Starting a Stove Fire

[4570Man]

My stove glass cleans itself in a hot fire and blackens up once the fore starts to burn out.

 

[Industrial Toys]

A lot of good information. "Need Input" as the robot said. When this house was built in 1972 next to a hillside, it quickly became apparent that draft was a problem. Wood is kept under roof for a year at least until burned. Shows lots of cracks.

 

[airbiscuit]

A lot of good information. "Need Input" as the robot said. When this house was built in 1972 next to a hillside, it quickly became apparent that draft was a problem. Wood is kept under roof for a year at least until burned. Shows lots of cracks.

So, what kind of stove do you have? In any case it sounds like it doesn't draw well.

If you have a decent stove with good draft, then the newspaper, kindling and finely split wood will get a fire started just fine.
If not, get a better stove, or get better draft,

I live in a tri-level home - 2 basements. One stove was that like what I mentioned above. No problem.

The other was an air-tight add of furnace with an uninsulated outside chimney. It actually had negative draft! If I lit a fire, smoke would pour out of the front of the stove. I would have to put lit newspaper in the clean out opening and heat up the chimney enough to draw. Then I would have to quickly start a bed of newspaper and kindling and try not only to get it to burn, but to generate decent heat for the regular wood. The firebox was kind of narrow, and that stove was designed to smolder more than burn. It generated as much creosote as heat. My happiest day was when I sold that @#$% stove and moved it out of the basement.

The other stove was a dream. Same wood, but different stove and different chimney.

I feel your pain.

 

[beowulf]

My daughter and son in law both worked taking city kids on week long treks where they would camp out. They used, and then taught my wife to make, starters out of dryer lint and wax set into individual cut up paper egg carton pockets, or my old t-shirts and shorts cut up into small strips, waxed and tied in a knot. They seem to work quite well, but a little work is involved. I have watched them make them but did not pay a lot of attention - saw they were melting wax and soaking the lint or scraps of t-shirts.

And no matter what kind of "starter" you use, you will be happier with the result if you keep kindling near by. We always have plenty of that.

For a simpler way, as someone here has said, buy the starter packs at the dollar store.

 

[dstig1]

A couple sheets of newspaper crumpled up in the middle. Sometimes some cardboard if it is handy. A couple small chunks of firewood on each side to support the stuff above it. Kindling above that, and then more firewood above all that. I use a bunch of small pieces of thin plywood or offcuts from my woodshop as kindling, and I often throw in real wood, like offcuts of oak lumber. Once those catch, anything will go as they are very dry and burn hot. I use a propane torch, because it is easier. I get the paper going and keep blasting it for a minute or so working on the paper and the kindling. Never fails to catch. I've only been doing this 2 yrs, but I have only used a half a tank of leftover propane (the small torch sized ones) and started on a new one this year. The propane cost is ~zero given that it works, and works fast.

My big problem is I haven't had time to get enough wood to make it a real regular item to burn here. Hoping to get some time next summer to start catching up a bit...

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

If you can't start a fire with wood and newspaper, there's something wrong with the wood or airflow. It's just that simple. No fire starters are needed. No torches. No piles of kindling. No hocus pocus.

If the fire keeps going out when attempting to get it going, there's just a few things it can be.

Wet wood or lack of draft.

Exactly. And usually, it's wet wood.

Now that I know a year of drying isn't enough (unless maybe you live in the desert), I never use more than a bit of cardboard egg carton and some splitting scraps to get things going when the fire is out.

 

[General Lee]

Can you post a pic of your chimney and roof? The chimney requires a certain amount of clearance from the roof to draft well.

Also is your wood placed under roof as soon as it split? Maybe your current storage location doesn't allow it to dry enough (lack of sun and wind). May need to move to an open location for 6-8 months THEN move under the roof location. And depending on the wood species, a year dry time is not enough, especially with Oak. That takes 2-3 years in optimal conditions.

 

[MossRoad]

Here's a video of my cold wood stove lighting up today. It has been out for two days. I sifted out all of the ash and just left the cold charcoals in a row down the middle. Then I loaded it full with dry, split wood and left about a 2" gap down the middle. Took a sheet of newspaper (that's two pages wide), rolled it up loosely, then folded it over and twisted it (not crumpled, twist it, you have to twist it to simulate kindling... anyone remember that movie?:laughing. Put four of those down the middle. Opened the air control, and lit it. Close the door and check back in about half an hour.

 

[MossRoad]

About 26 minutes later, its going well. Shut down the air all the way, then opened it up to my liking (about 2 on our stove). Check back in about another hour and a half...

 

[MossRoad]

This is two hours after light up. Its about 80 degrees in my basement. The stove top is holding about 500 degrees. Nice and cozy. :thumbsup:

 

[Diggin It]

Old thread bump because I don't feel like starting a new one and I just went through this.

I keep most of my scrap wood whether it's inside the garage shop from the saws or outside from the splitter. I cut up a hickory log and kept all the chainsaw leavins. It all goes into piles or boxes to dry. I was using the paper bits and still do when I have enough, but am trying to switch to other means since I don't always have newsprint or junk mail on hand. I've taken to keeping small food boxes (cereal, crackers, mac n cheese, etc.) and will fill those with some of the smaller scrap mentioned above. One or two of those plus some larger scrap usually does it. Also have started using the starter/parafin impregnated sticks. Seems to be working OK for now.

Fire went out a few hours ago and the house just started cooling down enough to notice despite being in the twenties outside. Amazing how building materials can hold heat for so long.

 

[goeduck]

Yea, old thread but good subject. I use one cube of the Firestarters Brand starter along with scrap wood either gathered from under the wood splitter or from Dimensional lumber cutoffs or pallet wood. My favorite is 1x4 or 1x6 from clean pallets I get at work (no oils, etc.). I use my miter saw to cut them into chunks about 4 inches long. I then split the chunks into sticks. I load a back piece of firewood, then one cube starter, then I box in the starter cube with the sticks with sides and multi layer top with gaps (basically small kindling). I start the cube, let it get going, load in a front piece of wood and put two smaller pieces on top of the boxed in cube. I block the stove door cracked open to get maximum air and come back about 10 minutes later. Close the door, the fire is going good at that point. It is usually up to temperature in about 45 minutes.

I try to keep the fire going constant until the ash builds up too high and I need to shut down to clean it out*, which is usually 3 weeks or so. So I only do this every ~3 weeks.

* I have not made an ash shovel with ash holes as Moss described in another thread yet to separate coals from ash**. That should allow me to do fewer shutdowns.

** When I get chunks of crust (lava like) under my ash. I sometimes fish them out to postpone my shutdown schedule.

 

[crackerjack222]

I had been using the parafin block fire starters in my wood stove until lately when I started using "fat wood" sticks. They light faster than the parafin blocks and burn great. I put one large piece of wood at the back, lean five fat wood sticks against it, add two more pieces of wood at angles above the fat wood then light the fat wood with a propane torch. I leave the door cracked open to get better air circulation and within a minute or two have a good fire started.

 

[gstrom99]

I subscribe to the local newspaper, to keep up with the local news and also for fire starting. The little local papers need our support too. I've heard you can use clothes drier lint, but have not tried that. I always have enuff twig and splitting scraps to use.

 

[ericm979]

When I'm splitting madrone or fir there's a lot of slivers or tiny splits. I keep a tub next to the splitter and drop all those small pieces in it. The tubs go in the back of the barn where they dry out and make a ready supply of kindling.

I have also saved some of the noodles when I noodle big rounds into smaller pieces for easier handling. They get used as fire starter. If I've had to do a lot of noodling on a big tree there's big piles of noodles just sitting there in my wood processing area. Picking them up does not take long. I'm not sure I'll keep doing this though as newspaper seems like it works better for starting fires.

Between lining the chicken coop, putting paper under saws when I clean them and starting fires, we've not been recycling much newsprint. We'll eventually have to get rid of the one paper and go all digital and I don't know what we'll do then.

 

[Katahdin]

With a woodstove that has an ash tray, I've been able stop using kindling all together:

1) When the stove is cold, take a poker and sweep the ash over the grate holes so the light gray ash drops into the tray. Empty the ash tray if its full and put back.

2) Sweep black coals so they're over the ash tray grate.

3) Add firewood over the black coals, but leave some coals visible in the front.

4) Zap the black coals with a propane or mapp gas torch, it only takes a second to light and you only need a few small burning embers to start.

5) Close up the stove doors and vents completely but open the ash tray a crack.

6) The air will draft through the ash grate and burning coals creating a blast furnace effect.

7) Before the fire gets too hot, close the ash tray and open the air vents and/or crack the door as you normally would to get a fire going. A word of caution here, the stove can overheat if you leave the ash tray open.

8) When the fire is sufficiently burning and reached the desired operating temps, adjust the damper or close the catalytic combuster bypass.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Between lining the chicken coop, putting paper under saws when I clean them and starting fires, we've not been recycling much newsprint. We'll eventually have to get rid of the one paper and go all digital and I don't know what we'll do then.

There's still one local newspaper in nearby Chico, CA, and they throw out large numbers of excess papers every week. Once a year I stop by and pick up a foot thick stack, and that pretty much gets me through the wood heat season. Two newspaper knots on top of three sticks of good, dry, oak kindling does the trick every time.

 

[gstrom99]

This could open up the ages old discussion of "top down" vs "bottom up" staring method.. I use the later. btw.

 

[Jstpssng]

In the winter months I buy the weekend edition of the local paper, primarily for starting fires. They don't bring them this far north anymore, and their "news" is rather unbalanced anyways. I want to read what's going on, not the opinions of a Boston based editing staff.

 

[Doofy]

3 small sticks of "Fatwood" over crumpled newspaper with firewood loosely placed on top. One match. Has never failed to start.