Quickest time to get a fire up and going.

[Snowy Rivers]

For years I put up with what seemed like a very long time to get a fire started in the Old Earth Stove (Pellet)

Now I am talking about manually lit fires, you folks with the auto lighters can sit smuggly in the corner and grin.

The Old stove would take possibly 20 minutes to be to the point that I could walk away from it.

The startup timer was nowhere near long enough to get the low temp sensor activated so it required at least two times pushing the button or the fire would likely go out.

Both the little and the large Whitfield can be lit and fully up and going in less than 5 minutes and I can be off doing other things.

I toss in a handfull of pellets, then get the exhaust fan going followed by a generous application of the propane torch.

With likely less than a full minute the pellets are burning and I close the door and let the draft go to work getting the fire going good. Within another minute I turn the feed switch on and its off to the rodeo.

Depending on how much heat we need, I may adjust the feed up or down, but usually start the thing on the number 2 setting.

Sure is nice not having to babysit the stove for a long time period.

We have had the Quadrafire 1000 for 17 years and just turning up the T Stat was nice but the cost of pellets has driven me back to basics with the nut shells.

Now we use the Quad only when we can't be home and then set it to a low setting (65F)

Hate coming home after a weekend to a COLD house.


Ahhhhh Yes, the comforts of home eh ??

Snowy

 

[Lousyweather]

heck, snowy, I'll put my ability to light my p61 against ANY autolighter, and win.......2 minutes max from a cold stove to blazing fire! they can be smug all they want, but when their igniter poops out and they dont have the know-how to get theirs lit, then I sit there, smugly!

 

[jtakeman]

heck, snowy, I'll put my ability to light my p61 against ANY autolighter, and win.......2 minutes max from a cold stove to blazing fire! they can be smug all they want, but when their igniter poops out and they dont have the know-how to get theirs lit, then I sit there, smugly!

I was smug with my auto light until this winter when it bit the dust. I had issues manually lighting for a bit. But one can adapt quickly when needed. Little bit of gel or isopropal and my torch. I figured it out. Luckily this stove has the Hi/Low mode. So I only had to light it after cleaning. Now my auto igniter is fixed and I will go back to my corner. Smugglie even and a bit of a grin too!

Todays multifuel stoves with the pressure igniters are much faster at lighting then the older heat elements. Blows the heated air thru the pot and gives a torch like flame right into the pellets. My Omega has flames with in a minute of starting. Still takes a bit to get the fire going enough to trip the POF switch. But the flame is almost instant. Very quick lights here even with corn and grass pellets! Again back to my corner with a little bit bigger grin! :cheese:

 

[Snowy Rivers]

The only auto lighters I have had anything to do with are the heat element type that the Quads use.

The Quad 1000 originally had a ceramic fire pot and a special ceramic igniter.

The ceramics pots would, after some time see the bottom literally fall out and into the air plenum.

The little ceramic igniters would break too and fail.

The new pot is a fabricated steel unit that has a manually operated clean out port in the bottom thats actuated by a rod.

The igniter is a little "U" shaped device that looks like an oven coil that never grew up. :gulp:

Have had a couple of the newer igniters die but so far the one I have now is hanging in there.

I have relegated the Quad to only part time duty now and since installing the Prodigy back in December I have seen the Quad run only a couple times when it got too cold for the little critter to hack it.

Snowy

 

[nailed_nailer]

Snowy,

I use a torch to light my Enviro.

Hand full of pellets in the burn pot liner.
Set convection fan to off.
Feed rate (dial a fire) to 1 O'clock position
Auto-Man switch to Manual
Push button on torch and apply flame to pellets. Keep torch on until flames start to lick upward.
Close door and wait for green temp light. (About 3-5 minutes)
Flip Auto-Man switch to Auto.
Set convection fan and feed rate to desired output.
Sit back and enjoy heat.

Total light up time is less than 7 minutes.

I am working on an auto igniter. He is 6 yrs old now and still a bit too wild with the propane torch. :ahhh:
Another year or so and I should be fully automatic

---Nailer---

 

[Jim H.]

I had a quad 1000 for over 12 years or so, a couple of years ago I did the new firepot and ignitor! That thing was a tank, always ran great and easily changed out any snap discs that went. We moved and as far as I know the new owners still used it. Funny you mentioned the pot literally falling apart.....it sure did! LOL
I am just as happy with the xxv now for the last few years! It is funny, I had a pellet stove before they were so cool! LOL see ya.....and happy burning.
Oh, I love setting the thermostat and letting the stove do the work, now if I could only get it to load itself!

Jim

 

[little_hawk_59]

mike takes about a min toss pellets in put the tourch to them good to go but i have an old stove so i can keep the door open

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Sits chopping pellets and stacking them in the corner for tonights fire. :cheese:

Guess I just like building a camp fire.

Turned off the Advantage an hour or so ago and then a bit ago fired the little Prodigy up for the day.

Need a little heat as its windy wet and nasty outside.

Building a fire is a nice thing to do when its cold and nasty.

Propane torch makes quick work of messy job.

Used to buy the gelled fire starter from Forest paint co by the 5 gallon pail.

Was so much cheaper that way. I had several of the plastic squeeze bottles and would refill them over and over again.

Finally started using the torch. On the stoves that have an exhaust fan its no biggy to do and not smoke up the house.

Snowy

 

[Boom]

Thank you for the Torch Trick instruction. I look forward to trying it before warm weather prevents experimentation.

Sometimes I build a tiny twig stack or tee pee to start the burn pot. Though it takes some (fun) time to carefully stack, it is going in about 10 minutes when I start the auger feed. Clearly this is not a quick as your Torch Trick but will work if I have no fuel or gel.

Tonight I ground up some fines to see if they start faster with the ignitor than whole pellets. It is still 70° in here so I hold my breath waiting for the stove to decide it is getting cool enough. That is what I get for keeping it going until after 3pm today with it set for 75°.

Best not to wait until your ignitor dies in a blizzard to become a proficient manual starter. :-/
Jay

 

[Topshelf]

Hand full of pellets, a squirt with the firestarter gel, hit it with the BBQ lighter or propane torch and we have fire.
Party on Wayne!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I got tired of the Jello stuff and one night I ran out and did not want to go downstairs and mess with trying to coax the Blue Jello into the squirt bottle.

I grabbed the torch that happened to be sitting on the counter and tried that, been doing it that way ever since.

Gave the half a 5 gallon pail of Jello to a friend for their stove.

Always have a couple cases of propane bottles on the shelf and the lanterns handy in case of power outage.

Winter 08 we lost power during a very cold time and used a lantern on low to keep the pump house warm so the tanks and such would not freeze.

Have an electric heater in there BUTTTTTTTTTTTT works poorly when the power is off.

A lantern on real real low will run for 24 hours and keep the pump shack about 45 or so when 15 outside.


The torch is self lighting so its handy.


Snowy

 

[lessoil]

Well I decided to time our P61 this morning.
The stove was cold when I started it.
It took 4-5 minutes to go from cold to a flame that was 6"-8" high.

 

[smwilliamson]

heck, snowy, I'll put my ability to light my p61 against ANY autolighter, and win.......2 minutes max from a cold stove to blazing fire! they can be smug all they want, but when their igniter poops out and they dont have the know-how to get theirs lit, then I sit there, smugly!

I'll second that! My P61 is a champion and never lets me down. Within 2-3 minutes every time. My Invincible is just about as trusty though I sometimes have issues with the burn pot...keep meaning to fix it...but it's always on??!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Seems about right at 5 minutes.

I always hated starting a fire in the old Earth Stove, took at least 20 minutes before I could walk away.

The start cycle was too short and if the stove was cold you had to wait until you were sure that it was "Locked in" or you might come back in a while to a dead stove and have to start over again.

The Whitfield (and many others now) have a long enough start cycle to get the fire up and going well before it runs out.

The Old Earth stove had a firepot design that was supposed to give the look of a real "LOG" fire

Long narrow tray with air holes front and back and the auger fed into the center.
The idea was that the ash from the burned materials would get pushed out the ends by the incoming fuel,

Sounded good BUTTTTTTTTT did not actually work that way in the real world.

Another thing that makes the newer stoves work better is that the low temp sensor that has to snap in is located on the exhaust blower housing,and as soon as there is fire that area heats up quickly.

The Earth Stove had the low temp sensor on the back of the firebox up high in a corner. The stove was made or 3/16 Plate steel and that takes a while to heat up.


Over time, the manufactures have gotten a few things right.



Will be interesting to see where pellet stoves are in another 10 years.


Snowy