Which woodburning stove is the best?

rrtt

Ms.AEJ wrote: »

rrtt - Metal board instead of wooden fireboard etc...what is the cost of that? I thought you had to have cowl etc but I have to admit I am pretty clueless.

I am getting another quote next week so I will see what they quote.

No idea of cost Ms AEJ - but somehow doubt it'd be more than an extra £50 and definitely not worth skimping on.

No way do you have to have a cowl, they're personal choice (though in some locations they might be v. desirable to prevent severe down draughts). However, my fitter was a bit obsessed with rules n regs and insisted he couldn't sign my chimneys off if cowls or even mesh bird-stoppers were fitted, another reason being he said it would prevent proper sweeping! Other fitters obviously take a different view.

Greenfires

rrtt wrote: »

couldn't sign my chimneys off if cowls or even mesh bird-stoppers were fitted, another reason being he said it would prevent proper sweeping!

Nonsense - in both respects. Rather than being a stickler for regulations, it sounds like he didn't have a clue what he was on about!

muckybutt

rrtt wrote: »

All you have to do is close the various airvents and stuff it full of fuel. This is usually a matter of trial and error as not only do individual stoves/chimneys vary in how well they draw, but each will also vary according to very local windspeed and direction.

As Greenfires said that IS a sure way to block your chimney or flue up / coat it with tar / creosote etc and run a much higher risk of having a chimney fire ... providing it isn't blocked !

You should NEVER slumber burn wood.

rrtt wrote: »

However, my fitter was a bit obsessed with rules n regs and insisted he couldn't sign my chimneys off if cowls or even mesh bird-stoppers were fitted, another reason being he said it would prevent proper sweeping! Other fitters obviously take a different view.

You fitter is talking codswallop ! Couldn't sign it off if a cowl was fitted ? .... more like he forgot to order them and couldn't be arsed going back up on the roof to do a proper job.

Oh and fitting a cowl does not impede sweeping in any way shape or form

rrtt

muckybutt wrote: »

As Greenfires said that IS a sure way to block your chimney or flue up / coat it with tar / creosote etc and run a much higher risk of having a chimney fire ... providing it isn't blocked !

You should NEVER slumber burn wood.



You fitter is talking codswallop ! Couldn't sign it off if a cowl was fitted ? .... more like he forgot to order them and couldn't be arsed going back up on the roof to do a proper job.

Oh and fitting a cowl does not impede sweeping in any way shape or form

As I said before, you should NEVER apply blanket conditions to individual situations. Living at 1,000' in an isolated position means that total lockdown of all airvents here still results in a roaring fire.

As for the cowls, can only tell you what the guy said. We had earlier decided just to let him sign everything off for the sake of getting the certs, and we'll then add the cowls etc that we want. He's already been back up on the roof a couple of times to re-point the chimneys etc so wasn't a matter of him forgetting to order.

muckybutt

rrtt wrote: »

As I said before, you should NEVER apply blanket conditions to individual situations. Living at 1,000' in an isolated position means that total lockdown of all airvents here still results in a roaring fire.

That to me would suggest that your stove hasn't got an airtight seal and is still able to draw either through the vents or door seal. I too live well above sea level and have a great draught with the vents open, with the vents shut the fire simply dies down and goes out - that's what yours should do.

It doesn't matter what sweep you speak to the advice will always be the same - DO NOT SLUMBER BURN WOOD - the last two weeks I have had three jobs where customers have slumber burnt and have suffered the consequences, one of them now requires a new liner.

rrtt

muckybutt wrote: »

That to me would suggest that your stove hasn't got an airtight seal and is still able to draw either through the vents or door seal. I too live well above sea level and have a great draught with the vents open, with the vents shut the fire simply dies down and goes out - that's what yours should do.

It doesn't matter what sweep you speak to the advice will always be the same - DO NOT SLUMBER BURN WOOD - the last two weeks I have had three jobs where customers have slumber burnt and have suffered the consequences, one of them now requires a new liner.

Nothing to do with airtight seals, all to do with wind speed and direction. Had the stove in for 5 years, regularly swept, gets rid of small amount of soot/tar which occasionally accrues, therefore not a problem. Perhaps your customers should maintain their appliances as well as I do! Horses for courses and you've never seen this location. End of.

muckybutt

rrtt wrote: »

Nothing to do with airtight seals, all to do with wind speed and direction. Had the stove in for 5 years, regularly swept, gets rid of small amount of soot/tar which occasionally accrues, therefore not a problem. Perhaps your customers should maintain their appliances as well as I do! Horses for courses and you've never seen this location. End of.

Load of ballcock.

Do you realise fires need oxygen to work ? if you close down your vents to next to nothing then the fire should go out, draughts pull air through the stove yes ? so if your vents are shut tight the fire would starve itself of oxygen and go out. The fact it still roars away says your stove is not airtight at all and is leaking air through the stove and has sweet FannyAdams to do with wind speed and direction.

Wind speed and direction can affect the way fires draw in general but not the way you are going on about.

You have even contradicted yourself there, TAR will not form in the liner if a stove is being burnt correctly.

I despair sometimes... when professionals offer advice and yet we are the ones supposedly that don't know jack s**t.

END OF !.

rrtt

muckybutt wrote: »

Load of ballcock.

Do you realise fires need oxygen to work ? if you close down your vents to next to nothing then the fire should go out, draughts pull air through the stove yes ? so if your vents are shut tight the fire would starve itself of oxygen and go out. The fact it still roars away says your stove is not airtight at all and is leaking air through the stove and has sweet FannyAdams to do with wind speed and direction.

Wind speed and direction can affect the way fires draw in general but not the way you are going on about.

You have even contradicted yourself there, TAR will not form in the liner if a stove is being burnt correctly.

I despair sometimes... when professionals offer advice and yet we are the ones supposedly that don't know jack s**t.

END OF !.

You're the one talking garbage - and bloody rude with it. According to you, air never ever enters flues from the top and there is no such thing as downdraughts - tells me everything I need to know about you.

When the wind stops blowing and it's completely calm, my stove does go out, yes. This is extremely rare and happens at most a handful of times a year.

Leaving this convo now - you can carry on being argumentative and dictatorial all by your little self. You obviously have uniquely amazing powers of knowing all about individual chimneys, configurations, localities, topography and what fuels people are burning, without ever having seen them or discussed all these factors with the owner. Clearly you are psychic.

Edited to add, to save me returning to this thread - of course a lot depends on the size of your stove (mine is large, 8Kw) the size/type/moisture content of the logs you use, how you place them (I always create a pyramid with plenty of air between), how many you add at a time, and the temperature you add them at (a minimum of 400 for me). Of course if you stack a pile of biggies all at once on top of each other at a low temperature your blinking stove will slumber, then go out, doh!

Nor have I suggested at any point that people should slumber their woodburning stoves, just that mine never does do that, or at least very rarely. Reading back thru the thread, I guess I'm actually doing what Greenfires suggests on p6 about running it hard before retiring, which I've always done as a matter of common sense.

babyblooz

Do stoves make the room dusty? I read on another forum that they give out a sooty kind of dust that collects on curtain rails and picture rails etc. I would have thought that everything would have been carried up and out of the chimney.

Has anyone experienced this because I really wouldn't want to be decorating every six months?

alleycat`

babyblooz wrote: »

Do stoves make the room dusty? I read on another forum that they give out a sooty kind of dust that collects on curtain rails and picture rails etc. I would have thought that everything would have been carried up and out of the chimney.

Has anyone experienced this because I really wouldn't want to be decorating every six months?

You have to open the doors to reload them.
Ash deposits can often fall out.

Moving things about whilst reloading the stove has the same effect too.

O and if you use smokeless fuel the stuff is pretty filthy in of itself.

Very fine ash is incredibly easy to disturb and can float surprisingly far.

It doesn't cover the room but it will get onto bits and bobs around the stove area without much provocation.

I wouldn't say you need to redecorate all the time unless you are an OCD neatness monster but they aren't going to be "clean" by virtue of what they produce as a byproduct.