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I've been thinking about buying a grill but before diving in I noticed a grill at a nearby park.

I was curious if people have tips for using one. Some concerns I have is no control over airflow for the charcoal therefore no control over temperature. Also, I am not sure how to put already hot charcoal inside. Do I use a shovel?

picture of an old rusty grill in a park

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I've only used them a couple of times, and when we did, we placed the cold charcoal in the grill, then lit it, rather than using a charcoal chimney.

A shovel is still a good idea to clear out the ashes and if you need to move hot coals around.

As for temperature, you adjust the height of the grate over the coals... this generally requires two people, each with a heavy welding or fireplace glove to do it smoothly.

I would also recommend bringing some sort of a smaller grid cooking surface. You can cook large items on them, but they tend to have rather widely spaced bars, so smaller stuff tends to fall on. the surface can also get pretty bad, as they're often exposed to the elements and with no owner to care for them, they might not have been scraped and re-seasoned in years.

You should also check to see if your park has any sort of a signup schedule. sometimes it's just whoever gets there first, but other places let you reserve them if you're planning an event.

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  • How was lighting cold charcoal? Did you use lighter fluid? All videos I have seen use chimney
    – Victor Feagins
    Commented Sep 28 at 2:07
  • @VictorFeagins it takes longer to get them to coals so you can start cooking. If the bars are particularly wide, and you're using briquettes (not lump), you might be able to pour them through the grate, maybe pushing down a few stragglers. I don't use lighter fluid, usually just newspaper or similar to catch the first flame and get the charcoal going, but sometimes with a bit of oil on it so it burns more like a candle
    – Joe
    Commented Sep 28 at 2:23
  • Thank you! How do you clean up afterwards?
    – Victor Feagins
    Commented Sep 28 at 2:32
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    That's the problem. You usually have to have the coals cool off to dispose of the ash... you don't want to take them with you before hand or they might self-ignite. People often don't... but check with the park to see what their rules are, as if you have to reserve a slot, they know who you are. (but they might also have a safe place to dispose of the ashes)
    – Joe
    Commented Sep 28 at 3:03
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    I've moved away from lighter fluid @VictorFeagins, I use firelighters made with wood savings soaked in paraffin wax. They don't make your food take like gasoline. In an emergency you can use a paper towel with a load of alcohol hand gel, it's still better. In a barbecue like that I would put a layer of charcoal, then the firelighter, then the rest of the charcoal in a pyramid, the bottom layer will enable airflow.
    – GdD
    Commented Sep 30 at 8:42
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I rarely bother with these, but I've certainly used them occasionally. I'm still moderately amused by the non-updated roadside rest areas that still have them, as I consider folks stopping for an hour or more beside a busy highway to fire one of these up and cook their lunch.

Apart from using height to control temperature, you can also normally build your fire on only one side, since the grill surface is very large unless you have a very large gathering to cook for, so you can move things off to the side for finer control. Likewise, you can pile the coals up higher or spread them out with some tool that you bring. It's essentially a slightly more convenient campfire, as opposed to the sort of grill with dampers to control airflow.

It's not normal to put already-hot charcoal in one, but if you want to, a metal shovel would be appropriate. In most locations you should drown the fire completely with water at the end of using it, though local practices may vary somewhat. Some (evidently not this one) do allow the grate to rotate up at the highest level so you could use a chimney-type starter, but capturing the grate in some manner is normal, since some people will steal them otherwise.

As in any other kind of grill, actual charcoal is faster and easier to light than briquettes (which are mostly coal dust, rather than charcoal at all - and slow and annoying to light. And foul-smelling if they are "easy lighting" ones, so it still takes a long time before the stink burns off and you'd want to cook food over them.)

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