# Gel Starting a Pellet Stove?



## MarkF48 (Nov 1, 2014)

Chilly day and I figured it was time for first fire of the season and I'd give it a go with gel starter for the first time to see how it would go........Didn't go as well as I thought it would.

The stove is a Harman XXV and I went by the book as described in the XXV user manual (excerpt below). Used Rutland One Match starter gel.

Igniter Switch to "MANUAL " (up position)
Make sure the unit is plugged into a 120 VAC,
60 HZ electrical source. The power light should be
the only light lit.
To avoid unwanted smoke, be sure there is no
fuel in the ash pan prior to lighting.
1. Turn FEED ADJUSTER to desired feed rate.
No. 4 is good for most pellets.4
2. Turn the Mode Selector to “OFF” and
then to the desired mode. This will reset control
and start the combustion motor.
3. Turn the Temperature Dial to the desired
setting.
4. Clean burn pot with scraper if necessary.5
5. Fill burn pot with pellets, only level with front
edge. (Do Not Over Fill).
6. Add starting gel on top of the pellets. Stir gel
into pellets for fast lighting.
7. Light starting gel with a match, and close the
door. Operation will begin when the fire reaches
the proper temperature.3
8. Fill hopper with pellets and remove ashes
as required.1, 6

Dribbled about a tablespoon or more of gel over pellets in burn pot stirred the pellets a bit, and lit it. Nice blue flame on top, but wasn't getting down into the pellets. With combustion fan running it "fanned" the flame and threw a few sparks, but the flame didn't want to seem to burn down into the pellets below and the combustion fan appeared to make it worse.  Added a bit more gel on top, but didn't seem to help. A hit with the propane torch wasn't much better. The torch scorched the pellets, but no joy of flames. I rather thought pellets might ignite easier.
Out of frustration just to get stove going I put the stove to AUTO, used the ignitor, and it started no problem in a few minutes as usual.

Any ideas or hints that might help getting the stove going in manual with gel or what kind of problem I was having?


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## TonyVideo (Nov 1, 2014)

Why not use the electric auto ignitor?


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## TimfromMA (Nov 1, 2014)

I suspect hes just practicing just in case his igniter goes kablooie.


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## Harman Lover 007 (Nov 1, 2014)

You need way more than a tablespoon of the gel and when using a propane torch it's takes about 45 seconds of moving it back and forth to get things going enough to close the door. Use your igniter, that's what it's there for.


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## Harman Lover 007 (Nov 1, 2014)

TonyVideo said:


> Why not use the electric auto ignitor?


IIRC from last year he subscribes to the theory of don't use the igniter unless necessary.....


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## TonyVideo (Nov 1, 2014)

As far as gel starter I would buy a gallon of hand sanitizer. It is much cheaper.


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## mik_kane (Nov 1, 2014)

I use Isopropyl Alcohol, fill the burn pot 3/4 of the way put the last 1/4 in a container and add the alcohol mix it up for 30 seconds then pour it into the burn pot. works every time.
.


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## TimfromMA (Nov 1, 2014)

I walk over to the wall and push the button marked on/off. 5 - 10 minutes later, fire magically appears.


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## MarkF48 (Nov 1, 2014)

Kinda did it like this from the gel starter bottle, plus stirred the top pellets as the Harman book suggested......

*One Match® Gelled Fire Starter*
Application:
Pellet Stoves: Be sure no heat or flames are present.
Open flip-top cap and squeeze approximately one
(1) tablespoon of One Match gel into burn pot. Add
a small handful of pellets on top of gel. Add another
1/2 tablespoon of gel on top of pellets. Close the
container and place away from stove. Just touch a
match to the gel to light. Wait until pellets are
burning well then turn on the pellet feed.

Why not use the ignitor?......
http://www.wbur.org/2014/09/24/boston-electricity-rates-rise

Trying to reduce electric use. Anticipate my normal electric bill of about $130/mo will be up to about $200 or more. The ignitor is about 300w and maybe while not a lot it adds up.

Yup, I want to be able top start the stove if the ignitor should go kablooie



> IIRC from last year he subscribes to the theory of don't use the igniter unless necessary.....


Don't recall stating that(?)

Summary: Simply looking for an alternative reliable means to start the stove, either if possible to minimize electric use or ignitor fail. If not as easy as it seems it should be, I have no problem using the ignitor.

Will likely try hand sanitizer when the jug of gel is gone. Just surprised at the difficulty igniting pellets with the gel.


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## Harman Lover 007 (Nov 1, 2014)

Your ignitor use in the big picture will amount to pennies......
Once you figure out the right combo of gel vs pellets you'll be fine. 
A propane torch is much easier.....


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## joed2323 (Nov 1, 2014)

I've used a map gas torch many times at work we had Harman pellet furnace and igniter went out.

All I've ever done was throw a handful of pellets on your burn pot and run the torch over them back and fourth real good for 45 secs to min, get them cooking and shut the door and walla


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## stmar (Nov 1, 2014)

I have had the igniter go out several times and have done it with gel and with a torch. The key is to not turn the stove on, put a handful of pellets in the burn pot, add and light the starter or torch the pellets, get a good flame going, crack the door a little and let it burn. When you think it has burned enough let it burn some more, then close the door and turn on your stove. At least this is the way to manually light my Whitfield.


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## Pete Zahria (Nov 1, 2014)

MarkF48 said:
			
		

> Trying to reduce electric use.... The ignitor is about 300w and maybe while not a lot it adds up.



Actually, it's probably tons cheaper than the gel....
If your igniter stays on for 8 minutes, and your cost is $0.18KWH, that is less than 1 cent.
I doubt you could ever start your stove with a penny's worth of gel...

Dan


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## Ranger72 (Nov 1, 2014)

After trying a bunch of methods, I find this one to work perfectly and consistently consistently: I stole a plastic cap off a detergent bottle, not the giant ones. I fill the cap with pellets, pour in a small amount of 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol (they sell it at target). Let it soak for 20 seconds and dump that into the burn pot, with the stove on. Lite it with a bbq lighter and close the door, after about a minute I turn the auger on. Of course common sense must be used when using a flammable liquid.


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## Wilbur Feral (Nov 1, 2014)

stmar said:


> I have had the igniter go out several times and have done it with gel and with a torch. The key is to not turn the stove on, put a handful of pellets in the burn pot, add and light the starter or torch the pellets, get a good flame going, crack the door a little and let it burn. When you think it has burned enough let it burn some more, then close the door and turn on your stove. At least this is the way to manually light my Whitfield.


Yep - exactly the same for mine.


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## MarkF48 (Nov 2, 2014)

Harman Lover 007 said:


> A propane torch is much easier.....


The wife may be included in this equation


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## Ranger72 (Nov 2, 2014)

The 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol method works great, takes seconds and the door only stays open as long as it takes you to press the button on the BBQ liter. I can usually turn the auger on in less than 30 seconds.


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## MarkF48 (Nov 2, 2014)

Thanks to those of you that gave useful suggestions pertaining to my original question. Got the stove going this morning with just the gel. The Harman instructions stated to only put the gel on top of the pellets, where the gel starter instructions stated put a tablespoon in the burn pot and then some on top of the pellets. I think having the gel under the pellets helped as the gel would burn up through the pellets, rather than just on top. Leaving the door open as a few suggested until the pellets got going helped quite a bit also. I'll be using the ignitor for most starts, but at least I now have an alternate way to get fire if the ignitor goes "kablooie". Probably give the torch a try again in the next week.


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## gfreek (Nov 2, 2014)

Put pellets in burn pot, add  gel starter, mix it, add more gel, light it, leave door open a crack until lit.  Or gel and torch, or just torch works well... Just be sure you don't add gel starter, close the door and reopen and light it , you'll get a flash..


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## Bob E (Nov 2, 2014)

I just tried the isopropyl alcohol thing to light my pellet stove for the first time. Worked great.


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## stmar (Nov 3, 2014)

When you try the torch method just make sure you get it really burning, that is the key when the igniter goes out and you need to do it the old fashioned way. After you torch it keep the door cracked a bit for a minute, you will be able to tell when it is ready to start.


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## Ranger72 (Nov 3, 2014)

Alcohol method. Fill cup with pellets, pour in small amount of alcohol, let soak 30 seconds, dump in pot, light, close door immediately. After 30 seconds to one min turn auger on.


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## Ranger72 (Nov 3, 2014)

PS, I know I need new fire bricks. I'm just being cheap. Haha


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## Bob E (Nov 3, 2014)

It only took me one match last night. I even had the cheap rubbing alcohol too, only 70%.


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## Ranger72 (Nov 3, 2014)

I got that large bottle from target for just over 2 bucks. It'll last memonths too!


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## hockeyfan (Nov 3, 2014)

MarkF48 said:


> Leaving the door open as a few suggested until the pellets got going helped quite a bit also. I'll be using the ignitor for most starts, but at least I now have an alternate way to get fire if the ignitor goes "kablooie". Probably give the torch a try again in the next week.



A simple way I've found to know how long to keep the door open is by flame color.  The flame starts out blue, when it transitions to yellow (more fuel burning I suppose) I close the door.


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## funflyer (Nov 25, 2014)

I use the gel as my stove doesn't have auto ignition. I use 3/4 cup of pellets so they are only two layers deep in the burn pot, add about 2tbs of gel to the top of the pellets only , then light. After one minute, when the flame changes from blue to orange, I close the door and press "on". By the time the auger starts (2 minutes) the pellets are glowing orange and have a nice tall flame.

Only once did I have a starting issue. Problem is the little deflector that's tack welded to the burn pot. It's not centered under the auger (1/4 inch right) so the majority of the pellets tend to fall to the left side. Too many pellets dropped on startup and smothered the fire on the left which caused a lot of smoke. Now I make sure to use more gel on that side and have no issue. After the winter I need to grind off the deflector and re-weld it where it belongs.


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## tony58 (Nov 25, 2014)

Hey, I can finally contribute something to the forum... This has never failed on my old Harman P38.Door closed turn knob to test that stove is working.Open door leaving the combustion fan on.Clean burn pot.Place hand full pellets in pot.I keep a soup bowl to put a small hand full of pellets in.Take Hand Sanitizer(63%Alcohol)and apply 3 tablespoon full and stir.Let sit 3 or 4 min and pour in burn pot.Light and keep door cracked3-5 min.
After it catches close door and go get a beer.This has never failed for me.I tried every other method with mixed results.
 Tony


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## SidecarFlip (Nov 25, 2014)

I've used everything fromJelled firestarter to wax bricks to Southern Comfort to coleman fuel to rubbing alcohol.  They all work.  Some smell better than others.


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## TonyVideo (Nov 25, 2014)

Thanks for contributing. We are all in this pellet world together.


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## hockeyfan (Nov 25, 2014)

tony58 said:


> Hey, I can finally contribute something to the forum... This has never failed on my old Harman P38.Door closed turn knob to test that stove is working.Open door leaving the combustion fan on.Clean burn pot.Place hand full pellets in pot.I keep a soup bowl to put a small hand full of pellets in.Take Hand Sanitizer(63%Alcohol)and apply 3 tablespoon full and stir.Let sit 3 or 4 min and pour in burn pot.Light and keep door cracked3-5 min.
> After it catches close door and go get a beer.This has never failed for me.I tried every other method with mixed results.
> Tony



Correct!  I see now what I've been missing...............I forgot to get beer............thanks for the advice, I'll just have to add that to my routine.   

Yet another reason to skip the auto ignite........


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## funflyer (Nov 25, 2014)

tony58 said:


> After it catches close door and go get a beer



A fat glass of Beam Black on the rocks is my choice but a beer will do in a pinch.


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## SidecarFlip (Nov 25, 2014)

Whats left of the Beam will start the pellets (if there is any left...)

Back when I heated with coal in Ohio, many nights coming home from work to a stone cold furnace and piling in some anthricite lumps and stuffing in the oxy-acetylene rosebud to get the coal going quick.....  those were the days.  Tanks spent more time in the basement than in the garage.....


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## funflyer (Nov 25, 2014)

Just tried hand sanitizer tonight to light the stove and it worked well, but not as good as One Match gel. I ended up using more sanitizer because the flames started to die out before the pellets lit fully so I had to give another good squirt. Hand sanitizer is half the cost of starter gel so I know what I'm using from now on.


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## Bioburner (Nov 25, 2014)

funflyer said:


> Just tried hand sanitizer tonight to light the stove and it worked well, but not as good as One Match gel. I ended up using more sanitizer because the flames started to die out before the pellets lit fully so I had to give another good squirt. Hand sanitizer is half the cost of starter gel so I know what I'm using from now on.


Probably had a lower booze content. I found some last year in the spring after cold and flu season that was selling for a buck a quart. Don't use the stuff myself for fire but is safer to leave around the camp than what I like to use.


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## SidecarFlip (Nov 25, 2014)

....and it smells better.......


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## shtrdave (Nov 25, 2014)

I shut mine down yesterday morning because it was warm came home and cleaned it a bit, scrape the pot mostly. Then turned it on the ignitor wouldn't start it as it probably has crud in it. So I put some hand sanitzer in and tried to start it, it burned kind of but not enough to start. Got the propane torch and had some flames working well but I believe there were to many pellets in the pot by this time I left it go and came back in a few minutes to see all kinds of pellet dropping into the ash pan. So I opened the hopper lid so the feed wouldn't run and scraped a bunch of the pellets in the pot into the ash pan with the rest and left only a small amount in the pot. I lit them with the torch and closed the door them left them burn for about 2 minutes then closed the hopper lid and we had fire burning and it was lit. I think the key top this manual starting is a small amount of pellets to start.


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## funflyer (Nov 25, 2014)

shtrdave said:


> I think the key top this manual starting is a small amount of pellets to start.



Exactly,

My book says to use one cup of pellets but I found this is way too many. If I use more than 1/2 to 2/3 cup of pellets to start, once the auger kicks in, the smoke starts to get real heavy and blackens the glass before the stove gets going.


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## hoverwheel (Nov 25, 2014)

joed2323 said:


> I've used a map gas torch many times at work we had Harman pellet furnace and igniter went out.
> 
> All I've ever done was throw a handful of pellets on your burn pot and run the torch over them back and fourth real good for 45 secs to min, get them cooking and shut the door and walla


I second this. Mapp torch for a few seconds. They'll start. Much faster than propane and (my torch) has a trigger igniter.


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## SidecarFlip (Nov 25, 2014)

I third, fourth and fifth that.  I use a fistful, thats it.  Maybe 30 pellets and.....  I start my corn with pellets first.  You can start out with corn but it's a pisser to get going, pellets are easier.

I guess gelled firestarter is really liquified sterno.  Same stuff Hobo's strain through white bread to get  lit on?????  I knew a real hard core drunk once that drank Aqua-Velva if he didn't have any booze.  Had great breath.............


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## tony58 (Nov 25, 2014)

funflyer said:


> Exactly,
> 
> My book says to use one cup of pellets but I found this is way too many. If I use more than 1/2 to 2/3 cup of pellets to start, once the auger kicks in, the smoke starts to get real heavy and blackens the glass before the stove gets going.



 Exactly,I found a small hand full did better than a large amount.


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## acammer (Nov 25, 2014)

As another guy with manual only ignition on my current stove, I'll put in another vote for the less is more side of things.  When I started out I was using a big handful of pellets with gel on top, it would work but it took forever.  Now I drop in maybe 20 pellets, a weak handful, and give them a shot of starting gel.  Then another 15 or so on top of those and another dose of starting gel.  Touch it off, door open to keep the air down - combustion fan running, damper closed.  Once I start to see some orange I'll shut the door, then shortly after I'll start manually running the auger for short bits to add just a few pellets.  As soon as I can get more air without blowing things out I'll open the damper a touch.  More fuel, more air, before you know it we've got a good fire going and the exhaust is hot enough to get the auger to run automatically.  I've found that using as few pellets as reasonably possible leaves the burn pot MUCH cleaner, and in turn leads to really good airflow, especially if I want to push some high feed rates.


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## stmar (Nov 26, 2014)

As the song (paraphrased) says "Use a Torch Save the Southern Comfort"
Pellet stove is seeing serious action lately, cooling down for a cleaning in prep for the Thanksgiving weekend. Food, football and flaming pellets while the white stuff falls outside, this must be Heaven. 
Happy Holidays everyone.


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## Pellet-King (Nov 26, 2014)

Hand sanitizer will not light for me, I've always used gel and for 8 bucks it last me all season


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## excursion (Nov 29, 2014)

The best starter is :
A small plastic jar, like a cleaned out peanut butter jar.....fill with pellets, add 1/4 inch of diesel or keroseen...put the lid on and shake it up....the pellets will soak up the fuel but never fall apart....instant fire in the pot very low risk of fire like with alcohol when stored...


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## Bioburner (Nov 30, 2014)

excursion said:


> The best starter is :
> A small plastic jar, like a cleaned out peanut butter jar.....fill with pellets, add 1/4 inch of diesel or keroseen...put the lid on and shake it up....the pellets will soak up the fuel but never fall apart....instant fire in the pot very low risk of fire like with alcohol when stored...


I do something similar but only add a tablespoon or so just enough to wet the pellets. CAUTION, BEWARE, etc., Never use on a hot, smoldering pot as if the fuel gets vaporized you have a potential for a flash fire. Used this method to start corn stoves after servicing so didn't have to wait so darn long to balance out the pot. I cannot stress the enough the danger of using liquid fuels in solid fuel appliances.


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## F4jock (Nov 30, 2014)

Diesel or Kero is too dicey for me. I'very used the soak-the-pellets method in my Harman but in barbecue lighter fluid. Just be sure to empty the burnpot first because when you turn the stove on the feed may push pellets over the edge if there are any in it to begin with.


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## MButkus (Dec 1, 2014)

I buy firestick starters (for fireplaces) or a Fire Log.   Cut a small piece, light, handful of pellets, wait until I get a good fire, start auger...


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