Woodburning stove vents

nebakanezer

Hi everyone, quick question, so I've been using a wood burner in a house I'm currently renting (so it's not mine) and it tears through everything, far too much draw, and opening and closing the main vent made no difference at all.

So I located the problem that the top of the glass wasn't sealed, there was a few mil gap along the top, so I stuffed some stove rope along it and voila, burning much better and the vent now does its job (obviously I will be asking for it to be serviced) but in the meantime I wondered if this sounded like the right thing to do, and mainly I keep hearing about top and bottom vents, I only have one? Am I missing something or do some just have the one? It's a tiger free standing job if that helps, looks like it's a few years old too, thanks in advance.

A._Badger

You need to get it professionally serviced as soon as possible. Though I personally think there is a fair bit of panic-mongering about carbon monoxide these days, it is absolutely lethal and stoves do produce it. You need to get yours checked to make sure it is safe. A professional chimney sweep would be a good starting point.

Ectophile

The stove should be reasonably leak-free so that closing the vents will really damp down the flames. There should be stove rope sealing any glass, and also around the door.

All the stoves I've ever used have had two or three vents. Their locations vary considerably - I once had trouble lighting one until I found a chain sticking out the back of the stove. Pulling the chain opened a hidden vent. So have a really good look around for any handles, knobs or other things that can be pulled or turned.

Typically, you open all the vents to light it, then close the lower one(s) as the fire gets burning, leaving only the top vent open.