Lighting pellet stove options

[imacman]

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 !

When I had my wood stove, I used to buy those. I used a "Surform" (autobody lingo for a cheese grater type thing for shaping plastic body filler), and shaved those blocks into little pieces. Put kindling in, sprinkled a handfull over them, put logs in, and lit the edge of the kindling. Guess it would be evn better with pellets.

But I still think the dollar store sanitizer is the cheapest way to go.

 

[dbjordan]

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

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

I use the denatured alcohol for removing flux in electronics repairs, so I always have it, nothing more to buy. Soaking some pellets worked great once I ran out of the gel the dealer gave me with my first stove. With my St. Croix I just push the button and walk away, no more chemicals.

 

[Doocrew]

My auto ignitor failed this morning so I tried the blow torch trick. It took 15 seconds and the stove was running at temp in no time. My stove took at least 5 minutes to light using the ignitor and uses 5 times the pellets to start up. I am glad this happened because I think I like the torch method better. Use the torch with the auto ignitor for ease.