Pizza boxes as firestarters-observations

[Badfish740]

Recently I've been saving the remnants of pizza night and using the boxes as firestarters. Typically what I do is make a good crease in the middle of the box and fold it in half-on top of that I'll place a couple of small splits, light the edges, and leave the door cracked. The cardboard itself burns pretty intensely and the grease soaked into the bottom seems to help as well-the cardboard usually tends to burn long enough to get the splits going with a little help from good airflow. Anyone else using this method with success? Care should always be used with cardboard of course since it can get going quite hot in a hurry, but one box is more than enough to get a fire started. In doing some reading online the inks are generally vegetable based, so I don't see that causing any problems-finally, due to the grease pizza boxes are not recyclable, so I'm doing my part

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Not a whole one, but I use pieces of them all the time. I put a whole one in the chimney of the kiln at once to get the draft going- WOOSH!

 

[HotCoals]

I read on here where someone use's their map gas torch to light the fire or to get it going if their coals are not enough .
Been doing that since..lol.
Rarely have to do it though.

 

[BrotherBart]

Since I started buying Super Cedars I can't afford pizza anymore. :-S

 

[Monkey Wrench]

Cardboard and paper should be kept at a minimun in a stove/insert. I use 3-4 dried pine cones and 1 wood match to set off the fireworks.

Try-it!

Burn safe:
Frank

 

[Stump_Branch]

I would think that a whole box is a bit much. Personnally its brown paper bags, i think they are just the best paper product when it comes to aiding firestarting.

I still only need a piece though.

 

[Wade A.]

Gawga fat wood babeeeee!!

Failing that, last year's magnolia leaves, or both if I'm feeling rambunctious.

Use whatever will ignite, with the exception of painted material or any liquid accelerants. The way these two tinders flash, you might think you had doused them in coal oil.

Seasoned bamboo splits anyone? Goes off like Willy Peter.

Pizza boxes deserve what they get, I say, scourge of my existence that they are.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Birch bark when I have it, is my preferred starter. Does well, even when wet.

 

[GeneralBill]

Cardboard and paper should be kept at a minimun in a stove/insert. I use 3-4 dried pine cones and 1 wood match to set off the fireworks.
Frank

Why is that? I've started fires for 15 years with cardboard and paper. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that harm may have happened. If I kept it to a minimum, I would have never used any.
I'm unclear about the goodness of pine cones. Don't they have extra sap?

This last year I started using paper towels that have vegetable oil from pan wiping. I've heard it bad to let too much oil get in the septic, so pans get wiped, and the towels accumulate all year for the stove. They work great, the oil burns relatively long. I guess there is some salt in the butter, hmm, ...

Thanks.

 

[colebrookman]

Fiber egg cartons are great. Just need the top or bottom with kindling.
Ed

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Cardboard and paper should be kept at a minimun in a stove/insert. I use 3-4 dried pine cones and 1 wood match to set off the fireworks.

Try-it!

Burn safe:
Frank

I must be teetering on the brink of disaster because paper and cardboard are all I ever use anymore to start fires. I will burn pine cones in the fire sometimes, but mostly I just leave them for the squirrels. ;-P

 

[SteveKG]

Frank

I must be teetering on the brink of disaster because paper and cardboard are all I ever use anymore to start fires. I will burn pine cones in the fire sometimes, but mostly I just leave them for the squirrels. ;-P

Me, too. I've been using a couple crumpled sheets of newspaper and a smallish piece of cardboard, kindling on top of that, to start our stoves for 40 years or so. I have probably destroyed my stoves, stovepipe and chimney by now. Darn.

 

[begreen]

We have never used pizza boxes, but that is because we make our own. Thankfully SuperCedars make this a non-issue.

 

[oldspark]

You guys are going to rot in hell for using paper to start fires, see you there.

 

[logger]

Cardboard and paper should be kept at a minimun in a stove/insert. I use 3-4 dried pine cones and 1 wood match to set off the fireworks.
Frank

Why is that? I've started fires for 15 years with cardboard and paper. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that harm may have happened. If I kept it to a minimum, I would have never used any.
I'm unclear about the goodness of pine cones. Don't they have extra sap?

This last year I started using paper towels that have vegetable oil from pan wiping. I've heard it bad to let too much oil get in the septic, so pans get wiped, and the towels accumulate all year for the stove. They work great, the oil burns relatively long. I guess there is some salt in the butter, hmm, ...

Thanks.

I mostly use newspaper and small splits to start my fires, but I'll be the first to tell you that sometimes my chimney cap gets a decent amount of burned, black paper around it. Super cedars and fatwood (among other reasonable starters) seem to take the paper problem out of the equation.

 

[oldspark]

Cardboard and paper should be kept at a minimun in a stove/insert. I use 3-4 dried pine cones and 1 wood match to set off the fireworks.
Frank

Why is that? I've started fires for 15 years with cardboard and paper. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that harm may have happened. If I kept it to a minimum, I would have never used any.
I'm unclear about the goodness of pine cones. Don't they have extra sap?

This last year I started using paper towels that have vegetable oil from pan wiping. I've heard it bad to let too much oil get in the septic, so pans get wiped, and the towels accumulate all year for the stove. They work great, the oil burns relatively long. I guess there is some salt in the butter, hmm, ...

Thanks.

I mostly use newspaper and small splits to start my fires, but I'll be the first to tell you that sometimes my chimney cap gets a decent amount of burned, black paper around it. Super cedars and fatwood (among other reasonable starters) seem to take the paper problem out of the equation.

I wonder why that is, I have never seen it in over 30 years.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

Since I started buying Super Cedars I can't afford pizza anymore. :-S

Yeah right....you are so full o crap I bet your eyes are brown..... :lol:

 

[maple1]

Pizza boxes work great.

So do milk cartons, cereal boxes, shoe boxes - anything paper or cardboard.

Stuff them with more paper scraps first and you're burning in no time.

See the rest of you guys down in the cauldrons I guess...

 

[GeneralBill]

Pizza boxes work great.
See the rest of you guys down in the cauldrons I guess...

Yep. We'll look below us and see we are being burnt by paper and pizza boxes.

 

[mellow]

Quit using cardboard after 2 chimney fires in the old stove a few years back, since then I only use fat wood.

 

[oldspark]

Quit using cardboard after 2 chimney fires in the old stove a few years back, since then I only use fat wood.

OK I have to ask, what caused the chimney fires-the cardboard or bad burning practices?

 

[mellow]

Bad burning practices. But burning cardboard on 2 separate occasions started both chimney fires due to a super hot flame hitting the smoke shelf and igniting the creosote. This was in an old smoke dragon insert.

 

[pen]

Bad burning practices. But burning cardboard on 2 separate occasions started both chimney fires due to a super hot flame hitting the smoke shelf and igniting the creosote. This was in an old smoke dragon insert.

Yep, seen it too.

Cardboard burns hot and fast. Last 3 chimney fires among friends / family were the result of putting a large quantity of cardboard into the stove.

It's almost a guarantee that I'll see a chimney fire on the news christmas night as the result of someone filling their stove w/ wrapping paper / cardboard.

However, I can't see a reasonable amount ( 1/4 of a pizza box or so) causing any problem in normal circumstances. Problem is when people try and use their wood heating appliance as a burn barrel to get rid of large amounts of cardboard.

I too prefer super cedars for firestarting. But if I don't have any, I've been known to use cardboard from a 30 pack.

pen

 

[oldspark]

I dont want that creosote in there in the first place because if carboard can start a fire so can a real hot fire and how many of them have we seen on this forum this year?

 

[pen]

I dont want that creosote in there in the first place because if carboard can start a fire so can a real hot fire and how many of them have we seen on this forum this year?

Exactly! The folks burning green wood have a stove going "low and slow" all the time. That chimney could have a poo load of creosote in it but a cool fire w/ wet wood isn't enough heat to get that chimney fired started.

Load that bad boy up w/ excess cardboard and it gets real hot, real fast for the first time.

If the stove is run hot all the time, and the chimney clean, it shouldn't hurt a thing really.

I always laugh when I hear people say "pine causes chimney fires." I think that it may have gotten that blame because it could burn hotter / faster than the hardwoods they were using which were wet and it finally got the creosote to light off (like the cardboard can.)

pen