I have a large lopi hybrid insert that I got last march and don't have much time on yet. I'll fit a 24" piece of wood, left to right, but front to back it is very shallow. With my old open fireplace I would always use log cabin style to start the fire. No room at all for that now. The few times I've started a fire in the lopi I used the Tepee method, which wasn't great. Anyone have any tricks for starting a fire that doesn't involve breaking the kindling down to 8"sticks? thanks
Top down method. Big splits at the bottom. Medium splits next. Small splits and kindling (and firelighter) at the top. Light the kindling with the air vents open. Fire burns down to the big splits. Restrict the air flow as the temperature of the fire rises. You should be able to use long sticks of kindling if you criss-cross them at a slight angle. An example: Although you don't really need lard, bacon grease or tiny kindling.
Dry wood and a few fire starters is this lazy mans way. No kindling required besides some thinner splits from the pile.
