Wood Burning Stove - Should I insulate the Flue liner ?

maisoldman

Hi there, I have just had a Pioneer 500 fitted with a 904/904 liner. The stove is working great however I am a bit concerned about the rate I am burning logs. The stove appear to be very hungry. We are still novices with using the stove but using well seasoned wood and trying not to burn it too hard we are getting through quite a few logs.

One thing, I didnt do was to insulate the chimney liner. Would I see a significant improvement in my stove performance if I did ? I would obviously need to use Vemiculite if I did.

Thanks in advance for any help.

McAzrael

Once it's lit turn all the air vents at the bottom right down. Use the vents at the top to regulate how fast it burns.

John_3:16

Some idea of how much you are using may help to see burn rate. Is it an 8kw stove?

maisoldman

McAzrael - We have been doing it the other way. Closing the spin wheel and regulating the flow using the air vent at the bottom. The vent at the bottom ensures you have the glass air flow too. Please feel free to correct me if this is wrong. I will read the instructions again tonight but I am sure it says close the spin wheel once the stove is burning the logs.

John 3:16 - We fully loaded the stove with seasoned logs the other night and they lasted 2 hours at most. Its an 8.5KW stove. Is this nromal ? I dont think it is because when we bought our stove from the shop , the shopowner put a similar load in the same stove and said they would last till the shop closed ( so approx 12 till 5 ).

Sorry I had a typo with the Stove name. Its the Vision 500 we have ( larger version of the Pioneer ) .

Lookup clearviewstoves.com search for Vision 500.

McAzrael

If you want it to burn the fuel less quickly then you need to starve it of oxygen. The bottom vents provide oxygen right to the base of the fire - great for getting it going but not so good when you're trying to slow it down.

Allowing a limited supply through the top vents will dictate how fast it can burn the fuel, and also help limit the combustion to the top of the fuel pile.