I'm a dumb Texan and I've never lit a fire in my life. I told my family I was going to get the fireplace going this year, but now I'm afraid I'm going to blow myself up.I was all gung-ho to stick a BBQ lighter into the fireplace above the holey-stick thing (log lighter) and turn up the gas. After deciding to google what I was doing first, now I'm not even sure where to start.Unlike most gas fireplaces I've seen on the internet, mine just has one knob to turn the gas on or off. It doesn't have any kind of "fireplace controls" to remotely start a pilot or anything like that. Knob pictured here: http://ift.tt/2BT8S6t the fireplace is the holey-stick thing, which I now realize is called a log lighter. I thought this was just for making fire. I briefly considered putting my grate and ceramic log set on top of it, and using it as a primary source of fire. I have since learned that log lighters are not intended to be burned for a long time, and are only supposed to be used to light wood logs. I found a page on Google where a bunch of informed sounding people talk about why using a log lighter to burn underneath ceramic logs is a bad idea.Here's my log lighter: http://ift.tt/2zxVCOq's the website saying not to use a log lighter to burn under gas logs: http://ift.tt/2BTyG29, the people on this website are saying that since a log lighter is just a straight pipe, it's going to put out 100,000 BTUs and if used as the actual fire, it will ruin my chimney or blow up my house or I will die of CO poisoning.This brings me to my old log set. I've never used it before or seen it in action, I got the pieces from my grandma's estate. I was intending to get a coupling from Amazon or the HW store with universal pipe thread fittings, and connect the gas line (after removing the log lighter) to the pipe thread on the grate, put the logs on top, and light the fire.But, now I'm asking myself, what's the difference between the log lighter and the pipe on this log set? They're both straight pipes. If I hook the gas straight up to this thing, is that a bad idea? If it's dangerous to use a log lighter as a fire source, I feel like this thing must be equally dangerous.Here's my grate, with the straight pipe which I intended to hook straight up to the wall in my fireplace: http://ift.tt/2zxALLr's the ceramic logs that go with it: http://ift.tt/2BSsLui that's my question, is it dangerous to use this straight-pipe grate and hook it straight up to the gas line in the fireplace?One last question: I was going to stick a BBQ lighter into my fireplace and turn the gas up. Everyone on Google uses long fireplace matches. Is there a reason why I can't use a BBQ lighter? Is that a bad idea? I know it's a bad idea to burn the log lighter for an extended period of time, but I am curious to at least start a fire in there with it just for an initial test, before I start messing with anything. Can I use a BBQ lighter or do I need matches? via /r/DIY http://ift.tt/2lcunUA
