DIY Firestarters / Grill Lighter Cubes

If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably noticed this summer the boy & I have decided to become grill masters! Well, maybe not masters, but we have definitely made the venture into lump charcoal and are learning how to use our Weber to smoke meats. Pizza is on the agenda as well!

Even though we used briquettes for a while, the boy was concerned about how we would light our charcoal. For a while we had an electric starter, but it became cumbersome. We considered getting a chimney, but he didn't want to deal with potential unreliability of lighting paper (also he didn't want to use paper with colored ink on it, so the alternative would have been using up our printer supply). So we picked up Weber's lighter cubes, and they worked great. We could use anywhere between 1 and 3 cubes, depending on how much charcoal we were using.

After we upgraded to lump charcoal, however, we found we needed a chimney anyway because the varying sizes of each piece made it difficult to ensure an even burn. But again, the paper problem, so we kept using the lighter cubes. 1 cube was enough to get an entire chimney going. Then we ran out and forgot to get more, which almost put the breaks on our last minute steak dinner as no local stores carried these lighter cubes. Not to be inconvenienced, I decided to try out making my own.

Weber's lighter cubes are small paraffin wax cubes. You get 24 in a box for about $3-4 dollars. I don't have paraffin on hand, but I almost always have beeswax pellets these days. So I melted some down & soaked a cotton ball. It took a tad longer to light, but worked a dream. With that success, I made a whole batch!

Beeswax Lighter Cubes
100% cotton egg carton (bottom w/ no ink)
18 cotton balls
2 cups food-grade beeswax pellets










When I made my first trial, I just melted about 1 Tbsp of wax and let a cotton ball soak it up. We used it before the wax could even dry, and had no problems. However, to make a bulk batch, I knew that process would not be the most efficient, so I've refined it a bit.

In a double boiler (or you can put a heat-safe glass container in a pot of boiling water), melt your wax. This may take some time, and stirring to break up chunks can help move it along. While your wax is melting place your cotton balls into your egg carton. Once the wax is melted, pour it over your cotton balls. They will want to soak up as much wax as possible, so do your best to evenly distribute it. You may also need to flip or rotate the cotton balls.

The egg carton is totally optional here, but it made the process easier for me. Otherwise, you are stuck dipping each cotton ball into your melted wax, and then you need to find somewhere for them to dry!

Once dry, they are ready to store or use. I like to prep the carton by cutting off any extra bits along the outside and between each compartment (this allows for an easy tear-off option). Using the egg cartons vs straight up cotton balls gives you a large-ish piece, so you may be able to cut them in half and stretch them out even farther.








To use, place under your charcoal chimney, directly on your charcoal pile, or in the middle of your campfire. Light it up and let your coals or campfire do it's thing. This is organic & food-safe, as long as your egg carton does not have color ink. This is also a lot cheaper! For $10 you can get 1lb of beeswax and 200 cotton balls. I haven't done a mass batch yet, but 1lb of beeswax should easily be enough for 100 cotton balls, and honestly could probably get you pretty far into the full 200. The egg carton is optional, but if you use one it should be recycled which means no extra cost to you. For $10, you can get 50-75 of the commercial paraffin cubes...so why not make your own?