Lighting Up
Firing Up Your Grill Without Fire

Labor Day: the end of summer to most.

Labor Day in SF: the start of summer’s fleeting appearance...

Which means, grilling season is ahead and you’ll need to act fast.

Here to help: the Looftlighter, a charcoal heater that gets your grill ready for action in seconds without using lighter fluid, available now out of Sweden.

While it looks like a microphone Johnny Cash might’ve used back in the day, this thing is more like a grilling magic wand.

It’s apparently powered by 1,000 degrees of heat (and Swedish pixie dust), so during grilling season, this’ll be you and your hibachi’s best friend. Just direct it toward the pile of briquettes and in about 10 seconds, sparks will start to fly. At that point, you’ll hold the lighter steady for roughly a minute and watch the glow spread without any fire whatsoever.

Then, as typically happens as you start to grill up steaks and burgers, you need to hydrate. That’s where the safety guard on the Looftlighter’s handle comes into play. While its main purpose is apparently fire protection, that guard also acts as a cleverly disguised bottle opener to pop open a few cold beers when you’ll need them most.

But all of this grilling talk aside, this contraption’s biggest utility here in San Francisco is that it’ll also light your fireplace.

Cue the Swedish pixie dust...