Wood Burners

Poppycat

My burner is still on at mo, boy dont have kick out some heat even on the lowest setting, I am boiling here sat besides it as pc about a foot away.

Lotus-eater

A friend told me a long time ago about how you should never burn driftwood as it releases toxins picked up from fuel from ships and all kinds of stuff. I found this forum debate when I decided to check on it.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/firepl/msg0912544110124.html

When I used the dry paper stuffer thing, I found my stove never got hot enough and I think it probably helped soot up my chimney. I have just gone back to good dry hardwood, with some well dried softwood put in now and again.

navig8r

In over 30 years of burning wood we have never wasted time and effort removing nails, we remove the nails from the ash in the bottom of the stove with a large magnet from a old speaker wrapped in a polythene bag,the reason for the bag? you hold the the whole lot over you metal recycling container and take the magnet out of the bag..the metal falls off and magnet stay clean of any bits and stops it looking like a hedge hog ...As for making blocks from paper:eek: ...the cost/time/reward figures do not add up in my opinion.

If a well deigned WB stove has dirty glass it is probably because it has been on too low a draught setting and needs to be opened up to burn the tar off it.

Dave

Poppycat

Good idea about the magnet never thought of that we spend ages get rid of nails in pallets.

We do get a lot of tar on the glass and the door, and also have the burner on low as it gets so hot in this room with it on, and wood burners much quicker

Lotus-eater

You should not have the burner on low enough to tar up the glass, you will be tarring up the chimney as well. There is an art to burning a woodburner properly, to maximise the wood useage and heat output, while keeping the chimney clean.
There are some good threads on http://www.itsnoteasybeinggreen.org/ about this, the wood for fuel section. I would advise you to read as much as you can about it.

debbie42

Lotus-eater wrote: »

There are some good threads on itsnoteasybeinggreen.co.uk about this, the wood for fuel section.

Link doesn't work?

I've only had mine a few months, and am still getting used to it!

Lotus-eater

debbie42 wrote: »

Link doesn't work?

I've only had mine a few months, and am still getting used to it!

Updated link
Wood energy section of the forum, fill yer boots with wood/woodburning stories and advice.

knightstyle

Just thought I would add a couple of things for anyone thinking of buying a stove.
First make sure you can close it down, is there a seal round the door? Are there fire bricks inside or is it double walled? There are some cheap imported stoves without these features and they are impossible to control.
Do you want to heat water? If so look for one with a backboiler even if this is a job for the future.
Second get an expert to check the chimney, you will probably have to pay, but I can walk from my house to a burnt out house where they had a fire a month after installing a woodburner.
What size logs will the stove take? 50cm is good.
Look at the room it is going in, sometimes it is possible to put a simple duct through the floor to heat the rooms above, don't know if this complies with building regs. but it works.
Finally I agree about the nails, we simply collect them every few days from the grate.
I am not an expert but have had various woodburners for the past 20 years.

bagathacat

Poppycat
Quick tip re the glass getting dirty - when you reload the stove, turn all controls to open, and then open the door a chink. Leave it for a minute and then slowly open the door. When you've reloaded, close the main control and leave the airwash control (at the top on the Savoy) open for a little while. Also, try not to burn wood too low, this will tar up the glass as well. Try not to burn pine - this will tar up the door and could invalidate your liner guarantee - it's also a nightmare to burn! I work in a stove shop, and have just had a Stockton 3 fitted - it's lovely, and we light it every night even if we don't need to!!

the_incredible_mulk

Hi. I definately would recommend a wood burner. We installed one ourselves for the first time. We bought the stove, liner and bits from an ebay seller. We hired a cherry picker from a local plant hire firm so that we could drop the liner down. I went to a local engineering firm and gave them dimensions of the register plate and position of the hole for the flue and they cut the metal plate. Put it all together and used the fireproof cement on the joints. Job done!! We ended up painting the outside of our house and trim the confiers / hedging with the cherry picker which saved us a fortune as well!!! Let your neighbours know you are happy to take any spare wood and you'll be sorted. Good luck.