What am I doing wrong?

CandyCupcake · 7 February 2018 at 8:17PM

Hi,

We've recently had a multi fuel stove fitted, and I was looking forward to having a toasty warm room. But this is yet to happen

I've seen online numerous times people saying they can get their room so warm that it's too warm, but I must say our room is definitely not that warm!

We've tried burning just logs, just coal and mixture of the two but to no avail.

Any hints / tips would be greatly appreciated!

TIA.

Ectophile · 7 February 2018 at 11:05PM

My little 5kW stove can heat the downstairs of the house very easily. When the central heating broke down, it was my main heating for the whole house, but that meant burning it for hours on end.

When I first got it, I really struggled. I could barely get anything to burn, and the glass went brown and tarry every time I used it. The main problem was bad firewood.

Logs must be dry and properly seasoned. The ones bought in nets are often damp and/or barely seasoned. Bad logs aren't even worth the effort of trying to burn them.

Wood I scrounge myself is seasoned for two years. If I buy wood, I buy in the spring and keep it for another summer.

Get or make a log store, making sure it's well ventilated. Try to keep a few days' worth of logs indoors, so any surface damp can dry off.

As a back-up, the "heat logs" made from compressed sawdust burn easily and with a lot of heat. Shop around, and prefer ones that look like they have been painted with dark wood stain (as they are more compressed).

Read the stove manual. Learn where the air vents are, and how to use them. When starting out, use plenty of newspaper and kindling to get the fire going. Put on small and/or split logs. Only gradually work up to full-size logs. Keep the air vents wide open until the fire is blazing away, and then slowly close them. Once you have a really good bed of glowing embers, any further logs should burn easier. But if they seem to be putting the fire out, open the vents again.

System · 8 February 2018 at 10:28AM

CandyCupcake wrote: »

Hi,

We've recently had a multi fuel stove fitted, and I was looking forward to having a toasty warm room. But this is yet to happen

I've seen online numerous times people saying they can get their room so warm that it's too warm, but I must say our room is definitely not that warm!

We've tried burning just logs, just coal and mixture of the two but to no avail.

Any hints / tips would be greatly appreciated!

TIA.

Stove temperature is key to success. Go out and buy a stove thermometer which you attach to the pipe. I find that with a stove chimney temperature below 160C, wood will just smolder. Once 160C is exceeded, then the chimney just draws air through the wood and the stove works like a dream.

Two other tips that my installer left me with. One, preheat the chimney using loosely bundled paper and no wood. Two, make sure that the fire sits on a layer of ash ( I appreciate that this isn't always possible)

brewerdave · 8 February 2018 at 11:48AM

Agree wholeheartedly with post #2 ; we initially had problems with our little log burner til I bought a pallet of kiln dried logs - now it lights with minimum effort and throws out plenty of heat even tho its only rated at 4kW.
We use a firelighter and some kindling to get it drawing then use smaller logs initially.

CandyCupcake · 8 February 2018 at 12:26PM

Thanks everyone for your advise!

Our stove is 8kw and we use kiln dried logs and smokeless coal.

We can get it lit no problem, no tar / smoke and the immediate surrounding of the stove is hot. But it just doesn't seem to throw it out and warm the room temperature up until it's been on for hours. Is this normal? I must admit the manual that came with the stove is pretty vague, so I've been looking around a lot on line, and feel like I've followed all the right rules but to no avail. I was looking forward to this 'having to hang your head out of the window it's so hot' heat, but not happened yet

I will definitely purchase a thermometer as we currently don't have one.

Ectophile · 8 February 2018 at 8:59PM

You could try getting one of the stove-top fans. I haven't got room for one, as the stove is wedged into a fireplace. But I know someone who has and it works quite well.

They don't require any power source, other than the heat from the stove. A thermopile inside the body generates power to run the electric fan.

Davesnave · 9 February 2018 at 8:07AM

It sounds as if your fire isn't burning stuff optimally, for whatever reason.

We had an old back boiler Aarrow multifuel, rated at around 8kW, which we could rarely get up to a really good temperature. Once we had the chance, we disconnected the water and ran the thing dry, which certainly improved things a lot, but because of old seals it was never as controllable as we wanted and the chimney wasn't lined either. It got through a lot of logs!

Fast forward to now, with a slightly enlarged living room, no Aga next door pre-heating the kitchen/diner, a 5kW Woodwarm on a lined 5" flue and we're largely heated just by that in the two principal rooms. Heat also drifts to other areas of our bungalow, so the oil boiler does a lot less work. Right now, I'm sitting two rooms away from the fire, its freezing outside and there are no radiators on at all.

So, if your logs are OK and your house is relatively well insulated, draughtproofed etc I'd look at the quality of your fire and the chimney arrangement you have. I know we've had mild winters here in the past few years, but sorting out the fire really has made a huge difference to our comfort and overall fuel bills. (We do get most of our wood 'free.')

firefox1956 · 9 February 2018 at 11:07AM

Sounds to me like the OP is not giving the stove enough draught.
If you are burning smokeless fuel once it is lit give it plenty of BOTTOM draught.
I can get my stove from cold to very very hot in a matter of maybe 10 minutes.........
Stove thermometers here cheap enough.....
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stove-Pipe-Magnetic-Thermometer-Wood-Log-Burning-Fire-Flue-Heater-Temp-Gauge/301329485102?epid=22011495849&hash=item4628a30d2e:g:Zv8AAOSwj1hadLbD
Plenty of how to videos on Youtube probably worth a look at
HTH

suki1964 · 23 February 2018 at 10:07PM

Are you giving it sufficient fuel?

Mine is 5kw and Im one of those smug so and so's who say they can be put out of the room its that hot

I get the flue nice and hot with a good handful of kindling, I don't skimp. Once thats burning away I chuck on about a third of a scuttle of smokeless, open both vents and let it burn. I don't shut the vents down until the firebricks are glowing red. Then I shut both vents down completely and the fuel will just sit there glowing. When theres a good coating of ash on them, I chuck on some more and keep the vents closed

AT THE MOMENT Im getting in at 3pm and lighting the fire then. Its 9pm now and half a scuttle of coal has done us and its so warm Ive opened all the doors on the same floor to let the heat warm the other rooms

If we are still up at 10pm, Ill put a few logs on and open the top vent a little.

I only use logs late in the day or not so cold a day as getting good quality seasoned logs here is difficult and if I can get them, expensive. Usually I have to get wet forestry logs and store them myself for two years

Krapsite · 5 March 2018 at 5:28PM

Some good tips here. I have had a Charnwood 4KW for thirteen years now in our front room and keep it lit from 1st November to 31 March non-stop. I use Supertherm smokeless fuel which left little mess and slight cloudy door which wipes off. In the Spring/Autumn I burn wood. I season this for at least seven years in a proper log store that I made. All this wood must be oak,ash or beech. No softwood or you will be tarred up.Lots of air for wood especially on the front air wash.. Just a little bottom for smokeless. Yes, these stoves do put out 4KW as they say but you need to study them and adjsut your habits to their needs. I am up at 7 am to do teh ash and refuel in winter. In spring etc I light teh stove when it get s nippy. I hope it was installed properly.

Sycorax · 6 March 2018 at 4:30PM

I've heard good reports of the stove top fans making quite a difference to circulating the warm air and they're not outrageously expensive just check the CFM (cubic feet per minute), I found this site to be useful.

http://stovefanreviews.com/compare-fans/

Also I don't use wood, I found it chucked out very little heat (using a 8kw Firefox 8), however briquettes are great! The RUF style ones made from compressed sawdust (easy to stack, clean, very little ash and hot).

I tend to get mine from here:

https://www.woodfuel.coop/

Delivery is included in the price...but as with anything they vary in quality, so check out the customer reviews or just buy a mixed pallet and see what works for you.

Or you could just try leaving the vents open and see if that helps. The other thing it could be is are you getting enough draught, if your flue or chimney isn't long enough that could cause a problem. I understand the opening should be about 4.5 metres from the stove.

What am I doing wrong?

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