automatic fire start - crazy idea?

[Chris_N_Westvirginia]

Never ever leave a woodstove in start up mode unattended. I know a lady once that started her stove piled er full . one no no their then left the ash door hanging wide open and went to work . 1 hr later the roof of her house was colapsing in a firey inferno.. Im sorry i may be anal about saftey and may live to see 100 because of it . but wood/ coal stoves are not for the Lazy kind.

 

[Shari]

1. Never ever stock your firebox with cardboard!
2. In order to put your 'wet newspaper inside sealed plastic beadbag' into the firebox you have to open the door - NOT! - introducing this quantity of air will only fuel the fire.

Shari

 

[Gooserider]

I have strong reason to think Ripe = Pook, and his post has been removed... Given that he is back to advising unwise and unsafe practices, hopefully he will be handled as something that is OVER-ripe... (I can delete posts, but not users, that's up to Web...)

Essentially I don't think this is a viable idea for the reason others have stated - there is a big difference between the way a stove is set and run in startup mode, and the way it is run once a fire is well established... While it is quite reasonably safe to leave a stove with an established fire running in it's long term burn mode setting; in startup mode, the stove needs constant "babysitting" until the fire is established.

I'm not aware of any stove that will readily allow starting a fire from scratch using any technique I've seen that would be safe, with the controls set in the "long term burn" positions...

The closest I could think of, which I would NOT consider all that safe or desirable, but probably better than any of the other ideas I've seen suggested so far, is to figure out some way to fit the stove with one of those electric charcoal grill starters and have that turn on and run for a preset time under a full load of wood - I'm not putting bets on it, but... Even if it could be done, this would have several problems - 1. It would probably consume nearly as much energy as running a standard heating system for an hour or two. 2. I have severe doubts about the ability of that kind of coil to survive in a stove environment for any length of time. I know that even with a regular grill, if one doesn't remove the starter quickly and gently after the fire starts it will self destruct as I've ruined one or two that way....

 

[Chris_N_Westvirginia]

2-oxygen is NOT a fuel

No it may not be a fuel on it's own. But it sure the hell causes whats already burning to burn just that much faster and that much hotter.

 

[Shari]

Yup = it's pook.

Shari

 

[ckdeuce]

Ahhhh! Why am I going to help..... Fight it!! Fight it Fight!! Oh Hell... Go to your local hobby store and buy some igniters for toy rockets. They are feed by electrical current and look like a match with two small wires coming off of it. You could link a few of these in a series so the all fire at the same time. Place a few in the newspaper, run micro gauge wire or better flat-wire out the load door, shut the door on the wire. Hook up the feed wires to a timer and poof!! This would work. You will also want to set up an automated system to call your local fire department incase you get a flat on the way to the cabin. That way, if you are running late and can't shut down the primary air, the fire department can be ready........

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Why ignore the rocket motor itself. A jet of superheated material shooting out the back of it is sure to light off something...

Matt

 

[ckdeuce]

Why ignore the rocket motor itself. A jet of superheated material shooting out the back of it is sure to light off something...

Matt

NICE Classic Matt... Classic.

 

[chrisman34]

Off topic alert Sorry for the hijack....but people are adamant about no cardboard......why? I find it a great starter...what am I hurting?

 

[Gooserider]

Off topic alert Sorry for the hijack....but people are adamant about no cardboard......why? I find it a great starter...what am I hurting?

Re-opening the thread just to give a quick response to this, since it's a valid question. I will be closing it again afterwards to discourage the "over-ripe one..."

A small amount of cardboard as a fire starter is arguably OK, although many people have expressed concerns about the possible chemicals that are used in making cardboard - I won't use it in my cat stove because of that for instance... Where people have gotten themselves into trouble, and the reason we discourage it, is that cardboard tends to burn very hot and fast, so it is quite easy to get into an over fire condition if one stuffs a stove full of the stuff and lights it - especially if you had soaked it with any kind of supplemental fuel, such as waste vegetable oil or worse...

Gooserider