Best way to light a fire in a small woodburning stove.

JohnB47

Ok here is my two halfpence worth.

Firstly, I disagree with the idea that you should leave ash covering the bottom grate. When you use the control that lets air come in through the bottom grate and there's is a bed of ash there, no air can come up. I think people are thinking of setting a log fire on a solid base, not a grate - that's when you should cultivate a bed of ash. So each time I rake most of that ash down into the ash pan.

Also, I scavenge light wood from builders and I use paper, sticks I make myself and this scrap wood to get the stove going before I put logs on. I light the fire and open the bottom draft until it's well going, then I close that bottom draft control and open the top 'air wash' control, which draws air down over the glass.

Then I keep an eye and close down the top control gradually to get a good balance between air coming in and the fire going out or the glass going black.

It is a bit of an art - something you get into after a while but you really need to get the stove up to a good heat before bunging really big logs on. If you find you are having to use the bottom draft control to keep logs going, you've put them on too soon and the stove is simply not hot enough (or the logs aren't seasoned properly). You can buy little magnetic thermometers that give you an idea when the stove is up to temperature.

Also, after a while you'll get to interpret the state of the fire from the flame colour. Too light/bright yellow and there's too much oxygen getting in meaning the wood is burning too quickly and too much heat is wasted going up the flue, so you need to close down one or both controls. If the flames go really dark - my wife calls them black flames, the fire either isn't up to temperature or the controls are closed down too much. A log burner working well is one where the wood produces mid to darkish flames, with a nice lazy action, not bright flames and busy. This means that most heat is being taken out of the wood and it is taking it's time going round the baffle plate at the top, so the maximum heat is being extracted and sent out to the room.

My dad always had a roaring open coal fire going. I shudder to think how much of that heat was racing up the chimney. A multi fuel wood/coal burner would have been much more efficient and cheaper to run.

Sorry, one last point. Running a wood burning stove is not like making a casserole, putting it in the oven or slow cooker and walking away. It needs fairly constant attention. Even with a good load of wood in place and the stove working optimally, you'll need to be tending it every 30 - 40 minutes or so or more often. I think that some people just aren't up for that level of effort.

I love tending to my wood burner. There's something primeval about the whole experience.

suki1964

Im of a bit of fire lighter and a handful of kindling type of lass

But then I don't buy newspapers

Hoof_Hearted

I don't buy newspapers. I run on junk mail.....