Lighting pellet stove options

Napalm

"Dollar store" hand sanitizer should work just fine....their all mostly alcohol.

I have been using the Gel, the guy I got my Stove from said he used a hand held torch He said it worked well. I may try it he said he would use on tank a year.....

I've got a Harman P-38 that is hard to start. The best thing I've used is 98% rubbing alcohol. You can buy it at Walmart for $3.00 or so for a large bottle. Just soak a handful or two of pellets with the alcohol for 10 minutes in a bowl, etc. Drain the alcohol, and place the pellets in your stove and light.

Wow that all sounds like a PITA. I appreciate the auto igniter in my AE. Of course now that I said that, it's going to burn out.

vgrund said:

Wow that all sounds like a PITA...... Of course now that I said that, it's going to burn out.

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I agree...a LOT of work to light some pellets......just squirt the cheap hand sanitizer on them in the burn pot and be done already.

As for the ignitor burning out vgrund, that is funny....hope it doesn't happen, though.

Considering I only have to light my stove 5 or 6 times a year after the monthly emptying of the ash pan, it's really easy to justify spending 5 or 10 bucks for a bottle of gel once a year.

My P68 has an auto light but I tried the manual way just to make sure I could do it if I had to.

If you want something hard to light, try a coal stove...I burned one for 26 years until this year when I bought the pellet stove....a VAST difference in ease...lighting a coal stove makes lighting this thing as easy as lighting a candle.

macman said:

vgrund said:

Wow that all sounds like a PITA...... Of course now that I said that, it's going to burn out.

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I agree...a LOT of work to light some pellets......just squirt the cheap hand sanitizer on them in the burn pot and be done already.

As for the ignitor burning out vgrund, that is funny....hope it doesn't happen, though.

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No kidding. We are talking what, 10 seconds, a nickel worth of gel, and a flick of a match?

I use a blow torch. takes about a minute to get the pellets burning.

My stove does have an auto ignite in it, but it only works half the time and it takes 30 minutes for the stove to run through it's cycle, so I just torch the things and be done with it.

This question seems to come up a few times every season.

Here's a bunch of answers: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/17666/

Dojistar said:

I use a blow torch. takes about a minute to get the pellets burning.

My stove does have an auto ignite in it, but it only works half the time and it takes 30 minutes for the stove to run through it's cycle, so I just torch the things and be done with it.

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30 minutes? Seriously? Is that length of time specific to your stove model, or do most auto ignite systems take that long? I've never owned one with that option, so I am curious.

Our auto ignite stoves (Enerzone, Regency and St Croix) all work all the time providing the igniters are functioning and 10-15 minutes after I hit the start button, there is heat blowing out of the heat exchanger

SXIPro said:

30 minutes? Seriously? Is that length of time specific to your stove model, or do most auto ignite systems take that long? I've never owned one with that option, so I am curious.

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The Astoria I had, and I'm sure most Travis Industries stoves are the same, took about 15-20 minutes from button push to convection blower kicking on and ignitor off.

My new Englander 10-CPM is multi-fuel, so about the same amt. of time as the Travis when set to pellets, but about 20-25 when burning corn. Haven't been able to find cherry pits, so can't comment on start-up with those (yet... ).

my P68 takes about 3 minutes, if that, to light in auto mode. To come to full on flame once lit is another 3 or so minutes.

In the past I kept a mason jar with some pellets soaked in denature alcohol handy. Don't put "dry" pellets in stove and then add alcohol! That is asking for trouble.

dbjordan said:

...... Don't put "dry" pellets in stove and then add alcohol! That is asking for trouble.

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How?

I believe there was a story of someone trying to start there stove with alcohol when it wouldn't ignite he started spraying alcohol it to the stove which caught then preceded to follow the trail to the bottle and ended up burning the house down,moral of story its stupid people that start fires not the alcohol.

mnkywrnch said:

I believe there was a story of someone trying to start there stove with alcohol when it wouldn't ignite he started spraying alcohol it to the stove which caught then preceded to follow the trail to the bottle and ended up burning the house down,moral of story its stupid people that start fires not the alcohol.

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That is my point exactly, I never had a problem with soaked pellets. If you add alcohol to pellets in the burn pot and then light, there is a good chance the alcohol just burns off and the pellets never light. That is when people start going the bbq grill route and pour fuel on the hot maybe lit maybe not flame.

mnkywrnch said:

I believe there was a story of someone trying to start there stove with alcohol when it wouldn't ignite he started spraying alcohol it to the stove which caught then preceded to follow the trail to the bottle and ended up burning the house down,moral of story its stupid people that start fires not the alcohol.

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Natural selection at it's best. Throw some chlorine in the gene pool.

Gel is $8.00 a bottle and it lasts a whole season. You only need a thumbnail size dollop to get the pellets going.

dbjordan said:

.....there is a good chance the alcohol just burns off and the pellets never light. ...

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That's why I and others suggested cheap dollar store hand sanitizer....it's already in gel form, and doesn't evaporate quickly.

For years I bought "fire starter" bricks... I get them in May for dirt cheap in Shop Rite and save them for next year.
I cut them up into 2" squares and they light with a match. By the time they ignite, there are pellets in the pot and in 10min.
FIRE !

I did the hand sanitizer last year. This year I'm using "Strike - A - Fire" fire starters. Got the idea from another forum http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?p=64000&highlight;=#64000

In my opinion this is even easier than the hand sanitizer. I never had a problem with hand sanitizer, was a huge supporter of it but, with the "strike a fire" matches i get my fire going much quicker. I use a half a stick just like the guy that posted it. I figured out the cost....9 cents per fire start. Everyone should try these.