Why is my stove not *that* hot?

Andrea15

Qyburn said:

We have a Morso Squirrel. Using solid fuel it's much slower to respond and to get properly hot, compared to using wood. However we do use it occasionally as it is easier to keep it running all day or even 24/7, for example during multi-day power cuts.

Coal I think is perfect for this time of the year when everybody is in all day. The stove is lit early in the morning when it is still warm, and keeps going all day.

Andrea15

ariarnia said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Have you tried just burning wood? If you get good heat from this then you’ll know the problem is the smokeless fuel you currently use rather than how the stove is being run. 

i agree with this. the easiest way to check if its the stove or the fuel is to get some logs. if you only buy a small amount its overpriced for the amount you get but its only a one off for the test. 

the next thing to try would be a stove top fan (less than 20 from amazon) to push the air out into the room to make up for it being surrounded on three sides. 

then when you next have a chimney sweep out ask them to look to see if theres any problems they can spot with the flu like the rope seal being missing or whatever that might be letting more heat up and out. 

Yes, with logs the temperature goes much further up quickly, but just as quickly it descends. the stove needs constant attention.
I have a fan which is sitting at the back and it helps somewhat.
The chimney sweep gave us the all clear.

Effician

Andrea15 said:

Effician said:

If you look at the pics posted by olly-j you'll see three controls, 

primary & airwash , these should close the relevant air intakes off completely,

secondary on a defra stove will hit the stop & appear to be closed but will still allow air into the upper section of the firebox causing more top burn on coal than desired.

Look at my picture and you will see that the vents are as per the drawing.
What I meant is that I don't know if the top vent actually closes entirely or not.

Can't see the position of the  push/pull secondary controller on your pics,.

To check if the controls all close fully get a roaring fire going then shut all vents, if it doesn't kill the fire then either you have a leak or the secondary is not fully closing.

Andrea15

What I do is to put new coal and a piece of wood with vents 1 and 3 closed and 2 half way and the wood burns very well indeed (and the temperature goes up).
I think even if the second vent is closed the wood still burns fine. 

Effician

Sounds typical for defra spec stove, even with all vents closed there is enough secondary air to provide good combustion/cleaner burning for wood while helping to reduce emissions , just not great for smokeless coal.

Qyburn

Andrea15 said:

Coal I think is perfect for this time of the year when everybody is in all day. The stove is lit early in the morning when it is still warm, and keeps going all day.

Preferably smokeless "coal".  House coal would soot our stove up big time.

We don't use much because a lot of our firewood is from our own ground, so might as well use the free fuel.

Andrea15

Thank for all the replies.

Bottom line... "tough luck", then. different types of smokeless coal won't make that big a difference, either.

John_the_Boy

I have a stovax stockton 7 which is a slightly bigger stove but if you are only putting about 2KG in your stove I would say you have much less smokeless than you need to get a decent heat. I also use brazier (have used others and they are roughly similar) and I need about 6KG in mine to get a around 350 on the stove thermometer (its an inset so I have to have the thermometer on the top rather than the flue). 

Try putting in 4 to 5KG and see how you get on.