Solid fuel Rayburn

mehefin

Hi all
Just wondered how you start up your solid fuel Rayburns. Just had my annual battle of the relighting ..Rayburn 2 Mehefin 1.. but I won (eventually)and its now going famously!!!:j .
Have tried various methods int he past including one of those gas poker things.. very wary of them.
Perhaps I might get some pointers for next year.
Cheers

Hobbit_X

We had a solid fuel rayburn years ago.

Newspaper and loads of kindling (small bits of wood) . Get it burning well on wood and when you have a good wood base then start to add the coal. As I remember you are best running it on wood for the first hour and adding the odd bit of coal.

Don't try parafin - I nearly lost my eybrows doing that!

jonewer

Napalm?

just joking!

BTW - I'm fascinated by these solid wood stoves. How is the heat controlled? Do you have to keep feeding it like you would a normal fire? What happens if you go away for a long weekend?

Hobbit_X

The heat is controled by the ammount/type of fuel you put, and by controlling the ammount of air which gets into the stove.
Incidently the stove needs a way of getting sufficient air into the house for it to burn safely and well. One of the benefits of solid fuel is that you are constant changing the air in the house.

Yes if you go away for the weekend they go out.

There were some solid fuel boilers which after filling up would last a few days

jonewer

Much as I would like to be tempted, that just sounds so much hassle! Also, dont you have to clean out the ash every day and doesnt this cause a huge mess?

Not like I even own a house to put a solid-fuel cooker in (and even if I did, would prbably have to get the cheapest possible made-in-Botswana cooker of any description from argos or somewhere), but I'm just in love with the idea of cast-iron aga-type cookers. Solid fuel seemed like a cheaper alternative.....

Hmmmm.