Wood burning stove - sore throat

artydave

Hi

I have had a woodburning stove for 18 months. I had problems with it from the start - i.e. the HETAS registered installer put in the ful pipe with a blockage in it halfway up the chimney !! Anyway, that is all rectified.

The installer says everything is now fine and HETAS say that they can't/won't do anything.

I have well seasoned wood - 2 years +

But, everyime I use the stove I get a sore throat and can smell a faint hint of something in the room. (I have 2 carbon monoxide alarms and they don't regsiter anything).

Any thoughts / suggestions ???

alleycat`

Carbon monoxide is odourless and tasteless so it won't be , in all likelihood, anything like that.

Stoves do have a habit of making the air very dry, i read that on here recently, so it could be you need to humidify the room (re: your throat).

As to the smell. I honestly don't know if the stove is quite well fired.
I do know when they are new the destructions say they will smell as the "coating" burns off.

The HETAS bit, frankly, doesn't surprise me.
Most of the orginisations are, IMHO, about money making and very little to do with the "safety" of the customer.

Sadly there are good and bad in most industries.

Some of the Corgi/gas safe/NICEIC engineers i've come into contact with i wouldn't trust to open a door let alone work on things in my house.

Ben84

Solid fuel appliance emit plenty of pollutants in to the air in the house. One of the products of burning wood is formaldehyde which causes itchy eyes and sore throats.

suki1964

The sore throat is possibly down to the dry air - put a heat proof pot of water on the stove see if that helps

I think there is always a smell of something when burning either by open fire or stove. Opening the door to re fuel will often let wee puffs of smoke into the room which will linger

artydave

Many thanks everyone for your replies. All very useful comments.

Dave

highrisklowreturn

I left my shoes on the stove today to dry them out after getting soaked. Needless to say I forgot about them and the smell of burnt rubber was rank.

suki1964

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

I left my shoes on the stove today to dry them out after getting soaked. Needless to say I forgot about them and the smell of burnt rubber was rank.

You had taken them off first I hope

highrisklowreturn

Yeah of course....

I note they've put the burnglow prices up 50p a bag to 6.50, madness, and esse up to 8.50. Daylight robbery.

happybiker

artydave wrote: »

Hi



But, everyime I use the stove I get a sore throat and can smell a faint hint of something in the room. (I have 2 carbon monoxide alarms and they don't regsiter anything).

Any thoughts / suggestions ???

I've been in the gas industry most of my life and don't know a lot about woodburners;

BUT
in almost every case I have investigated involving heating appliances and sore throats, the problem has been caused by minute particles of burnt dust which convect round the room from the outside or heat exchanger surfaces of the heat source. This can also produce a very,very slight smell of burning. Dry air (as circulated by electric forms of heating) can cause dry throats . Due to the air requirements of a woodburner , dry air should not occur as there should be enough humid air entering the room to prevent it. You will never stop this convection but regular cleaning of heat exchangers and the outside of an appliance will usually greatly reduce the problem