How to light wood pelletts

[Hugely]

Hi guys,Hugely the old newbie here,i am just getting back into the outdoor life again after too long away,i have lots of questions that i would like answering but my most pressing one is how do you light wood pellets in a camping stove ?
Any advice would be great ,thanks

 

[crosslandkelly]

Hi, Welcome and enjoy.

Have you tried Vaseline impregnated cotton balls?

 

[Hugely]

Yes mate i have tried that,but it didnt seem to get them hot enough,where can i get napalm in a tin ? ha ha
Thanks for your help though

 

[crosslandkelly]

Is it a wood gas stove, some of those need a fan to get the pellets going.

 

[swright81076]

Soak a handful in meths, put em on top of the pile and light em. Not a bushy way but it works.

touched by nature

 

[Hugely]

Ok ill try the meths soak,and it is a wood gas stove,but i dont fancy getting a fan i want an easier life now,
I got the idea after seeing a wild wood stove on youtube that burnt for about 90 minutes mine is a solo stove,so im not sure if that extra air space under the wild wood helps,if it does ill get one of them and sell the solo,Thanks guys

 

[TinkyPete]

try a fire biscuit, they are a cosmetic pad which has been dipped into wax and left to dry. Twodogs has put a link several times on the site, and a quick search should be ale to find it.

 

[Hugely]

Thanks for that but how do i get onto the Twodogs link ? my favourite radio has valves and modern stuff makes me itch ,
Cheers Settler

 

[Hog On Ice]

not sure about the Twodogs link either but here is the thing on magic biscuits: http://www.kuenzi.com/tips_e.htm

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

Thats the link TinkyPete was refering to. I do them like this but add a tablespoon of vaseline to the mix.

Ive had issues with the wood pellets not lighting but was informed that there are a couple of different types and not all are suited to burning.
The ones i have been recomended are from Tesco.

 

[ged]

Welcome to BCUK!

Thanks for that but how do i get onto the Twodogs link ? my favourite radio has valves and modern stuff makes me itch...

I understand the itching problem, my sister's the same and I introduced her to computers over 25 years ago!

If you want to look for stuff on this site, use one of the big search engines. Don't try to use the search facilities offered by the site itself, because they suck. That's not the fault of the people who run the site, it's the fault of the vBulletin software developers. (They've been told. )

Most of the big search engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo let you search just one Website for things that you're interested in. The way to do that is to put the search term(s) in the little box like you normally would, but then add for example

site:bushcraftuk.com

to your search term(s).

You could try something like

fire biscuit site:bushcraftuk.com

which gave me 178 results from Bing just now,

or you could get more choosy with

+makeup pad site:bushcraftuk.com

which gave me twelve.

Note the plus sign before the word 'makeup' which tells the search engine that you really mean 'makeup'. You need that sometimes if there are very few results. It's a payment-per-click thing. The search engines get paid on search results and clicks, so they like to give you lots of results. Even if you're only looking for one result they'll sometimes get a bit willful with your search terms to give you more. The 'advanced search' or whatever passes for that on your favourite search engine can do much the same thing, but slower.

 

[Hugely]

Wow,lots of stuff to be getting on with there,thanks for your help and suggestions guys

 

[KayakFisherFinland]

Haven't tried myself, but just wondering about DIY tinder, soaking egg carton bits/stripps with candlewax might be asy to light?
When lighted the melting wax dripps and soaks into below material, like the pellets.

 

[Hugely]

Nailed it guys,start a small fire on top of the pellets and off she goes,thanks for the help Colin

 

[Teepee]

Meths dripped on slowly is by far the best way of lighting wood pellets, lights with less volume of meths than petrol. Another good way is to soak a batch of pellets in hot beeswax or candle wax and sprinkle these on top of the normal pellets

Building a little fire on top produces ash, which drops down onto the pellets and reduces airflow which is bad for the burn. It works but not as well as a non clogging starter. Same with soaked cotton wool.

The golden rule is to not let the starter ignite the fuel anywhere else but the top layer. Letting fuel dribble to the bottom will light it at the bottom and turn it into an inefficient fire.