Wood Burning Stove Heat Question

suki1964

saverbuyer wrote: »

Do you close both vents?

Once it's up to full temp I do

I start with sticks and small logs with the vents fully open. Then when they are well lit I put on the smokeless and close top off, then when they are going strong I start to close the bottom vent

I lit my stove there 20 mins ago and have just started to close down the bottom vent. I'm sat the other side of the room and can feel the heat. Fire box is glowing lovely already

saverbuyer

suki1964 wrote: »

Once it's up to full temp I do

I start with sticks and small logs with the vents fully open. Then when they are well lit I put on the smokeless and close top off, then when they are going strong I start to close the bottom vent

I lit my stove there 20 mins ago and have just started to close down the bottom vent. I'm sat the other side of the room and can feel the heat. Fire box is glowing lovely already

I'll give that a go tonight. I usually leave a bit of each vent open.

suki1964

saverbuyer wrote: »

I'll give that a go tonight. I usually leave a bit of each vent open.

Each stove is different, what works for me may not work for you.

Even the same model will burn differently in different set ups, mines free standing with a twin wall flue going straight out the roof. I live in a very windy area and am situated on a hill surrounded by fields, so have no worries about getting a good draw

I also have a cheaper stove that may not be as air tight as other makes

My vents are sliders I close the top completely and the bottom one to one very small finger width. Right now I have a red fire box, red coals and a gentle flame. That will keep like that till I get in again around 4pm when I will reload it. If I'm going out longer then I add a layer of anthracite as that will keep going for hours. When I get home I just give it a rake, add more coals ( smokeless) and open her up to get her going again

It's a question of trial and error. This is our 6th year with this stove so we know it pretty well

dominoman

If you're burning wood then once it is well alight I was told you should close the bottom vent completely, leaving only the top one open. Fully open top one if you want the heat to be max, and then slowly close it partially when the room is warm and you want to slow it down a bit.

I have a Jotul F100 which I had installed a few weeks ago. It doesn't even have a bottom vent (so can only burn wood)

Mojisola

Melaniep101 wrote: »

It does take a good couple of hours to really start kicking out decent heat though.

firefox1956 wrote: »

A good couple of hours to kick out a decent heat !!!!!!!!!
My Clearview 500 will kick out a decent heat in about 10 minutes !!

Something isn't right with a stove that takes that long to heat up.

My experience is the same as firefox's.

firefox1956

I agree something is not right...........
I presume the OP is shutting the door after lighting the stove.

prezzacc

dominoman wrote: »

If you're burning wood then once it is well alight I was told you should close the bottom vent completely, leaving only the top one open. Fully open top one if you want the heat to be max, and then slowly close it partially when the room is warm and you want to slow it down a bit.

I have a Jotul F100 which I had installed a few weeks ago. It doesn't even have a bottom vent (so can only burn wood)

I was also told the same. Have a Stovax Stockon 6.


Kindling for 5 minutes, chuck more kindling get the fire really going to warm the stove and the flue another 10 minutes. Then logs . Bottom vent closed. And top one open is Max slowly close to keep wood burning for longer. I find it goes a little black if I close it much. However im a complete stove newbie and im sure im not getting mine hot enough yet. A thermometer decent kindling and new logs should sort that!


Its quite an art form , I first thought you just chucked it all in with a match !!

Gers

We have a Woodwarm 5Kw and it's brilliant.

Light the fire, when it's going close primary air source (on ours it's the bottom little door) and keep the secondary air source open (on ours it's a wheel like vent on the left hand side).

As the fire gets going slowly and gradually close off the secondary air source until the flames are licking / dancing around the inside. This is what keeps the glass clean, if the flames are roaring then it's not burning correctly. A 'glowing' fire will burn a long time with radiant heat coming off it.

Just this week I've been lent a woodburner fan which sits on the top of the stove and is designed to throw more heat out into the room and keep it from going up to the ceiling - still testing it but so far it feels good.

Melaniep101

I'm not the OP - I'm the poster with the slow heating woodburner! We just don't get instant heat coming out of the woodburner - it takes ages for the flue and stove to get really hot to the point where its radiating heat. The stove is really thick cast iron, and although we get the heat from the flames straight away, it takes a while to get it so hot that the contents are glowing red. Suppose its the same principle as lighting a BBQ with charcoal, takes a while to get to the proper cooking heat IYSWIM.

We use coal and well seasoned wood, get the chimney swept regularly, build the fire well with kindling, paper etc, keep the vents open until the fire is burning well then close them down.

prezzacc

Interesting hearing the differences in wood burners! On a flame related question has anyone had this:


The fire was going last night, Glowing red from wood, were 2 small flat pieces of pallet wood in there (like a drink coaster size) with small flames nearly burning out, all of a sudden the flames grew bigger and bigger, the holes at the back of the fire (not sure what they are called sorry) then appeared to be a flame thrower on full!! I could hardly see anything but a big orange ball of flames with two tiny pieces of wood in there. I was worried there was a chimney fire!


1-2 minutes later the flames died down again. All I can think is that at the time there was a mighty gust of wind outside?! Would this cause anything? I'm assuming its normal!? I had it swept last weekend and there were no problems and not dirty/tarred up etc.


Sorry to jump in the thread!