A charcoal grill that will not get hot, or lights fine and then dies, is almost never broken. It is being starved of something — air, fuel or time — and the cause is nearly always one of nine things. This page goes through them in the order to check, because the first two account for most of the complaints and cost nothing to fix. Work down the list until the fire behaves.
One principle explains most of it: a charcoal fire needs air from underneath. Anything that blocks the path from the bottom vent, up through the charcoal grate and through the coal bed, makes the fire weak; anything that opens it makes the fire strong. Keep that in mind and the list below will make sense.
1. The bottom vent is closed, or buried in ash
Check this before anything else. On a kettle the bottom vent is a set of slots in the base of the bowl, and last cook’s ash sits directly on top of them. A grill that was not emptied is a grill with its air supply half shut, and no amount of opening the top vent will help. Empty the ash catcher, sweep the slots clear, and set the bottom vent fully open while you bring the grill up to heat. On a barrel, the dampers at the ends of the firebox are the same control and the ash pan under them is the same problem.
This is also the number one answer to “my charcoal keeps going out.” A fire that lights, burns for twenty minutes and fades is a fire that used up the air it had and could not draw more.
2. The coals went on before they were ready
Coals are ready when the top layer is gray with ash and glowing underneath, about fifteen minutes in a chimney. Poured early, half the chimney is lit and half is not, and the unlit half absorbs heat from the lit half instead of adding to it. The result is a grill that never reaches temperature and often goes out. Wait for the ash. If you do not own a chimney, our lighting guide has fluid-free alternatives; if you do, make sure the starter underneath is actually burning when you walk away from it.
3. Not enough charcoal
A single layer of coals cannot sear anything. For a 22-inch kettle the normal load is a full chimney; for hot-and-fast grilling, all of it. Beginners under-fill because a full chimney looks like a lot of fuel, then blame the grill. Our guide to how much charcoal to use gives the loads by grill size and cook type, and the number is higher than most people guess.
4. The charcoal is spread too thin
The same amount of charcoal spread evenly across the whole grate gives a weak, even heat everywhere. Banked on one side, two coals deep, it gives a hot side that sears properly and a cool side to finish on. If your grill is “not hot enough to sear,” this is usually the reason, and the fix is a rake and thirty seconds. On long cooks the bank slumps and spreads on its own, which is what charcoal baskets prevent; the full method is in our two-zone grilling guide.
5. The charcoal is damp
Charcoal does not go off, but it does soak up water — from a garage floor, an open bag in a shed, a day of rain on a grill with charcoal left in it. Damp coals light slowly, smoke heavily and stall well short of searing heat. If the bag has been open a while or lived somewhere damp, that is the cause. Our guide to storing charcoal covers keeping it dry and drying out a bag that got wet.
6. The lid is on with the top vent shut — or off entirely
Two opposite mistakes, same result. Lid on with the top vent closed: no exhaust, the fire smothers in its own exhaust and dies. Lid off: on a windy day the fire can run hot, but on a still day it loses the enclosed heat that gets a grate to searing temperature, and it cannot hold anything for a long cook. The right position for heating up is lid on, both vents fully open; adjust the bottom vent down only once you are at temperature. Our temperature guide has the vent settings and a heat-zone chart.
7. The grill leaks, or the weather is stealing the heat
Barrel grills have a long flat lid seam that leaks air along its length, and thin steel that sheds heat in wind and cold. In those conditions a cheap barrel struggles to hold a high temperature no matter what you do with the vents. The fix is high-temperature gasket tape on the lid rim — the first item in our cheap grill upgrades— and a windbreak. Our cold-weather grilling guide covers the winter version, where you should also expect to use more fuel.
8. The grate is too far from the coals
If the grill holds a normal temperature but will not put a crust on a steak, the fire is fine and the geometry is the problem. Most charcoal grills fix the coals six or seven inches under the grate. Grills with an adjustable charcoal pan — the Char-Griller Patio Pro and many barrels — let you raise them to a few inches, which is where a real sear happens. On a kettle you cannot raise the coals, but banking them deeper on one side gets you most of the way; our steak grill roundup covers the adjustable-pan grills in detail.
9. The fuel is the wrong kind for the job
Briquettes burn steadily and predictably, which is exactly why they are the right fuel for beginners and long cooks — and exactly why they do not reach the peak heat a sear wants. Hardwood lump burns hotter and lights faster. If everything else is right and the grill still feels underpowered for steak, switch the fuel for that cook. Our lump vs briquettes comparison has the full trade, and best charcoal for grilling has the bags for short, hot cooks.
Stop guessing: measure it
Most people diagnosing a “cold” grill are reading the lid thermometer, which measures the air at the top of the dome, or holding a hand over the grate. A probe clipped at grate level tells you what the cooking surface is actually doing, and a second probe in the meat tells you when to stop — which the USDA is clear is the only reliable way to know food is safe. Half the time the grill was fine and the gauge was wrong. Our thermometer picks include a cheap dual-probe that does both jobs.
The five-minute reset when a fire is dying
- Lift the cooking grate off with tongs or gloves.
- Rake the coals into one pile and knock the ash off them.
- Clear ash from the bottom vent and open it fully.
- Add a half chimney of freshly lit coals on top of the pile if you have them; if not, add unlit coals to the edge of the pile, not on top.
- Grate back on, lid on, top vent open over the food. Give it ten minutes before you judge it.
If that does not bring it back, the charcoal is damp or you ran out of fuel, and the honest fix is a fresh chimney. If it happens every cook, start again at cause 1 and work down — and if you are new to all this, our beginner’s guide covers the habits that stop it happening in the first place, and the rest of our guides pick up from there.
