Best Barbecue Gadgets Tested: Chimney Starter, Temperature Controller and More

Introduction

Some barbecue gadgets look like toys until you actually cook with them. Others look essential and turn out to be niche. We put a batch of popular barbecue accessories through a real cooking session, lighting coals, controlling temperature and cooking a full meal outdoors, to find out which ones earn their place in your setup.

Three items stood out for very different reasons: a chimney starter that genuinely speeds up coal preparation, a temperature control system that turns an ordinary grill into a set-and-forget cooker, and a novelty chicken roaster that is exactly as ridiculous as it looks, in the best way.

How We Picked

The brief was simple: gadgets that promise to make barbecuing quicker, easier or more fun. Each one was tested hands-on during an actual cook, not just unboxed and admired. We looked at whether the product delivered on its core promise, how it felt to live with during a session, and who it realistically makes sense for at its price.

Weber Chimney Starter

A chimney starter does one job: it gets your charcoal hot faster. You pack the cylinder full of briquettes, light a firelighter underneath, and the vertical airflow through the confined space drives the coals to a white-hot glow far quicker than lighting them loose in the grill. In testing, coals that would normally take 40 to 45 minutes to come ready were glowing and usable in about 15.

The real appeal goes beyond the first light. Because you can preheat coals anywhere and pour them out with the thermoplastic handle, topping up a long cook becomes easy. If your first batch of coals is fading twelve hours into a slow cook, a second batch can be lit separately and added exactly where you need it, letting you build hot and cool zones on demand.

It is worth being honest about who needs this. If you barbecue occasionally and enjoy the ritual of lighting the grill, a chimney starter is not essential. But for frequent grillers who get through a lot of charcoal, or anyone planning long sessions with a big group, it is a genuinely useful tool. At £27.99 it is affordable, and it is not a one-use wonder. In the United States these are ubiquitous and very cheap, often around $10 in supermarkets, so pricing varies a lot by market.

ThermoWorks Signals and Billows

This is the serious upgrade of the group. Signals is a multi-channel thermometer, and Billows is a fan blower that attaches to your barbecue’s air vent. Working together, they monitor your grill’s temperature and actively manage the airflow to hold it steady, adjusting the fan as needed. The result is charcoal cooking with the kind of temperature control normally reserved for expensive purpose-built grills and pellet cookers.

Setup is straightforward. The Billows prong slides into the lower vent of most charcoal barbecues, a probe clips inside the lid to read the air temperature, and Signals handles the rest. It offers four temperature inputs, so you can track several cuts of meat and the grill temperature simultaneously. Alarms alert you when food hits your target, and a companion app connects over wifi or Bluetooth so you can walk away and still keep an eye on everything.

In testing, the little fan impressed. For its small size it blew hard, driving the coals up to temperature quickly and then backing off to hold it there, which meant the steak came off exactly when the alarm sounded. The cooked ribeye was spot on, and the whole process felt far more relaxed than hovering over vents by hand.

The combined price of the two units comes in at £289.20, so this is not an impulse buy. But that is precisely the point worth considering: instead of buying a premium smart grill, you can add this to a barbecue you already own and love. It is tried and tested in barbecue competitions around the world, and for anyone cooking big cuts over long sessions, it delivers control, flexibility and confidence.

Bonus Fun Pick: Freedom Rider Beer Can Chicken Roaster

Not every gadget needs a serious purpose. This motorcycle-shaped roaster holds a whole chicken upright on a beer can, which steams the bird from the inside while it roasts, with the wings clipping in so nothing topples off. In testing, the chicken cooked through evenly and the beer can approach delivered juicy meat, but nobody is buying this for the engineering.

It is a gift item through and through, at £9.99. Bringing a whole chicken to the table is predictable; bringing one riding a tiny motorbike is not. As a Father’s Day present, birthday gag gift or centrepiece for a gathering, it mixes things up and it is harmless fun.

Buying Advice

A few things became clear during testing. First, match the gadget to how you actually cook. If you grill often and go through lots of charcoal, the chimney starter is a cheap, durable upgrade. If you own a good barbecue you do not want to replace but wish it held temperature on its own, the Signals and Billows pairing is the way to get smart-grill behaviour from the grill you already have.

Second, do not overlook small accessories. Simple extras like rolling grill cages for smaller vegetables and a holed wok for stir-frying over searing coals, priced at £36.99 for a set of three rollers and £15.99 for the wok, expand what a charcoal grill can do, though the wok’s holes make saucy seasoning a little harder to hold onto.

Conclusion

The Weber chimney starter is the easiest recommendation for frequent charcoal cooks: cheap, simple and it genuinely halves coal prep time. ThermoWorks Signals and Billows is the premium pick for anyone serious about low-and-slow cooking on the barbecue they already own. And if your goal is entertainment as much as dinner, the Freedom Rider roaster earns its place at the table. Pick the one that matches your cooking style and budget, and every one of them does what it promises.