Gel Starting a Pellet Stove?

MarkF48 said:

Leaving the door open as a few suggested until the pellets got going helped quite a bit also. I'll be using the ignitor for most starts, but at least I now have an alternate way to get fire if the ignitor goes "kablooie". Probably give the torch a try again in the next week.

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A simple way I've found to know how long to keep the door open is by flame color. The flame starts out blue, when it transitions to yellow (more fuel burning I suppose) I close the door.

I use the gel as my stove doesn't have auto ignition. I use 3/4 cup of pellets so they are only two layers deep in the burn pot, add about 2tbs of gel to the top of the pellets only , then light. After one minute, when the flame changes from blue to orange, I close the door and press "on". By the time the auger starts (2 minutes) the pellets are glowing orange and have a nice tall flame.

Only once did I have a starting issue. Problem is the little deflector that's tack welded to the burn pot. It's not centered under the auger (1/4 inch right) so the majority of the pellets tend to fall to the left side. Too many pellets dropped on startup and smothered the fire on the left which caused a lot of smoke. Now I make sure to use more gel on that side and have no issue. After the winter I need to grind off the deflector and re-weld it where it belongs.

Hey, I can finally contribute something to the forum... This has never failed on my old Harman P38.Door closed turn knob to test that stove is working.Open door leaving the combustion fan on.Clean burn pot.Place hand full pellets in pot.I keep a soup bowl to put a small hand full of pellets in.Take Hand Sanitizer(63%Alcohol)and apply 3 tablespoon full and stir.Let sit 3 or 4 min and pour in burn pot.Light and keep door cracked3-5 min.
After it catches close door and go get a beer.This has never failed for me.I tried every other method with mixed results.
Tony

I've used everything fromJelled firestarter to wax bricks to Southern Comfort to coleman fuel to rubbing alcohol. They all work. Some smell better than others.

Thanks for contributing. We are all in this pellet world together.

tony58 said:

Hey, I can finally contribute something to the forum... This has never failed on my old Harman P38.Door closed turn knob to test that stove is working.Open door leaving the combustion fan on.Clean burn pot.Place hand full pellets in pot.I keep a soup bowl to put a small hand full of pellets in.Take Hand Sanitizer(63%Alcohol)and apply 3 tablespoon full and stir.Let sit 3 or 4 min and pour in burn pot.Light and keep door cracked3-5 min.
After it catches close door and go get a beer.This has never failed for me.I tried every other method with mixed results.
Tony

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Correct! I see now what I've been missing...............I forgot to get beer............thanks for the advice, I'll just have to add that to my routine.

Yet another reason to skip the auto ignite........

tony58 said:

After it catches close door and go get a beer

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A fat glass of Beam Black on the rocks is my choice but a beer will do in a pinch.

Whats left of the Beam will start the pellets (if there is any left...)

Back when I heated with coal in Ohio, many nights coming home from work to a stone cold furnace and piling in some anthricite lumps and stuffing in the oxy-acetylene rosebud to get the coal going quick..... those were the days. Tanks spent more time in the basement than in the garage.....

Just tried hand sanitizer tonight to light the stove and it worked well, but not as good as One Match gel. I ended up using more sanitizer because the flames started to die out before the pellets lit fully so I had to give another good squirt. Hand sanitizer is half the cost of starter gel so I know what I'm using from now on.

funflyer said:

Just tried hand sanitizer tonight to light the stove and it worked well, but not as good as One Match gel. I ended up using more sanitizer because the flames started to die out before the pellets lit fully so I had to give another good squirt. Hand sanitizer is half the cost of starter gel so I know what I'm using from now on.

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Probably had a lower booze content. I found some last year in the spring after cold and flu season that was selling for a buck a quart. Don't use the stuff myself for fire but is safer to leave around the camp than what I like to use.

....and it smells better.......

I shut mine down yesterday morning because it was warm came home and cleaned it a bit, scrape the pot mostly. Then turned it on the ignitor wouldn't start it as it probably has crud in it. So I put some hand sanitzer in and tried to start it, it burned kind of but not enough to start. Got the propane torch and had some flames working well but I believe there were to many pellets in the pot by this time I left it go and came back in a few minutes to see all kinds of pellet dropping into the ash pan. So I opened the hopper lid so the feed wouldn't run and scraped a bunch of the pellets in the pot into the ash pan with the rest and left only a small amount in the pot. I lit them with the torch and closed the door them left them burn for about 2 minutes then closed the hopper lid and we had fire burning and it was lit. I think the key top this manual starting is a small amount of pellets to start.

shtrdave said:

I think the key top this manual starting is a small amount of pellets to start.

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Exactly,

My book says to use one cup of pellets but I found this is way too many. If I use more than 1/2 to 2/3 cup of pellets to start, once the auger kicks in, the smoke starts to get real heavy and blackens the glass before the stove gets going.

joed2323 said:

I've used a map gas torch many times at work we had Harman pellet furnace and igniter went out.

All I've ever done was throw a handful of pellets on your burn pot and run the torch over them back and fourth real good for 45 secs to min, get them cooking and shut the door and walla

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I second this. Mapp torch for a few seconds. They'll start. Much faster than propane and (my torch) has a trigger igniter.

I third, fourth and fifth that. I use a fistful, thats it. Maybe 30 pellets and..... I start my corn with pellets first. You can start out with corn but it's a pisser to get going, pellets are easier.

I guess gelled firestarter is really liquified sterno. Same stuff Hobo's strain through white bread to get lit on????? I knew a real hard core drunk once that drank Aqua-Velva if he didn't have any booze. Had great breath.............

funflyer said:

Exactly,

My book says to use one cup of pellets but I found this is way too many. If I use more than 1/2 to 2/3 cup of pellets to start, once the auger kicks in, the smoke starts to get real heavy and blackens the glass before the stove gets going.

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Exactly,I found a small hand full did better than a large amount.

As another guy with manual only ignition on my current stove, I'll put in another vote for the less is more side of things. When I started out I was using a big handful of pellets with gel on top, it would work but it took forever. Now I drop in maybe 20 pellets, a weak handful, and give them a shot of starting gel. Then another 15 or so on top of those and another dose of starting gel. Touch it off, door open to keep the air down - combustion fan running, damper closed. Once I start to see some orange I'll shut the door, then shortly after I'll start manually running the auger for short bits to add just a few pellets. As soon as I can get more air without blowing things out I'll open the damper a touch. More fuel, more air, before you know it we've got a good fire going and the exhaust is hot enough to get the auger to run automatically. I've found that using as few pellets as reasonably possible leaves the burn pot MUCH cleaner, and in turn leads to really good airflow, especially if I want to push some high feed rates.

As the song (paraphrased) says "Use a Torch Save the Southern Comfort"
Pellet stove is seeing serious action lately, cooling down for a cleaning in prep for the Thanksgiving weekend. Food, football and flaming pellets while the white stuff falls outside, this must be Heaven.
Happy Holidays everyone.

Hand sanitizer will not light for me, I've always used gel and for 8 bucks it last me all season

The best starter is :
A small plastic jar, like a cleaned out peanut butter jar.....fill with pellets, add 1/4 inch of diesel or keroseen...put the lid on and shake it up....the pellets will soak up the fuel but never fall apart....instant fire in the pot very low risk of fire like with alcohol when stored...

excursion said:

The best starter is :
A small plastic jar, like a cleaned out peanut butter jar.....fill with pellets, add 1/4 inch of diesel or keroseen...put the lid on and shake it up....the pellets will soak up the fuel but never fall apart....instant fire in the pot very low risk of fire like with alcohol when stored...

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I do something similar but only add a tablespoon or so just enough to wet the pellets. CAUTION, BEWARE, etc., Never use on a hot, smoldering pot as if the fuel gets vaporized you have a potential for a flash fire. Used this method to start corn stoves after servicing so didn't have to wait so darn long to balance out the pot. I cannot stress the enough the danger of using liquid fuels in solid fuel appliances.

Diesel or Kero is too dicey for me. I'very used the soak-the-pellets method in my Harman but in barbecue lighter fluid. Just be sure to empty the burnpot first because when you turn the stove on the feed may push pellets over the edge if there are any in it to begin with.

I buy firestick starters (for fireplaces) or a Fire Log. Cut a small piece, light, handful of pellets, wait until I get a good fire, start auger...