Leaving the fire "slumbering" overnight

SG27

I did this for the first time last night, by mistake. Loaded the stove up and about45 minutes later decided to go to bed. So I closed all the vents completely so that the fire didn't get too hot while I was asleep. Got up this morning to a warmish room and a hot stove. So chucked a piece of kindling on and got the smouldering wood going again.

That was great, warm room and instant fire! But obviously for the previous 8 hours the stove has been sitting in the creasote zone on my thermometer so surely this can't be good? I'm burning only wood in a multi fuel stove. A friend says they do it every night and not to worry (they burn coal mainly) it's not something I would want to do more than probably once a week but how bad actually is it?

Nada666

Is it not entirely normal for most people with Rayburns/solid stoves to leave them on continually all winter?

wintergirl

I'm sure others will come along with their views on this.
A lot has been written about slumbering a stove, both here and on another very good Woodburning Forum : www.thegreenlivingforum.co.uk - Do a search on the site and read what you find!
Basically its pretty much a no no when you burn logs, IMO, even if only done once a week, as you are suggesting. Better to have short, hot wood fires than trying to keep it ticking over like that. If you want to keep it going overnight, use smokeless fuel of some sort.
The thing is, as I understand it, the creosote build up in the flue when slumbering logs is so hard when cool, that a normal sweep of the chimney will not clear it at all. You end up having to buy some special compound (can't remember what its called now) to sprinkle on hot fires for a while, which create a chemical reaction to break down the creosote, before sweeping.
Personally, (and we burn wood pretty much 100% of the time on our stove,) I wouldn't risk it, even occasionally. You may be lucky, and be fine doing it, but I've spoken to people who have had chimney fires, and they are darn scary:eek:

matelodave

There will be plenty around who say they've been doing it for years but as wintergirl says a chimney fire is not something you want to contend with - especially if it entails getting the fire brigade round as well.

It happened a few years ago in the MIL's house whilst I was staying there. Not only was the noise of the fire roaring up the chimney quite alarming but the resulting mess was horrendous. A new carpet was required covered in soot, water & muddy foot marks and the living room had to be redecorated as well. It was covered by insurance but not something I'd want to repeat.

SG27

Thanks you have both pretty much confirmed my thinking anyway. I won't do it again!

Winter girl, why is it ok to do it with coal but not wood? The friend who suggested it does burn coal. They light their stove around October and keep it going until march!

alleycat`

SG27 wrote: »

Thanks you have both pretty much confirmed my thinking anyway. I won't do it again!

Winter girl, why is it ok to do it with coal but not wood? The friend who suggested it does burn coal. They light their stove around October and keep it going until march!

Allegedly smokeless fuel leaves less residue on the chimney liner and less "nasties" condense back out on the cold chimney "walls".

Not sure i'd, personally, want to slumber on a liner with any sort of fuel as the diameter of the "pipe" is seriously reduced.

matelodave

Coal (anthracite & smokeless - not steam coal) burns cleanly and doesn't fill the chimney with fluffy soot which contains creosote & tar which is what happens when wood is burning slowly.

wintergirl

We have a stainless steel rigid twin walled flue going up through the house, as our 80's build had no brick chimney. It was darn expensive to buy and have installed, so we want to protect it for as long as possible, hence we will never slumber the stove. - It is not our main heat source, so we are lucky to not need it running through the night. Love the heat it throws out though! :j

muckybutt

EEEEK ! Slumber burning..... BIG NO NO !

The amount of people that do slumber burning is frightening, but they usually get the message when they either have a chimney fire or the liner becomes completely blocked - sometimes to the extent that it has to be written off !

I can always tell when a customer slumber burns - soot smells different likewise the same when they have had a chimney fire again different smell, when I say to them " you burn this cold / overnight " they look at me like i'm some sort of clairvoyant as if to say how do you know that !

I had one tonight as a matter of fact, stove with liner not drawing properly. Took the trap off to be met with a pungent acrid chemical smell, when questioned they admitted they burnt it cold as they got too hot with the stove on !

This photo is from a different slumber burn job - Clearview with liner blocked completely after customer slumber burnt wood again they got too hot !



The amount you see there should really be two cupped handfulls !

Greenfires

Haha - been there - seen that!! Not this year though - hopefully all my regulars have got the message now! Main offenders this season have been new customers burning housecoal.

Did catch one of the regulars out last week though

"Erm - have you been burning anything out of the ordinary in here Wendy?"

"No - not that I can think of - why?"

"This soot isn't from burning wood"

"Oh - er - yes - er - I did buy a few of those instant fire logs..."

"Yep - that'll be it!"

She'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for that pesky meddling sweep!

Kiran

So faced with the same predicament as the OP what is the correct procedure? If the fire is still burning when its time to turn in, is it best to open the vent and leave it to burn out quickly so that you only have the cooling of the fire going out rather than prolonged low heat?