FiAir - Air Blower/Fast Fire Starter for Charcoal Grills, Tailgating, Campfires, Fire Pits, Fireplaces, Wood Stoves

Just wanted to write a quick review about this thing answering some questions that I had about it myself but didn't see in the top 10 reviews or so, plus I wanted to throw in some other points.1) This does NOT light your fire. You still need to light your wood or charcoal through your normal means. This just helps it to get it to its "ready state" a lot faster.2) This does NOT blow hot air at all. In fact it was a hot day today and I even caught myself using it as a little portable fan twice.3) This DOES blow a focused stream of air that can be felt by the hand around 2 feet or so away from it. It focuses air blowing on the coals so that they get hotter faster and in turn light up the other coals around them faster.4) EDITED (based on product videos and manufacturer comments on this review): You can put the tip pretty close to the coals as they first heat up, but you should pull back of course as the heat increases and spreads.5) You need to supply the 3 AAA batteries for this unit.6) It makes noise but it's not super loud. I'd say a little quieter than some blow driers on low.7) It does help, but I wouldn't call this a must have. Good product, I'm not disappointed in it at all, pretty much got exactly what I was expecting.

I bought the FiAir blower for use with my smoker. I BBQ a lot and sometimes have the wood fire die out on me. I would have to put my face next to hot coals and blow into the fire to get it going again. I found this product on Amazon and bought it for Christmas. I have not used it for BBQ yet, but I did take it on a camping trip. I used it conjunction with my Mora Fire knife. This product worked great. I had a roaring hot fire in about 5 min. This thing made building a camp fire easy as could be. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because it does use battery pretty fast. By the end of my two day camping trip the batteries were dead. For using 3 AAA batteries, I expected it would last longer. Other than that, this product is great for anyone who needs to start a fire from nothing or just boost your existing fire. I also wish there was an internal battery that could be charged via USB. They should make a smaller version especially for camping that can be charged with USB or solar panels. I would strongly recommend this product.

This is a very useful device if you use it properly. Being battery-powered, its brute force is limited, but its design and flexibility is what really counts. The plastic is tough enough to allow you to really focus in on a charcoal fire, moving within inches of the coals and blasting individual points with a narrow stream of air, all without worrying about the plastic melting. I found that if I concentrate on a specific point at the base of the fire, and hold the device in one spot for 10-15 seconds, the continuous forced air creates a kind of vortex, which rapidly expands the combustion. The glow increases ferociously, and you can actually hear the "roar" of the fire swell. This spreads the fire very effectively. If, on the other hand, you try to stand back and casually waft the device over a large area, you will be wasting your time. Using the FiAir properly cuts down--by a lot!-- the waiting time for a charcoal grill to be ready for cooking. It is well worth the price. Just be sure to keep batteries at home, and remember to get very close to the fire and search out the "sweet spots" to attack with the focused air stream this device creates!

Update: After ~3 months later and it stopped working for no reason. No signs of slowing down or starting to go out just picked it up one day and it didn't come in. Tried several sets of batteries and it didn't work.Got this as a gag gift for the wife for Christmas not thinking we would use it that much. Boy was I wrong! We use it everyday and It makes a fantastic fire. Buy wait there's more. The wife has been using it to cool the kids food off lol! Great buy! Definitely recommend!

This thing works pretty good although I do have a couple of gripes about it. 1. it is made very cheaply and will fall apart quickly. It started to split at the main seam and all I had done was put the batteries in. 2. the battery life is bad. I get I will need to put batteries in this thing occasionally but we have used it on 2 weekend long camping trips and have only had to build about 6 fires the whole time. Yes we used this on each but the batteries are now weak and it's not blowing as good as it was. It seems to me that if this thing were made a bit more sturdy they could incorporate in a more powerful battery than AAA's that could power this thing better and longer.

I initially went onto Smile.Amazon.com to look for a bellow to help us get fires started in our fireplace. After purchasing a batch of "seasoned wood" off of Craigslist, we soon discovered that the wood was NOT seasoned, and possibly still damp! As a result, the traditional methods of starting a fire were not working (duralogs, crumbled newspaper, cardboard, kindling, etc). During my search of bellows, this little baby popped up--and with fantastic reviews!! With Amazon's A-Z guarantee, I took a chance on something that was a few dollars more than a bellow, and what a GREAT decision that turned out to be!! Since we have to use this thing so much to get a fire started each night (only b/c we currently have a batch of unseasoned/damp wood), the (3) AAA batteries get used up after 4 or 5 days (that is running it on high for a total of 5-10 minutes each night!) However, we already own rechargeable batteries (another fabulous investment made through Smile.Amazon.com), so replacing the AAA batteries is not an additional cost b/c we just recharge them & put back inside the device! If you are working with dry, seasoned wood, I am certain that you wouldn't need this device for more than a minute or two total. It is very powerful, and I like that you can control the speed of the blower, simply by the amount of pressure you push on the button! Very simple, even for a gal who is not terribly tech savvy! Buy with confidence! :-)