Lighting, replenishing and getting heat from smokeless fuel

A._Badger

[QUOTE=michaelgordon;67164718
I do have a couple of questions. On the grate there is a lot of small pieces of coal that have not burnt down and a couple of large pieces, is this normal? Does smokeless produce more soot on the liner, if i continue to burn mainly weekends only but will probably be using it daily for a couple weeks over Christmas will i need to get it swept again as i only had the one sweep in June this year (only installed august last year).

Thirdly and i think this will be the debatable one but can smokeless be burnt with wood i know there is something here with regards to this and it producing an acid when smoke condenses on the liner but again someone here said thats nonsense as they were a sweep and never seen it. Is the way i started today going to be ok?

Thanks in advance[/QUOTE]

1/ It's not unusual to have some partially burnt fuel left in your stove the following morning. Leave it there and start your fire in the usual way.

2/ Smokeless produces far less soot than coal and wood. That's its main attraction.

3/ I've seen the 'acid' comment made on this forum several times in the past. I have no firm evidence either way (and I suspect neither have those who believe its a problem). My sweep says it's nonsense so I go by his advice. That said, I only add the occasional piece of wood to my smokeless - for example when starting the fire to help it draw and sometimes for a short burn towards the end of the evening when adding more smokeless would be wasteful.

Tonjaren

A._Badger wrote: »

1/

3/ I've seen the 'acid' comment made on this forum several times in the past. I have no firm evidence either way (and I suspect neither have those who believe its a problem). My sweep says it's nonsense so I go by his advice. That said, I only add the occasional piece of wood to my smokeless - for example when starting the fire to help it draw and sometimes for a short burn towards the end of the evening when adding more smokeless would be wasteful.

I've seen these comments too and have been careful about burning the two together, but then I wonder how many chimneys have become problematic by burning the two together before the days of the Internet spreading the 'knowledge'?

A._Badger

Tonjaren wrote: »

I've seen these comments too and have been careful about burning the two together, but then I wonder how many chimneys have become problematic by burning the two together before the days of the Internet spreading the 'knowledge'?

Good point!

Also, I've no doubt that the quality (or lack of quality, in fact) of some liners being sold plays into this. It wouldn't surprise me if, faced with a relatively new liner that is rotting through, an installer will grab at any lifeline to talk himself out of responsibility for having sold a poor quality product.

Having said which, I hedge my bets by not doing it all the time.

michaelgordon

Thanks Badger. Didnt realise smokeless produced lee, i though it was more as im sure i read if burning smokeless you had to get chimney swept at least twice during the burning cycle. Maybe that was normal coal. May look at smokeless again as i think it would be cheaper to run rather than logs would need a grenadier or something like it to light as thats a bit of a pain.

A._Badger

michaelgordon wrote: »

Thanks Badger. Didnt realise smokeless produced lee, i though it was more as im sure i read if burning smokeless you had to get chimney swept at least twice during the burning cycle. Maybe that was normal coal. May look at smokeless again as i think it would be cheaper to run rather than logs would need a grenadier or something like it to light as thats a bit of a pain.

You've got it the wrong way round, I'm aafraid. You should never burn ordinary housecoal on a stove, because it produces smoke and soot which will pretty soon block the liner.

The general recommendation seems to be if you burn wood, have it swept at least twice a year and, according to my sweep, once a year is fine for smokeless.

I use a Grenadier and it's excellent. I wouldn't be without one.

michaelgordon

yes i know not to burn house coal i think that was the first bit of advice i ever received. Do you or anyone know much about the grenadier, its expensive and i read about looftlighter which is a wand type lighter just wondering if any experience of this as its only £50 so a lot less .

mardatha

I have a Parkray Cumbria, we live in a very high exposed cold place, and we keep it on most of the year. We burn smokeless eggs. We empty it once a day, in the morning, and top it up with one shoveful of eggs. We then fill it up at night, adding a shovelful of anthracite on top to stop it burning too fast. If you keep the stove on for weeks at a time then the stone walls get the heat and hold onto it, making the whole house much warmer.
We always get the sweep twice a year.

A._Badger

michaelgordon wrote: »

yes i know not to burn house coal i think that was the first bit of advice i ever received. Do you or anyone know much about the grenadier, its expensive and i read about looftlighter which is a wand type lighter just wondering if any experience of this as its only £50 so a lot less .

I bought a Grenadier as a moving in present (for myself - sad or what?) about seven years ago and it has been used every time I've lit the stove since. I've never had a problem with it, though the tip (which gets red hot when in use) will need replacing soon. That's pretty easily done, BTW, and the spares are easy to get.

There are design features I'm not so keen on (setting the height and angle is a bit Heath Robinson) but in terms of doing its job and product quality mine has been faultless. I'd say it's one of the best products I've bought in recent years in terms of its product quality.

I've not heard of the other product you mention, but I'd be happy to answer any questions about the Grenadier if it helped.

michaelgordon

bit more advice please, would i be better getting 150kg of smokeless or 100kg smokeless & 50kg Anthracite going to contact the coal man tomorrow to order

A._Badger

michaelgordon wrote: »

bit more advice please, would i be better getting 150kg of smokeless or 100kg smokeless & 50kg Anthracite going to contact the coal man tomorrow to order

I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but I can't.

Last year I experimented with anthracite, buying a few 25kg sacks and adding it to already burning fires made with Newflame. It worked very well, so this summer I ordered half a metric ton of anthracite and half of Newflame.

This hasn't worked out quite so well, I have to admit. This batch of anthracite is different from the stuff I bought last year and seems more tricky to burn, which reminds me that anthracite is a natural product and is inclined to vary from batch to batch.

My advice would be to stick with what you know works and experiment only in small quantities.

I hope that's at least some use!