Battle of the low budget stoves

[SmokeyTheBear]

As a potential buyer I would want to know if the stove I am looking at is an autoignite or if it was a manual igniter.

doh, good one. How did we miss that??

Because we all know how easy it is to light a stove manually and don't worry about how the fire gets started (in other words we have matches, an approved accelerant and tend to being a bit pyro)

then as an obviously newby idiot do I have to crawl out of bed at 3am to light the stove? or when the stove is going does it stay on until it is actually turned off? That seems like a waste, my gas stove doesn't have a pilot light. If I am going from a wood stove to a pellet because of the "convenience" where is the convenience of having to play with matches? Are the pellets my pilot light?

glad I logged in with questions, and got answered by sarcasm.

Pellet stoves have more than one mode in which they can operate.

All pellet stoves can be manually lit.

Even manually lit stoves may also have more than one way to operate, in constant (you determine the firing rate and it stays at that setting until you change it or turn it off), or high/low mode on a thermostat. Most folks that run on a thermostat frequently change from on/off to high low mode as the heating season gets into full swing.

Some folks also get sick of regularly replacing igniters.

The reason the folks on here generally forget about weather or not an igniter is a must have or even a would be nice to have as that more than a few of us have gone to turn the stove on after doing the weekly cleaning only to discover it won't light because the igniter is not working. A bit of gel and a match or a gas torch can quickly kindle a fire and get things back to heating. During the heating season a stove is likely to be on for at least a week at a stretch, sometimes longer (depends upon the stove and the fuel you are burning).

 

[stoveguy2esw]

no kidding, if i were to lose a component in the dead of winter i'd pray it would be the igniter cause the stove will function without it, any other major component and its time to switch on the central.

as for igniters , they have gotten more durable and reliable over the years. most common thing that causes issues is "fast cycling" with an on/off thermostat function and little or no "drop" setting in the stat. stoves commonly take 20-40 minutes to shut of and in some cases a "no drop" stat is asking for heat relatively quickly then shutting down after a relatively short run cycle. a stat with a couple degrees of drop allows for longer runs and longer stops so the igniter isnt stressed as badly,(think about it like an old type filament light bulb, constantly turning it on and off over and over at short intervals will cause it to burn out quicker than if it had longer times between powering up and down) igniters are mostly "resistance coil" type like a little bitty baseboard heater, they use resistance in the filament to make heat similar to how a light bulb filament was designed to glow to give off light.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I am the sort that likes to keep the electronic gadgetry to a bare minimum.

We do have the one Quad 1000 that takes care of itself and runs totally off the STAT.

Our main stoves are manual lite only.

As smokey mentioned, the fire can stay lit for a week at a stretch.

Our small stoves is a 3 day cleaning interval and the large one goes from Sunday to Sunday and gets shut down for a quicky clean only, if the weather is COLD

All these things can be taken into account.

The Parts supply issue is sure a biggy.

Most older U S made stoves that are now Parts orphans from their original Mfg can be repaired using generic off the shelf parts (Motors, fans, etc)

Snowy

 

[MCPO]

Regarding auto igniters, I manually start both my stoves because I find it to be much quicker . Waiting to get a stove up to temp from a cold start using the auto lighter is at least 5 minutes longer. Once I throw in a cup full of pellets with starting fluid on it that creates a strong and immediate flame I know it`s gonna start and get up to the selected heat setting without me waiting around for / or worrying if the igniter worked.
Sure , auto igniters are nice to have and useful too , obviously for the majority of users but for some of us it`s not important or does it make for a deal breaker.
That said manufacturers would be committing suicide not to include them on their stove. Or at minimum they would be severely restricting their appeal to a potential buyer.

 

[smwilliamson]

As a potential buyer I would want to know if the stove I am looking at is an autoignite or if it was a manual igniter.

doh, good one. How did we miss that??

Because we all know how easy it is to light a stove manually and don't worry about how the fire gets started (in other words we have matches, an approved accelerant and tend to being a bit pyro)

then as an obviously newby idiot do I have to crawl out of bed at 3am to light the stove? or when the stove is going does it stay on until it is actually turned off? That seems like a waste, my gas stove doesn't have a pilot light. If I am going from a wood stove to a pellet because of the "convenience" where is the convenience of having to play with matches? Are the pellets my pilot light?

glad I logged in with questions, and got answered by sarcasm.

Most make it standard, some have it has optional and others there is not option. What stove are you referencing? I'll tell you.

 

[Como]

Mine cost that much or are you including pipe as well?

Not multi fuel, but I only have pellets logically available.

It will not take 2 bags, I thought it would. Any comments?

Seems pretty idiot proof.

 

[Fsappo]

Regarding auto igniters, I manually start both my stoves because I find it to be much quicker . Waiting to get a stove up to temp from a cold start using the auto lighter is at least 5 minutes longer. Once I throw in a cup full of pellets with starting fluid on it that creates a strong and immediate flame I know it`s gonna start and get up to the selected heat setting without me waiting around for / or worrying if the igniter worked.
Sure , auto igniters are nice to have and useful too , obviously for the majority of users but for some of us it`s not important or does it make for a deal breaker.
That said manufacturers would be committing suicide not to include them on their stove. Or at minimum they would be severely restricting their appeal to a potential buyer.

Speed is a good point, Gio. If I have a customer wanting to see a pellet stove operate and the showroom is full, I'll do a manual start instead of the electronic. Much faster and it always lights . One exception is the Euromax. It was advertised as a "fast" self starter, and boy it is. I never got around to timing it, but it seems like only a minute or so from pressing the start button until you see it start to burn. I guess I should time it some day.

 

[BrotherBart]

They ought to give you a option to turn the ignitor off for start up and let that little electricity hog sit cold and quietly during a manual start.

Or maybe some do.

 

[heat seeker]

I think the Harmons do. My St. Croix does not give the option.

 

[Fsappo]

I'm not sure who's winning the battle!

 

[MCPO]

They ought to give you a option to turn the ignitor off for start up and let that little electricity hog sit cold and quietly during a manual start.

Or maybe some do.

Good idea , but it should be a rather simple thing for anyone to install a simple single pole switch to control the auto ignitor.

 

[heat seeker]

An ignitor typically uses about 1.5¢ of electricity per use, at our high rates. Starter gel or a propane torch probably costs more per use. Until the ignitor burns out, that is.