Fiited mine with Jugee rechargeable lithium batteries.

うちわで仰ぐのも楽しいですが、この製品に任せると半分の時間でビール飲んで待ってるといいです。 頑丈そうなんで、何年も使えそうです。電池はエネループ使えば良いし。

I have a Big Green Egg and replaced my charcoal chimney with a chimney and blower from BBQ Dragon. I love this blower it gets the coals red hot in less than 5 minutes! I also use it to start my backyard fire pit super fast. Works on 4 AA batteries with a rechargeable option if you put in rechargeable batteries instead of normal AA. Love this so much I have bought 4 more. Amazon price is a bit steep and you can usually find it cheaper elsewhere but I needed it overnight and it did have free shipping so I sucked it up and bought it This is a fantastic product!

Geniales Teil!!! Vor allem wenn die Luftzirkulation beim Grill nicht optimal funktioniert.