Starting Stove with Propane Torch

put a hand ful in a coffee container and a 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohal put on the cover and shake give it 2-3 min and put in burn pot start with a flame and close door should be good to go

lock&load; said:

put a hand ful in a coffee container and a 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohal put on the cover and shake give it 2-3 min and put in burn pot start with a flame and close door should be good to go

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If there's no alcohol around, hand sanitizer will work also.

When I had my igniter issue I used a torch and found it to work nicely. I have on of those auto ignite torch heads. Worked like a charm and much quicker than mixing with the juice IMHO.

I used the stove to fill the burnpot just like the normal cycle. Once the pellets stopped dropping(point where the igniter is cycled on) I just opened the door and stuck the torch in and hit the pellets for about 30 to 40 seconds. Closed the door and watched to make shure it took off. Did this every time I had to shut the stove down until my new parts came in(several weeks).

The start circuit on these stoves(Enviro anyway) are all controlled by an interenal timer(programmed into the micro controller). So once you hit the start button the igniter will still cycle as normal. The igniter stays on until the timer tells the stove to check the POF switch. POF switch can close earlier but the control holds the igniter circuit on for a specific timed amount. Due to pellet variations is what I was told. So even if brand A lights faster than brand B. The microcontroller is still in control on how long the igniter stays on.

Best way to prolong the igniter is to use hi/lo mode in the cold weather for us stat users. Or manual run 24/7 and only use the igniter when shutting down for cleaning schedule's!

Hope this helps!

Alcohol gel (avail at big box stores or local hearth dealers) was designed to light pellet stoves before ignitors. It works well, squirt a blob, and lights gently, then hit start.
Ignitors are pre-programmed to come on for certain amts of time (8-12 mins depending on stove mfr and models). Enviros (except EF2 and EF3) are about 10 mins run time. EF2/3 are analog dial units, they use a block timer to turn ignitor on and have a sensor next to timer which shuts ignitors off when it senses flame heat. Digital boards use the POF sw typically in the exh path to shut ignitor off and turn on convection blower (it does vary from mfr tho, Whitfield had models that used a photo eye to sense flame light as the POF switch, a kinda neat but pain to clean setup). For t-stat folks, the hi/lo setting is the way to go, thats what I run my empress on, but manual mode once you find your desired burn level is good too. Good luck everyone, remember pellets are 3/4 the determining factor if your stove will make you happy.

Stovelark
Env EF3
Env Emp FPI
Env Kodiak 1700 wood FS

j-takeman said:

When I had my igniter issue I used a torch and found it to work nicely. I have on of those auto ignite torch heads. Worked like a charm and much quicker than mixing with the juice IMHO.

I used the stove to fill the burnpot just like the normal cycle. Once the pellets stopped dropping(point where the igniter is cycled on) I just opened the door and stuck the torch in and hit the pellets for about 30 to 40 seconds. Closed the door and watched to make shure it took off. Did this every time I had to shut the stove down until my new parts came in(several weeks).

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How come you won't sell the 94 Quad, would make someone a nice stove.

slls said:

j-takeman said:

When I had my igniter issue I used a torch and found it to work nicely. I have on of those auto ignite torch heads. Worked like a charm and much quicker than mixing with the juice IMHO.

I used the stove to fill the burnpot just like the normal cycle. Once the pellets stopped dropping(point where the igniter is cycled on) I just opened the door and stuck the torch in and hit the pellets for about 30 to 40 seconds. Closed the door and watched to make shure it took off. Did this every time I had to shut the stove down until my new parts came in(several weeks).

Click to expand...

How come you won't sell the 94 Quad, would make someone a nice stove.

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I could, But won't!

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/78879/

Someday I'll either use it or list the parts on ebay and sell the rest for scrap iron!

Years ago, when we first got into the pellet stove thing we started using the "Jello" stuff made by Forest paint company.
I called the company and asked about buying the stuff in the 5 gallon pail.

Used the Jello for quite a few years and finally got tired of it.
Started using the propane torch as described above.

Our stoves are manual light, at least the whitfields are and I just toss in a handfull of pellets, flip the switch to exhaust fan to get a flow of air out the exhaust vent then hit the pellets with the torch until they are burning, close the door, flip the feed switch to on and let it rip.

I can start the stove directly on nut shells, but the smell of half burned shells is not nearly as pleasant as the pellet smoke.

I gave tha last third of that 5 gallon pail of fire jel to a fellow here a few years ago to use in his stoves.

I just keep a case of the propane cylinders in the store room for the winter. In case the power goes off we can use the propane camp lights and also if the power is off we can stick a propane light in the pump shack to keep the pipes, tanks and such from freezing.

A few times a year the local big box stores will put the propane cylinders on sale by the case and we get a couple and put away.

One bottle on the torch will last for stove duties all winter.


Snowy

On my Afton Bay, the igniter gets turned off when the "proof of fire" switch makes, 110º at the combustion blower, so manually lighting the pellets might save a couple of minutes of igniter time. Maybe.

We my igniter was acting up I just used the torch after I ran out of starter gel....... (Mapp gas is hotter)

Yep mapp gas here too! Quite a bit hotter=faster lighting!

jdbell said:

Hand sanitizer.....ok....do you just squirt it on top of pellets or do you need to mix in a can?...........

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I'd throw a handful in a coffee can, squirt some sanitizer on it and mix them around....then dump in burnpot & light.

might want to dig through your manual. most stoves ive had have a manual setting for manual starting or lighting.