How to burn hookah charcoal without a charcoal burner - This is how you do it!

Anyone who has smoked hookah for any length of time is familiar with this situation: the hookah and the hookah bowl are prepared, the charcoal is placed on the charcoal burner and suddenly the fuse blows. The charcoal burner has blessed its time.

At this moment, the question arises as to how to light the charcoal without using a lighter!

Don't worry, there are a few possible solutions for lighting your hookah charcoal Don't worry, there are a few possible solutions for lighting your hookah charcoal without a grill! We present these solutions in this article. You have the following options:

Lighting the hookah charcoal on the stove
Use a fireplace or campfire to make natural charcoal burn
Ignite natural charcoal with self-igniting charcoal
old hotplate

Note: You can use the table of contents to jump directly to the option that might be right for you!

Table of contents

Lighting the hookah charcoal on the stove Use a fireplace or campfire to make natural charcoal burn Ignite natural charcoal with self-igniting charcoal Camping stove or camping hotplate

Lighting the hookah charcoal on the stove

If you have an old stove at home, you can light the hookah charcoal on it. To do this, simply place the hookah charcoal on the hotplate and switch on the hob. After about 5 minutes, the bottom side should glow and you can turn the charcoal so that all sides of the charcoal are evenly glowing after another 5 minutes.

Note: Before using this method, you should check whether your stove is an induction stove or a stove with a ceramic hob. If this is the case, we advise you not to use this method, as the hob may be damaged.

If you want to make sure that your stove is not damaged by burning the charcoal, you should place the charcoal on a grid so that the cubes do not touch the hob directly. You can use a cake rack, for example.

Charcoal on the kitchen stove — Please use a grid to protect the hotplates!

You can speed up the lighting process by making a kind of funnel out of aluminum foil and placing it around the charcoal. This collects the hint and the charcoal heats up faster.

We recommend that you do not leave the stove with the charcoal unattended so that you can take action in an emergency!

However, we generally advise against this method. You should only light the charcoal this way in an absolute emergency, because if your stove is damaged by lighting the charcoal, you'll either get in big trouble from your partner or a high bill for a new stove!

So if you need to light hookah charcoal often, you should definitely get yourself a charcoal burner.

You can find our large selection of charcoal burners here

Charcoal burners

Note: You should only light the appliance on the hob at your own risk! We cannot be held liable for any damage caused!

Light charcoal in an open flame from the fireplace or campfire

If you have a fireplace or stove at home, you can use this to light your hookah charcoal. If it's already on, you can start lighting it straight away. If not, it's time to chop some wood and light the fire!

When the fire is blazing in the fireplace or stove, simply place the charcoal cubes in the open flame. After 5 minutes, the hookah charcoal should be properly glowing and you can use it.

Charcoal in the campfire. Watch out, it's hot!

The fact that lighting is so quick here is due to the fact that the hookah charcoal is heated from all sides. This means that the charcoal is through much faster than if you want to get it glowing on a classic charcoal burner!

How can you tell that hookah charcoal is ready?

When will the charcoal actually be finished?
How can you actually tell when hookah charcoal is ready? In this blog post, we have compiled everything you need to know to recognize when the charcoal has reached its optimum heat level!

You can logically use the same method for an outdoor campfire. The main thing is that you have an open fire in which you can place the coal cubes. The only important thing is that the fire heats the charcoals continuously and is large enough.

Note: If you happen to have just had a barbecue with your friends, you can also use the charcoal to make your hookah charcoal glow! Simply place the cubes in the embers of the charcoal and wait a few minutes!

Making natural charcoal burn with self-igniting charcoal

Do you happen to still have self-igniting charcoal lying around from the old days? Even if it's bad if you smoked with it once, these charcoals are now worth their weight in gold! Light 3-6 charcoals and place the natural charcoal well between the lit charcoals. This way, the heat emitted by the glowing charcoals can cause your natural charcoal to start burning too!

Natural charcoal next to self-igniting charcoal — So you can light your charcoal with self-igniters!

You should place the charcoal in a fireproof container, such as a charcoal basket , to make sure nothing burns!

Charcoal transportation made easy!
Do you want to transport your charcoal safely? We have summarized the best way to do this in our blog post: with a coal basket. You can find everything you need to know here.

Camping stove or camping hotplate

Perhaps you still have a camping stove or a camping hotplate from a recent vacation in your cellar or storage room? Then you should use it to light the charcoal!

Variants of camping stoves for lighting hookah charcoal

Depending on how your camping stove is set up, you just need to make sure that you place the charcoal safely on it. Once you have done this, you can simply light the stove and wait for the charcoal to burn through.

Note: Again, perhaps a household grid, such as a cake grid, is sometimes very good for placing the charcoal safely!

To ensure that the charcoal glows evenly on all sides, you should turn the charcoal cubes once after about 5 minutes. After another 3-5 minutes, all sides should glow evenly and you can use the charcoal for your hookah!