Newbie with smoky flue

duggo1

My stove has been going about 3 hours today, and when was in the garden just now I could smell smoke. I watched my flue and there was some coming out the top. Is this normal with a defra stove? I was only burning one large log at the time and there was still some flame, but was probably getting near to refueling. I have been waiting for the flames to go out before refueling. Am I doing it right? Is some smoke acceptable? I've just thrown in a couple of large bits of kindling and another log - maybe I'm not putting enough in? I did notice when I refuelled that a little smoke came into the room, which it's never done before.
Any ideas or tips?
Ps wood is dry.

duggo1

Just been out and looked, and there is no smoke now, so I suspect I left it too long to refuel?

muckybutt

Sounds like you were burning on the cold side of things as well, get yourself a stovepipe thermometer, burning too cool is just as bad as burning wet / damp wood as you don't get correct combustion this will in turn block your liner up very quickly with tar - creosote and soot.

duggo1

Thanks muckybutt. We don't have any stove pipe indoors as it goes straight out back. Is there a thermometer you can recommend to put directly on our stove?
Or any recommendations on how not to burn a cool fire?

muckybutt

That's a bummer ! all the stove pipe thermometers I know of are magnetic and are just for stove pipe use as the stove its self will be cooler than the pipe.

As for the burning cool and what not to do, keep a good air supply to the fire by altering the dampers accordingly, keep the fire stocked up - our stove doesn't like just having one large log at a time in, ideally you want a few smaller logs underneath the big log to maintain the heat.

An observation - you say your flue goes directly out the back of your stove ? does it go straight outside from there or is it into a chimney ?
Only reason im asking is you are only supposed to go horizontal with flue pipes for 450mm as they can become blocked with soot and ash which is then a high CO poisoning risk if it becomes blocked.

duggo1

The straight out bit was something we discussed with our fitter (there was an earlier post). But it actually goes out then up inside the wall, so does meet the regs. From the sound of it I'm not putting enough wood on. Once its going I close the bottom vent and have the top one about half way along which is where it's recommended.

It's a 4kw stove so one big log can fill it and last for an hour, so it sounds like I need to use some little logs at the same time. I was trying not to open the door and refuel too often, but think I've been a bit mean with the wood.

ihatemyhouse

arnt you meant to burn smokeless fuels on defra log burners

ihatemyhouse

also what size is the flue that has been fitted on it 5 inch or 6 inch

Gloomendoom

ihatemyhouse wrote: »

arnt you meant to burn smokeless fuels on defra log burners

No, you burn logs.

highrisklowreturn

is this an early april fools thread? what normally happens when you set something alight? Yes, it smokes. Now put it in a big box of iron. Yes it has the same effect. Capice?

duggo1

How rude! I thought the whole idea of defra approved woodburning stoves was that they burnt off the smoke so it could be used in a smoke control zone. Hence my question on wether it was normal for a little smoke to be seen coming out.

The day I asked the question was the only day in the four weeks I've had it that I could actually SMELL smoke in the garden, and I don't want to annoy my neighbours.