Lighting Natural Coals

[Rambo]

At the lounge I work at we use chronic coals, and the burners walgreens has to light them. The problem with these is that after a week they burn out on us and quit working. Does anyone else have a solution for lighting natural coals in a lounge setting?

[ih303]

I had the same problem with the lounge I had. What I found out to work pretty decent is one of these:

 

I found them at the local kitchen supply store. They are mini cooling racks.

 

See, I think what's going on is something in the coals (possibly the sulfur binder) is corrosive to the coating covering the burner coils. So, after time (which seems to fly in a lounge), the coils begin to break down and eventually crack and short out. Putting this thing on top of the coil creates protective, conducive barrier that eliminates direct coal-to-coil contact.

 

Depending on what kind you get, these too will begin to contort due to the constant temperature flux, but they're only a few  bucks. And they hold a lot more coals! :)

[Rambo]

Hmmm ill haveto check that out because dealing with these burners all of the time is a pain in the ass. Did This effect the lighting time much?

[ih303]

The more coals are on the burner, the faster it is. From what I noticed, it was only slightly slower with just a few than without using the cooling rack.

[Pavo21]

thats werid becuase we have had one at the house for a year and also the one in the shop we used 2 in the last 9 months, also we did go and get a industral one from the kitchen supply whole saler and i love it.

[Rambo]

The one in the shop an industrial one?

[Pavo21]

"the shop" aka my lounge.

[sksiazki]

Out here in the middle east, everyone, whether they are lounges or bedhouins out in the desert, use wood charcoal that they carry in a metal container, maybe a foot long or so.  I haven't seen them when they start it up but I believe they have the wood charcoal already cooked and when they open up, light the charcoal like you would a grill, get it red hot and then just leave it there.  This lasts the whole night.  Probably not feasible for a home smoke but would think with some experimentation you could figure out how best to do it at your lounge, and save money on cocos.
Note, when I say charcoal I don't mean pre-made I mean what is left when you burn a piece of wood and then extinguish the fire before the wood is fully consumed. i.e. the pieces are all different sizes, not uniform.

[Rambo]

"the shop" aka my lounge.

Yeah but that's where you have the industrial burner?

[mushrat]

When i first opened Hookah Bliss I went out and bought a 2 burner NFS rated hot plate for $120. After a few weeks of course we burned through the coils and they were 35 bucks apiece to replace. Thats when i just went to a local Roses and started picking up the $10 burners 4 at a time.