For centuries savvy owners of open wood fires have used a top-down lighting method to best ignite wood in their fires. These same principles apply in wood stoves.
Method:
Place the bigger pieces of wood on the base of the stove and stack the wood with air gaps between the pieces, getting gradually smaller with the size of wood, finishing with kindling wood at the top. Place the firelighter amongst the kindling wood at the top and light. Close the door sufficiently enough to give an opening of about 10mm. This slight opening of the door will feed air rapidly into the fire, like holding a hair dryer in position.
The heat from the firelighter and kindling wood will warm the chimney, increasing the draw on the fire. The lit kindling will gradually light the bigger, denser pieces of wood below. Lighting a fire in this manner will make lighting the fire easier, will keep the door glass cleaner and also reduce emissions up the chimney in the lighting process.
Once the fire is well-lit (generally about 10 minutes), close the door & operate the wood stove using the air controls to feed in the right amount of air for the required heat output.