Stove installed, now a few newbie questions!!

Kitte

I had my multifuel stove (Aga Little Wenlock) installed in March this year. I previously had a very, very inefficient small Victorian open fire (a roaring fire would project almost no heat into the room) and I grew up with open fires, so my experience with stoves is minimal.

Since installation, I have only used the burner about five times. In all cases it is easy to light, provides excellent warmth and is generally a joy to use. However, as a relative newbie to the delights of the stove I do have some, probably very silly, questions.

Firstly, my stove takes about 5-10 minutes to reach 250F, the lowest advised operating temperature. It takes a further 5-10 mins to get to the middle of the range – 350F or so. It can take quite a while, maybe 45 minutes in total, to then get to 400-450F and it is easy to keep in this 400-450F range all evening.

I have read some posters on here claiming they can get their stoves to 500F in about five minutes – am I doing something wrong?

Secondly, once burning, my stove (Aga Little Wenlock – small 4.7kw) consumes one 8” split hardwood log – about 0.5-1kg in weight, per half hour. Over the course of the evening – it’s lit for about five hours - I therefore consume 10 split logs or between 5 and 10kg. Does this sound about right?

Thirdly, as my Aga has only a single vent below the door, how far open should it be when in normal operation? Fully open creates a hot but very fast burn, I usually close it down about two-thirds which allows the fire to burn well but does create a small amount of blacking on the glass. I’m happy to burn it harder but is this the most efficient?

Fourthly, my stove is fully recessed into an existing fireplace. The room does warm well after 90 minutes or so, but takes longer than I was expecting. Is there any method of circulating the hot air to speed up the room warm up?

Lastly, what is the best way to close down a stove? My method so far is to continue to burn until the embers have lost the red glow, then close up the stove to stop warm air in the room being pulled up the chimney. Is this right?

Thank you! :beer:

grahamc2003

Kitte wrote: »

I had my multifuel stove (Aga Little Wenlock) installed in March this year. I previously had a very, very inefficient small Victorian open fire (a roaring fire would project almost no heat into the room) and I grew up with open fires, so my experience with stoves is minimal.

Since installation, I have only used the burner about five times. In all cases it is easy to light, provides excellent warmth and is generally a joy to use. However, as a relative newbie to the delights of the stove I do have some, probably very silly, questions.

Firstly, my stove takes about 5-10 minutes to reach 250F, the lowest advised operating temperature. It takes a further 5-10 mins to get to the middle of the range – 350F or so. It can take quite a while, maybe 45 minutes in total, to then get to 400-450F and it is easy to keep in this 400-450F range all evening.

I have read some posters on here claiming they can get their stoves to 500F in about five minutes – am I doing something wrong?

Secondly, once burning, my stove (Aga Little Wenlock – small 4.7kw) consumes one 8” split hardwood log – about 0.5-1kg in weight, per half hour. Over the course of the evening – it’s lit for about five hours - I therefore consume 10 split logs or between 5 and 10kg. Does this sound about right?

Thirdly, as my Aga has only a single vent below the door, how far open should it be when in normal operation? Fully open creates a hot but very fast burn, I usually close it down about two-thirds which allows the fire to burn well but does create a small amount of blacking on the glass. I’m happy to burn it harder but is this the most efficient?

Fourthly, my stove is fully recessed into an existing fireplace. The room does warm well after 90 minutes or so, but takes longer than I was expecting. Is there any method of circulating the hot air to speed up the room warm up?

Lastly, what is the best way to close down a stove? My method so far is to continue to burn until the embers have lost the red glow, then close up the stove to stop warm air in the room being pulled up the chimney. Is this right?

Thank you! :beer:

I'm a bit rushed at the moment, but just to quickly answer a couple of points - the stove doesn't reach high temperatures that quickly, but the stove pipe does (I assume that's where your thermometer is?).

You want your door shut all the time you're not loading it imv. Some stoces seem to light better with the door slightly open for extra draft, but with my little wenlock it lights easily and quickly and has a much better draft from under the wood with the door shut. Once well lit, opening the door for any length of time would produce such a roar I'd be worried about the thing melting.

Kitte

grahamc2003 wrote: »

I'm a bit rushed at the moment, but just to quickly answer a couple of points - the stove doesn't reach high temperatures that quickly, but the stove pipe does (I assume that's where your thermometer is?).

You want your door shut all the time you're not loading it imv. Some stoces seem to light better with the door slightly open for extra draft, but with my little wenlock it lights easily and quickly and has a much better draft from under the wood with the door shut. Once well lit, opening the door for any length of time would produce such a roar I'd be worried about the thing melting.

Thanks for your reply

Yes, the stove pipe is where my thermometer is.

I don't keep the door open at all, apart from loading, I meant how much should the vent be open when in normal operation? I hear a lot of references to "running the stove hard" - does this mean with the vent wide open or simply at a high temperature?

Apologies if the questions seem a bit simple, I will learn!

highrisklowreturn

It means wide open. You should keep it at this when lighting or when burning coal, the heat given off by which will easily go beyond what you presently are getting from wood. Personally I wouldn't burn wood solely on account of the lower temperatures I was getting from it and because I honestly find getting coal lit to be easier than waiting on a log to ignite.

muckybutt

Kitte wrote: »

I had my multifuel stove (Aga Little Wenlock) installed in March this year. I previously had a very, very inefficient small Victorian open fire (a roaring fire would project almost no heat into the room) and I grew up with open fires, so my experience with stoves is minimal.

Since installation, I have only used the burner about five times. In all cases it is easy to light, provides excellent warmth and is generally a joy to use. However, as a relative newbie to the delights of the stove I do have some, probably very silly, questions.

Firstly, my stove takes about 5-10 minutes to reach 250F, the lowest advised operating temperature. It takes a further 5-10 mins to get to the middle of the range – 350F or so. It can take quite a while, maybe 45 minutes in total, to then get to 400-450F and it is easy to keep in this 400-450F range all evening.

I have read some posters on here claiming they can get their stoves to 500F in about five minutes – am I doing something wrong? I doubt they get it that hot that quickly and 500F is way too hot !

Secondly, once burning, my stove (Aga Little Wenlock – small 4.7kw) consumes one 8” split hardwood log – about 0.5-1kg in weight, per half hour. Over the course of the evening – it’s lit for about five hours - I therefore consume 10 split logs or between 5 and 10kg. Does this sound about right? Sounds like you have the vent open too much to me, we usually get through one split log every 45mins - 1 hr or so

Thirdly, as my Aga has only a single vent below the door, how far open should it be when in normal operation? Fully open creates a hot but very fast burn, I usually close it down about two-thirds which allows the fire to burn well but does create a small amount of blacking on the glass. I’m happy to burn it harder but is this the most efficient? If you are burning coal then you want it open fully to start the fire then close it down by about a third / half when its burning nicely, just need to adjust it to keept temp around 300F.
Wood again open fully when starting, you need a good bed of ash to properly burn wood, when you have the ash then knock it down to below half way, again burn it between 250 - 350F

Fourthly, my stove is fully recessed into an existing fireplace. The room does warm well after 90 minutes or so, but takes longer than I was expecting. Is there any method of circulating the hot air to speed up the room warm up? If money will allow then get an eco fan

Lastly, what is the best way to close down a stove? My method so far is to continue to burn until the embers have lost the red glow, then close up the stove to stop warm air in the room being pulled up the chimney. Is this right? Sounds about right, personally we dont bother closing vents after the fire has burnt down

Thank you! :beer:

See above highlights, hope that helps

[Deleted User]

Have a search through grahamc2003's excellent posts on stoves.

I now burn mine slightly differently, use less fuel but seems to be hotter as a result ;-)

From your description I'm burning half what your are in a 5kw stove.

Cheers

grahamc2003

Firstly, my stove takes about 5-10 minutes to reach 250F, the lowest advised operating temperature. It takes a further 5-10 mins to get to the middle of the range – 350F or so. It can take quite a while, maybe 45 minutes in total, to then get to 400-450F and it is easy to keep in this 400-450F range all evening.

I have read some posters on here claiming they can get their stoves to 500F in about five minutes – am I doing something wrong?

I again timed how long my stove pipe temperature readings take to rise (accurately), and it was exactly 5 mins to 200C/400F, and 6 and a half minutes to 250C/500F. I've only recently got a thermometer, and I was interested in how long it took to get some heat out of it. As I said before, the stove hasn't heated up in that time though, just the pipe, but nevertheless, the pipe emits quite a lot of heat in itself. Takes much longer to heat the (large) room - istr about an hour to rise it from 17 to 20. If I remeber, I'll time it again tonight. I light mine differently to the (excellent) method on the video someone posted - partly because I have lots of paper/cardboard to get rid of. I don't think it's any problem whatsoever with the time yours takes to come up to temp, especially if you have big logs in the chamber at the time.

Secondly, once burning, my stove (Aga Little Wenlock – small 4.7kw) consumes one 8” split hardwood log – about 0.5-1kg in weight, per half hour. Over the course of the evening – it’s lit for about five hours - I therefore consume 10 split logs or between 5 and 10kg. Does this sound about right?

There is a lot of variables in the answer to that! It certainly doesn't look far wrong, especially if your stove is 450/500 where it will be chucking out lots of heat. If I put a big chunk of wood in (say so big it only just fits), then that would last me probably an hour or more. Remember to turn the air input down until you just see smoke at the end of flames, then back up 1/4 turn. (Incidentally, do you have the new silver air input knob which 'wraps around' the 'rdige' on the stove? This give much more accurate air inflow control over the black knob which simply butts up to the stove, and in my case, wouldn't cut off the air supply completely - I comlained and I got sent the new knob).

Thirdly, as my Aga has only a single vent below the door, how far open should it be when in normal operation? Fully open creates a hot but very fast burn, I usually close it down about two-thirds which allows the fire to burn well but does create a small amount of blacking on the glass. I’m happy to burn it harder but is this the most efficient?

You should never get black glass! Can't be avoided if you want to drive it overnight, but I just don't see the point of that myself (if the door is black, then the chimney/lining is even blacker with the build up). If there's enough air and a high temperature, then you won't get black galss (which comes from condensing (in the case of tar) or deposition (in the case of soot) of the smoke. Sometimes, if a bit of wood is really close to or touching the glass, you can get a localised blackening if the smoke hasn't had time to burn- so just push the wood in a bit more. I've not yet burnt smokeless coal, but burning normal smokey house coal is much harder without making smoke. I can only literally put on or two small peices at the bottom of a roaring wood fire to produce no smoke - any more and the little wenlock (with just one air inlet) doesn't seem to be able to get enough air in to burn all the smoke housecoal produces, if more than a small amount. No probs for me, I just use coal to cut down a little on how much wood I burn and to maker each burn a little longer before refueling.

Fourthly, my stove is fully recessed into an existing fireplace. The room does warm well after 90 minutes or so, but takes longer than I was expecting. Is there any method of circulating the hot air to speed up the room warm up?

You could get a fan to blow the hot air out from the cavity. I used a small 12v car heater (blowing cold) to blow the hot air iver the hot stovepipe and into the room. But warm air rises, so it has a limited effect, and I don't bother now. The trend seems to be econfans powered by a stirling engine, but I agree with what was previously written about things sold with 'eco' in front of them. But if you have the room, like the look of them, like the interesting heat engine angle, and don't mind spending 50 or 60 quid or whatever they cost, they may be worth it imv.

Lastly, what is the best way to close down a stove? My method so far is to continue to burn until the embers have lost the red glow, then close up the stove to stop warm air in the room being pulled up the chimney. Is this right?

That's what I do, almost. Firstly, in this warm weather, I stop feeding mine about 3 hours before we go to bed (we have recently got cavbity wall insulation, and I think that is keeping the room warmer for longer).Whent he flames have stopped and I just have glowing embers (say an hour later), I close the air input almost fully shut, but just allow a tiny amount of air in, which seems to allow the embers to fully burn. (I think at this stage, it's just CO which is getting 'burnt' or oxidised to co2, but I'm not sure, but certainly much less air is required than when flames are produced). When the glow has stopped and everything has fully burnt (say an hour later again) then I close the air input fully. The stove is still really hot of course, and the stove pipe temp is probably around 250/300F at this time. Keeping the air input open any longer would just suck warm room air up through the stove and up the chimney (thereby both cooling the room and cooling the stove quicker, which is the opposite of what I want).