Multi-burner Stove - can the door be kept open?

wood_burning_stoves

Wood burning stoves are a very good source of alternative heating, compared to conventional gas and electrical appliances. They can dramatically reduce your fuel bills in this economically challenging environment !!

Greenfires

wood_burning_stoves wrote: »

Yes Sunni the doorss can be left open

So why are stove doors fitted with seals then?

As I said - a woodstove with the door open is just an expensive open fire - the doors are meant to be closed - unless it's something like an old Godin Colonial or something which is basically just an open fire in a box with shutter doors.

A stove running with the doors open will use way too much fuel and will probably overheat causing damage to the stove itself.

Andy

A._Badger

wood_burning_stoves wrote: »

Wood burning stoves are a very good source of alternative heating, compared to conventional gas and electrical appliances. They can dramatically reduce your fuel bills in this economically challenging environment !!

Unlikely. Unless you get free wood (and if you do, please let us know how) the cost of burning wood is quite high and for most people higher than using mains gas.

There are plenty of reasons why stoves are useful but seeing them hyped as a money-saving wheeze is disappointing.

Williwoodburner

sunni wrote: »

Hello

We've a multi-burner stove and ones are saying why isn't the door opened to let out more heat? But I thought you couldn't leave the door open - don't even know where I heard that though.

Anyway, can the door be left open on the stoves?

sunni

Hi
thought I would give an opinion on this subject.
Some stoves (very few these days) such as the Franklyn design which is very old, are are made to run with the doors open.
However as one previous user said you will burn much more fuel as most of the heat will be drawn up the flue and have no control over the burn rate.
As an experiment get your stove and room nice and cosy, then open the door, it will feel warm as heat is radiated out, then as the warm air is sucked out of the room and replaced by cooler air drawn in from outside the room will cool down.
So in a nutshell, some stoves can be run with the doors open, but modern stoves work much more efficiently with the door closed.

Regards.

Willie.

grahamc2003

wood_burning_stoves wrote: »

Wood burning stoves are a very good source of alternative heating, compared to conventional gas and electrical appliances. They can dramatically reduce your fuel bills in this economically challenging environment !!

'Can' being the operative word.

In my case, I'd estimate my electriucity bills are reduced by something like £200pa. But for that I have to

- have a source of wood (I partly own a wood and collect it from there)
- carry the wood to the car, a varying distance of 50m to 300m
- chop the wood
- stack it itn a suitable sheltered place- leave for at least a year, preferably two
- then take it into the house and burn it.

So It Can lower bills, but for a hell of a lot of work.

I suspect most who collect their own wood don't do it to save money, but do it because it's an enjoyable thing to do.

I doubt if you want to simply buy in seasoned wood, you wouldn't save much, if anything.

Also, to answer the op - of course you can keep the stove doors open, just as you can keep your house front and back doors open all winter if you like. Not sure if it would ruin your stove or not, but it's a pointless thing to do anyhow and totally defeats one of the main objects of having a stove (to limit the amount of warm room air going up the chimney for no reason).

pinkmami

I have a multi fuel stove & although not an expert (far from it!) I have found that the fire lights better with the doors slightly ajar & the bottom vents shut & airwash half open. Close the door & keep the airwash hafl open - its always like that. When the fire dies down I open the bottom vent after putting more logs on to it.

Works for me!

Leon_W

I run my woodburner with the doors open fairly often as sometimes it's just nice to see an open fire.

Yes, you'll use more wood. Yes, it's less efficient but no, you wont damage the stove as there is all that lovely cooling air being drawn through it.

Greenfires

Well I have to disagree I'm afraid Leon. I've seen enough stoves that have been damaged when a customer has inadvertently left the door cracked open and gone off to make a brew or something and forgotten about it. It doesn't happen every time, and I'm not trying to suggest that it will, but overheating is a distinct possibility which can lead to cracked castings, warped baffle plates, burned out grates and so on. It's your stove at the end of the day though and you're perfectly entitled to run it however you like.

A decent stove burning decent wood will give you just as nice a flame picture as any open fire, and will be longer lasting and more efficient as well for any given amount of fuel.

Cheers,

Andy

Leon_W

I'm not saying with just the doors cracked Greenfires. I can see that overheating would be a problem in this scenario.

What I'm on about is with the doors wide open. Basically it's just an inefficeint, cold, open fire in very fancy surroundings !

I run a Villager A Flat 14KW monster, so you could have a lit fire and childs birthday party within it without a problem !

HateLPG

A._Badger wrote: »

wood_burning_stoves wrote: »

Wood burning stoves are a very good source of alternative heating, compared to conventional gas and electrical appliances. They can dramatically reduce your fuel bills in this economically challenging environment !!

Unlikely. Unless you get free wood (and if you do, please let us know how) the cost of burning wood is quite high and for most people higher than using mains gas.

There are plenty of reasons why stoves are useful but seeing them hyped as a money-saving wheeze is disappointing.

Compared with mains Gas, I would have to agree - a multifuel stove is a lovely thing to have, and there's nothing quite like a real fire to make a room seem cosy. But if you're connected to the gas grid, don't expect to see much, if anything, in the way of savings on your fuel bill

If you are not on the gas grid, however, and have to rely on LPG or oil to heat your house, then you can see some good savings, especially if you can find a reliable and not too expensive source of dry, well-seasoned wood. And if you have a stove with a back bolier so that you can extract surpus heat for hot water or heating elsewhere in the house, so much the better.