How do you light a kamado BBQ?

New to kamado cooking? Start with what makes ceramic cooking different — it gives you the groundwork straight away.

In the video further down you'll see how to light a kamado with a single firelighter, a wood wool starter or the electric firestarter (known around the workshop as the hairdryer on steroids). No secrets, just the right order. And that order starts before you pick up a single lump of charcoal.

What you'll need

Not much. You probably have most of it already:

• A hand brush and pan, or the ash drawer of your Grill Bill
• Two buckets: one for ash, one for coals you'll reuse
• Good-quality charcoal, lump charcoal or restaurant grade
• One firelighter (Ecolighter or wood wool) or an electric firestarter

Sorting your charcoal: the step most people skip

Before you light anything, you need to sort your charcoal. Sounds dull. It isn't. This is where it goes wrong for nine out of ten people, because they simply tip the bag in and think they're done.

A kamado runs on airflow. Cold air comes in at the bottom, warm air leaves at the top. Throw your coals in at random and you block that flow, leaving you with a restless, sluggish kamado that never quite gets up to temperature. So sort them. It takes two minutes:

• Large lumps at the bottom, so air can pass underneath. Pieces too big? Just split them.
• Small pieces on top, because those catch fastest.
• Reused coals from the last session right on top. They have already been through the fire, weigh less and light more readily. Check that they're dry: damp charcoal feels heavier and slightly moist, dry charcoal is fine to reuse.

Fill the basket three-quarters full with fresh coals and put the reused ones on last. Do it the other way around — small and old at the bottom, big fresh lumps on top — and the bed collapses as soon as the lower coals burn away. That gives you temperature spikes and dips, exactly what you want to avoid when you're going low and slow.

Want to know how much charcoal each cook needs? Read how much charcoal to use in a kamado.

Video: lighting a kamado with one firelighter

Below you can see the whole sequence: sorting, filling, lighting and fine-tuning.

Lighting it, step by step

1. Open the kamado and brush the grate clean. The debris falls onto the coals and burns away in a moment.
2. Lift out the charcoal basket and shake it back and forth a few times. On a Grill Bill all the ash and grit drops straight into the ash drawer, done in one movement. Tip the ash into a bucket.
3. Sort and fill the basket with fresh coals as described above. Reused coals go on last, right on top.
4. Make a small hollow in the top of the coal bed and set the firelighter in it. Never bury it: that starves the fire of oxygen, makes more smoke and gives you an ignition that never quite gets going. Tuck a few small pieces of charcoal around it if you like.
5. Light it and leave the kamado open for the first 10 minutes, until the firelighter has burnt out completely. You'll see the coals around it start to glow nicely.
6. Put the grate, the heat deflector and any cast iron in right at the start. They then warm up gently along with the kamado. Add them once it is already hot and you risk thermal shock and cracks in ceramic or cast iron.
7. Close the dome. Set both the bottom vent and the top controller to roughly half open. Air coming in at the bottom has to leave at the top, so keep the two as even as you can.
8. Now let the temperature climb steadily. About 20 degrees below your target? Close both vents a little further so it doesn't overshoot.
9. At temperature? Leave the kamado alone and start cooking. Lift the lid as little as possible: every peek lets cold air in and sends the temperature up.

The time you put into that preparation, you get back during the warm-up. A clean kamado with well-sorted coals reaches temperature faster than one clogged with ash and grit.

How do you know your kamado is stable?

The thermometer climbs steadily and then stops swinging. That's your signal. Seeing steam from the top controller, or condensation around the bottom vent? Then the kamado is still warming up and you want to take it slowly. Keep it to 100–120 degrees for the first hour in that case; it spares the ceramic too.

Bear in mind that the dome thermometer never exactly matches the temperature at grate level. With the dome reading 100 degrees, it can easily be 110–120 at the heat deflector on the grate. Allow for that, especially on long cooks.

Setting the temperature after lighting

For low and slow you want 90–120 degrees at grate level, which means holding the dome thermometer around 100. As the temperature approaches your target, bring both vents towards closed. A few millimetres top and bottom is often enough.

• Still climbing? Close the vents a little further.
• Dropping too far? Open them a fraction to let more oxygen in.

More on temperature control in how to control the temperature in a kamado.

Common mistakes

• Burying the firelighter instead of setting it on top: more smoke, less fire, slow ignition
• Closing the dome before the firelighter has burnt out: the fire simply smothers
• Heating up too fast: risk of cracks in the ceramic
• Opening the top vent fully: you lose all grip on the temperature
• Not sorting your charcoal: large and small mixed together means a collapsing bed and temperature swings
• Adding the heat deflector or cast iron grate once the kamado is already hot: thermal shock is waiting for you

Want to read more about what can go wrong? See common kamado mistakes.

Learn more about your kamado

• How do you control the temperature in a kamado?
• How much charcoal do you need?
• Which charcoal suits your kamado best?
• Direct and indirect cooking on a kamado
• How do you put out and cool down a kamado?
• Common kamado mistakes
• Recipes for the kamado BBQ