multi flue stove problems

darren_clarke

have a multi stove and am having a few problems which I think might be the draw, just wanted some advice


basically, not matter what we burn (logs, coal, smokeless coal) it will not stay alight, and goes out


when I am starting the fire, paper and kindling, it runs great, espically if I am using fire starters, all the smoke seems to go up flue and comes out the top as this can be seen, when opening the door, no smoke comes out, but if I let the fire starters and kindling burn down it all goes out


will it be a draw problem, as when it is up (kindling, paper, fire starters) it doesn't seem to produce much heat, the stove gets hot to touch, but about 1ft away from it, it is not very hot




tried asking a few installers, but they arnt intrested in helping as they wasn't intrested in fitting it, (old farm house granite walls)


cheers

matelodave

Is the chimney clean and unobstructed, what about ventilation into the room?. Did it ever work properly?

highrisklowreturn

From my experience the top plate may be damaged - this happened to my old stove when I knocked out the throat plate with a hammer, causing me to dislodge the top plate. The only partial fix was to seal around the top of the stove and the body with fire cement but even then it never ran as good as before.

Ectophile

If you haven't already done so, get the chimney swept.

Make sure all the air vents are open when you light the stove, and keep them open until it's burning well. If there's a damper in the flue, make sure that's fully open.

Start off by burning kindling. When that's going use small firewood. If you haven't got any, split bigger logs with an axe. Only try to burn big logs when you've got a good bed of glowing embers.

I find the most effective approach is to build a mound of scrunched newspaper in the middle of the stove. Stack the kindling against that, "wigwam" style. Stack bigger sticks and split logs against them. Wood that's leaning burns better than logs laying flat.

Above all, make sure your logs are dry and well-seasoned. In theory some woods, such as ash, burn green - but don't bother trying.