HELP NEEDED!! my woodburning stove does not give out heat

Mojisola

tz1_1zt wrote: »

Every point that I suggested is basic operation for a woodburner, not faults with the installation. They are not as straightforward to use as many people first think, it's not the installers job to teach these lessons in a revisit at their own expense.

Often the user instructions carry detailed and useful advice on starting a fire. They can seem a little simplistic at first glance, however it's a good idea to return to them after the initial attempts.

The original poster has very wisely sought the assistance of other users in an effort to discover the correct way to use their stove, I don't see how you are helping.

Our installer was extremely helpful in helping us understand how the stove works. Installers should be used to dealing with a range of stoves and should have a good knowledge of any problems which might occur.

There's no problem with getting advice from a forum - MSEers are brilliant at suggesting solutions to all sorts of problems - but it seems perverse not to contact the person who might be best placed to help because he knows the stove and the house. There's no harm in making a phone call to him.

greenhill

tz1_1zt wrote: »

Few basics to look at;

• Don't keep cleaning it out. You need lots of ash under the logs to maintain their correct combustion temperature
• To achieve an output of 8kW you will need to load 2kg to 2 1/2kg of wood fuel per hour. Weigh out some hourly wood piles, it's a lot of fuel. Only once it's really going well can you use large dense logs to achieve this loading rate, primarily it must be kindling and small pieces.
• After 20-30 minutes of correct use the inside should burn clean, all soot will have been burnt up and it should be generating lots of heat. If you don't reach this stage then it needs lots more kindling and air to get up to temperature. A Stovax Flue-pipe thermometer is ideal for judging this stage because it has an optimum operating zone marked.
• What stove is it, and where are the air controls located? Why did you choose this stove? Mnay decent European stoves require that the door is left open to feed the fire during the first 5-10 minutes of lighting.
• We call the under-bed control 'Primary Air' and the above-bed control 'Secondary Air'. Once you have a realy hot fire chamber and glowing embers from the kindling, bash these down to an even bed and load slightly bigger logs on top. Close the Primary Air and adjust the Secondary Air to maintain lively flames.
• Once the fire is burning mainly as charcoal, back off the Secondary Air to create a slow and high output burn. Introduce more 'Secondary Air' when refuelling.
• Is their enough air flow around the stove to get heat from it? What are your clearances?

Hope that helps. A few things to consider. Feel free to respond to each point if that helps :-)

tz1_1zt

As there's no thanks button at the moment.............Thank you tz1.
I'm hoping to buy a woodburner (when/if I can afford one) & your directions are really helpful. I've saved them.

86coz

my 5k stovax hoy`s oot loads of heat back in winter when it was
-10 i had the windows open as it was way to hot:rotfl:

vents open full and good proper dryed wood heaped up =hot hot hot!

its the best thing i have bought for years plus the heat is better than that from a gas fire....love it:j

zeupater

86coz wrote: »

my 5k stovax hoy`s oot loads of heat back in winter when it was
-10 i had the windows open as it was way to hot:rotfl:

vents open full and good proper dryed wood heaped up =hot hot hot!

its the best thing i have bought for years plus the heat is better than that from a gas fire....love it:j

Hi

Take care ... "vents open full and good proper dryed wood" is a really good way to both reduce the useful life of your stove & throw excess heat up the chimney, hence reducing the fuel burn to useful heat efficiency ... it's probably better to limit the skin temperature of the stove to 500F.

HTH
Z

Sue_tho

Mojisola wrote: »

Talk to your installer. He should be willing to come back and sort it out for you.

It is really not fair to call out my installer unneccessarily as my house is way out in the sticks - it is not his problem, I am sure it is installed correctly and I don't want to waste his time when it is probably just me being a numpty and not knowing how to burn logs properly. It would appear that it is quite an exact science to get it right which is what I am trying to do and I am very appreciative of all the advice that has been given to me. I am sure that once I get the hang of it it will be fine. The other thing is it may be the stove - we bought a quite basic model as we are not actually living in this house yet as it is undergoing full refurb. Also since we are not living there I have probably not attended to it properly as we tend to just light it then get on with refurb work. If I do call my installer rather than waste his time it will be to install a better larger stove and to install this one in another room.;)

zeupater

Sue_tho wrote: »

.... my house is way out in the sticks - it is not his problem, I am sure it is installed correctly and I don't want to waste his time when it is probably just me being a numpty and not knowing how to burn logs properly. It would appear that it is quite an exact science to get it right which is what I am trying to do and I am very appreciative of all the advice that has been given to me. I am sure that once I get the hang of it it will be fine ....

Hi Sue-tho

If you're refurbing a property, have you simply been burning wood that has been cleared from the garden/land as you go ? .... if so then it's definately unseasoned wood which is the issue ....

Look at changing your refurbishment plans a little and build a woodstore now, then get a load of seasoned split logs ASAP so that they will dry over the summer ..... you'll probably be looking at storing somewhere around 3 to 5 cubic metres for a burning season depending on how often you will use the stove ....

HTH
Z

Sue_tho

Thanks, we are using logs from our local timber yard. They were supposed to be a mix of soft and hard wood. I don't know how well seasoned they are but considering they are sold bagged I would have expected them to be ready to use. We will be building a wood store eventually - just so much to do just to get the house habitable. BTW is there anything stopping me picking up roadside and public area logs/wood? I know probably any wood on private land will belong to the landowner but is there anywhere where picking up windfall wood is permitable? Anyone know the exact rules on this one?

celerity

Sue_tho wrote: »

Thanks, we are using logs from our local timber yard. They were supposed to be a mix of soft and hard wood. I don't know how well seasoned they are but considering they are sold bagged I would have expected them to be ready to use.

Sorry, but that is a dubious assumption. We thought the same when we first got our stove, and bought a few small bags from local garden centres and compost places. We weren't too impressed, but didn't know any better to complain. Then I ordered two cubic metres of properly seasoned hardwood from a reputable supplier, and we saw the difference. Put simply, the bagged garden centre stuff was cr*p! Obviously had far too high a water content and they should have been ashamed for selling it as fit for a stove.

Incidentally, now is the time to buy "part-seasoned" wood if you can find a local seller. The price is cheaper in the summer. We've just ordered four cubic metres for £130. It will be ready for burning this winter.

We will be building a wood store eventually - just so much to do just to get the house habitable.

I'd advise doing a bit of research before just stacking wood up, as it might save you some effort. For example, when I made my first stack I didn't raise it off the ground - we just spent a good hour or two at the weekend toppling it all over and rebuilding on a pallet. Annoying!

You also need to think about location etc - you ideally want your primary wood pile as close to your stove as is practically possible. We have a carport right next to our front door and the chap who delivered our wood advised us to build the pile there. We hadn't even considered doing that, and would have put it way out of the way in our garage. His advice was excellent as the pile keeps dry, is well ventilated, really easy to get to and actually looks quite nice as well .

Check out this thread for more advice too.

/\dam

celerity

Sue_tho wrote: »

BTW is there anything stopping me picking up roadside and public area logs/wood? I know probably any wood on private land will belong to the landowner but is there anywhere where picking up windfall wood is permitable? Anyone know the exact rules on this one?

I don't know the answer to this, but I'd suggest it's unlikely to be a useful source of fuel. The problem is that decent wood is quite heavy, so it would be a lot of effort to collect, unless there was a lot of it in a pile, in which case it's probably been put there for reasons other than providing free timber .

I do know someone who lives near a beach, who reckons there is quite a lot of driftwood near him. He admits he's been too lazy to go and collect it though .

I don't suppose you have any land yourself do you? If so, you could look at coppicing over 5-10 years. You'd need a fair bit of area though.

/\dam