BEAU JARDIN Cubes work in the rain

The cubes do, and BEAU JARDIN is the only listing on this shelf to raise it: "the fire cubes can even work normally on rainy days for stable use." That is the honest difference between the two lighting methods. Crumpled newspaper is free and effective — CADARA specifies three crumpled sheets — but it is useless once damp, and newspaper stored in a garden shed through a wet winter is damp. Fire cubes are wax-impregnated wood shavings: they light from a match in wind and wet and burn for several minutes, which is long enough to catch the charcoal above. homenote describes what good ones are made of — "harmless wood shavings - odorless and tasteless, will not flavor food". Keep a box regardless of which chimney you buy.

The listing does not say, which is the gap: "large capacity" is in the title and in a bullet, with no figure behind either. The dimensions — 11 × 6.8 inches — put it in the full-size class, alongside Amazon Basics at 10.8 × 6.7 inches, which does publish a capacity: 6.6 pounds of charcoal. The only other figures on this shelf are Oklahoma Joe’s at up to 100 briquettes (roughly 6.25 pounds at an ounce each) and Eau at 4 pounds. On its dimensions this is probably close to the Amazon Basics, which is a full load for a 22-inch kettle. If your grill is smaller, the Kingsford Compact is the one that admits to being compact.

They feed the coals above the flame, which is what makes a chimney light evenly rather than from the bottom up. BEAU JARDIN publishes both openings: "large bottom holes and abundant side vents... delivers superior air circulation, promotes full charcoal combustion". The base holes are where the air enters and where you light the paper; the side vents let air into the burning column so the charcoal higher up catches too, instead of waiting for the fire to climb. Only Kingsford’s Heavy Duty describes its openings as fully, with "a vented base and circular air vents". Several listings here — Char-Griller, both Webers, Oklahoma Joe’s — describe no vents at all, though every chimney has them.