Pakray Fuel Advice

davelipscombe

Hello all! Hope everyone is well!

I signed up to see if anyone can give me some advice on the Parkray burner in my new property...! I've looked through some old threads, but they're a bit out of date.

I moved in in November, and struggled to get to grips with the thing at first (mainly keeping it alight overnight and de-ashing). Things are going better now, but I'm burning a huge amount of fuel, and it's costing me a fortune!

I'm using Supacite, which is costing 20.50 for 50kg, and I'm getting through 150kg every fortnight! It was recommended to me to use a more premium fuel as it would burn longer, and I was told it would be a 'shovel in the morning and a shovel in the evening' (but it's more like a bucket in the morning etc!).

Does anyone have much experience with Parkray's, and any recomendations of other fuels which might burn longer? My coal man did say perhaps I should try Stovese, as it's smaller and will let less air through, but I just wanted to get some other opinions. Essentially I want something that is going to burn longer, and cost me less over winter!

Cheers, Dave.

elektra-2007

Do you have doors? And is there a dial on the side? As a general rule the more air in the faster it burns. I use anthercite on my parkray it runs my radiators and water. I use 2 bags a week now its really cold which is 100kg!!! I only pay £15 a bag tho. My next door neighbour goes thru the same as does my friend. So im afraid it could well be right. Thats why people on solid fuel are classed as living in fuel poverty!! When it gets warmer about feb it will go back down to 1 bag a week. Check all your vents on the fire are closed and experiment with the dial to find the lowest comfortable setting. And if you fire goes out, take your fire apart to clean it out, i.e all the bars..use a brush to get rid off all the dust, dont forget to clean on top of the chimney plate. My dial goes upto 10 and i keep it on 4-5 my old fire went upto 5 and it stayed on 2-3. Hope any of this helps

davelipscombe

elektra-2007 wrote: »

Do you have doors? And is there a dial on the side? As a general rule the more air in the faster it burns. I use anthercite on my parkray it runs my radiators and water. I use 2 bags a week now its really cold which is 100kg!!! I only pay £15 a bag tho. My next door neighbour goes thru the same as does my friend. So im afraid it could well be right. Thats why people on solid fuel are classed as living in fuel poverty!! When it gets warmer about feb it will go back down to 1 bag a week. Check all your vents on the fire are closed and experiment with the dial to find the lowest comfortable setting. And if you fire goes out, take your fire apart to clean it out, i.e all the bars..use a brush to get rid off all the dust, dont forget to clean on top of the chimney plate. My dial goes upto 10 and i keep it on 4-5 my old fire went upto 5 and it stayed on 2-3. Hope any of this helps

Hey there,

Thank for the reply! Yeah it has a door and a dial - 0 - 10. I open it up a little when topping it up in the morning and evening, but the rest of the time I can have the vent totally closed and it still burns away! Have been keeping it clean too.

I think the next step is to try another fuel! Will give anthracitce a go - do you use the small or large type?

Own_Feet

We used to have a Parkray and used the anthracite small. It's a few years ago now and I can't remember the costings but it kept the whole house warm, gave us gallons of constantly hot water and meant that clothes dried in next-to-no time, so did several jobs at once. Was also a real psychological lift during the worst part of winter in a house without central heating! I'd suggest leaving some ash in the grate to reduce the air flow through the grate and therefore slow down the rate of burning (i.e. you don't want to clean it out *too* thoroughly). Not of immediate help to you, but we used to buy our stocks of fuel in over the summer when it was cheaper. And, as a general safety thing, do get the chimney cleaned (especially if you don't know when it was last cleaned) - I had a couple of nasty experiences with coal fumes, after which I got the chimney swept annually.

Own_Feet

We used to have a Parkray and used the anthracite small. It's a few years ago now and I can't remember the costings but it kept the whole house warm, gave us gallons of constantly hot water and meant that clothes dried in next-to-no time, so did several jobs at once. Was also a real psychological lift during the worst part of winter in a house without central heating! I'd suggest leaving some ash in the grate to reduce the air flow through the grate and therefore slow down the rate of burning (i.e. you don't want to clean it out *too* thoroughly). Not of immediate help to you, but we used to buy our stocks of fuel in over the summer when it was cheaper. And, as a general safety thing, do get the chimney cleaned (especially if you don't know when it was last cleaned) - I had a couple of nasty experiences with coal fumes, after which I got the chimney swept annually.

matty17r

My elderly mother moved 2 years ago from a house with a Parkray. She now has storage heaters which everyone said would be expensive. however, compared to the Parkray they work out a lot cheaper and easier. I agree with the above post. Mum always used to stock up with eggs (don't know what type this was) as it worked out a bit cheaper. She did not feel financially it was worth keeping the fire in all night either. Hope this little info helps you. Also agree with both poster - make sure you sweep chimney annually. When mum didn't it caught fire.

davelipscombe

Thanks for the advice guys... I think we'll have it swept when our landlady has her chimney done, as she said she'll just send him over!

Think will try some smaller fuel for now and see if that burns less enthusiastically.

Lovely and warm appliance - just hugely expensive to run at the moment! At least it's only till spring. :rolleyes:

Re not keeping it going all night - when it's been out and you have to relight, to fill it up to a sufficient level seems to use much more fuel than you'd use otherwise.

Oblivion

davelipscombe wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys... I think we'll have it swept when our landlady has her chimney done, as she said she'll just send him over!

Think will try some smaller fuel for now and see if that burns less enthusiastically.

Lovely and warm appliance - just hugely expensive to run at the moment! At least it's only till spring. :rolleyes:

Re not keeping it going all night - when it's been out and you have to relight, to fill it up to a sufficient level seems to use much more fuel than you'd use otherwise.

We've had a Parkray in our lounge for over 35 years now, although the original one we inherited when we moved in did need replacing after about 8 years. Ours also has the back boiler running 4 radiators and a coil in the immersion tank, so we get plenty of heat for our money, but they are indeed a bit greedy on coal. As you say, if you can keep the fire in, you waste less than if you have to keep relighting.

We have a bunker in the garden and fill that up each year with Anthracite Small Nuts which through initial trial and error we found to be the best for slow burning and plenty of heat output. As others have said, don't shake the grate out completely before topping up, but leave some cinders and ash to limit the air flow and so keep the fire in longer.

Incidentally, that Athracite produces very little 'soot' and what there is just a grey benign powder without any of the tarry content that some coals produce. I suppose I should be ashamed to say that in over 35 years, we have only had the chimney swept once when our Parkray was replaced, and we've never had a problem. We just get a natural fall of this grey soot during the summer months which I clear out of the grate before the first firing.

One feature that you may have which others haven't mentioned, is a little round plate covering a hole in the access cover at the base of the unit. If so, it should have a screw which you can undo and then you can experiment with how much of this natural vent hole is covered by the plate. It is there to ensure that the fire can always draw air even when the thermostat controlled plate on the side is fully closed. Too much air through this adjustable hole and the fire will burn too quickly ... not enough and it will go out. It took me quite a while to get this set just right for our particular room's ventilation conditions, but once set, it did keep the fire in longer and cut down on the amount of coal needed.

Another possibility is that the model of Parkray is too big for your heating needs. Our first one certainly was, and whoever had installed it had gone way OTT. So I ended up just laying an oblong firebrick on each side of the grate and this reduced the fire area and saved on fuel. When we replaced the unit, we got expert advice and ended up with a smaller unit which was still perfectly adequate for our needs but used less fuel.

Whatever the cost, you really can't put a price on coming in from a cold winter's day and being welcomed by that lovely red glow. Luxury.

Dave.

elektra-2007

Sorry i havnt replyed, I just get my anthercite from the coal man its a mixture of both small and large, I like small for getting fire going but big when its in, I dont ask for mixed it just comes like that! What model of parkray is urs, mine is the cumbria, so there are vents on the doors taht i need to close and when i light it i keep the bottom panel off to get it going.
Let us know how you get on with it...