How do you use yout multi fuel stoves?

[mylittlemonkey]

Just moved into a house with a large multi fuel stove but vendor left no instructions for use and never had one before. We have had a chimney sweep round to clean it and were hoping we could use it through the winter to help reduce usage of central heating esp as I work from home and have set up desk in the room with the stove in.

We have tried different woods and just keep finding it only stays alight for 20 mins at the most before having to constantly top up and I still am not getting a great deal of heat from it. I end up putting the heating on at lunchtime to avoid having to spend all my time on getting the fire going and still shivering.

What fuel is the best to use for heat and what is the best way to light a fire and keep it going? Also how much would you expect to use in a day to heat a room as I am using so much I think it is probably cheaper to have a small heater going.

Thanks in advance!

[struggling100]

I'm still getting used to mine but it seems to work fine if you follow this routine...

1. Leave a bed of ash from the last fire about 1cm deep across the whole fire bed
2. Lay out four pieces of fire lighter in each quadrant of the stove. Build a kind of teepee of kindling around these to the middle. The idea is that you get a fire through the whole of the bed of the stove
3. Leaving the door a bit ajar, light fire lighters and watch flames spread across the fire bed
4. Once the kindling has caught, shut the door and shove pieces of log on top across the whole fire bed. Keep all air vents open for 10-20 minutes or so until it's roaring away. (You might want to look online and see if you can find a manual for your particular kind of multifuel stove to see what the appropriate air vent setting is. Mine has one airvent setting for coal, and another for wood.)
5. Once the fire is going, turn down the air supply so the flames are smaller but still burning. Add logs across the whole fire bed every 1-1.5 hours
6. When the fire is completely coal, clean glass with vinegar and a bit of the ash (sounds weird, really works)

Please, please make sure you have a carbon monoxide alarm installed before you start doing any of this. I have heard some dreadful stories about terrible DIY stove installations. :(

I use logs in mine because I can get them cheaply and local, and the whole point of the stove was to try to be a bit more carbon neutral. However, you might find coals warmer.

[strawberriesandplumbs]

I light mine with kindling and load with a bucket if coke shut the air off and it will burn slowly for most of the day. It will heat the room It's in, I work from home so move into this room through the winter from my cold but lovely summer view office. If I open the doors through downstairs it will heat the whole area. It will die down around 4/5 or load with logs or more coke to burn through the evening.

[Dontwanttooutmyself]

I find I need to keep the door ajar for 5 mins every time I add a log. I also use smokeless coal (NOT real coal) at the start, and wait till that and the kindling have both caught before adding logs.

OP - its a knack, and every stove/fire is different. If you're not getting out much heat, the chances are that your logs are damp. YOu need to use seasoned wood (hardwood preferable, but seasoned soft wood is fine) and that is the hardest thing. Properly seasoned wood should have a moisture content of about 20% or less. The stuff you buy in bags from the garage forecourt will NOT be dry enough (it is seasoned, but not fully - the garages get ripped off by their suppliers, who know they can flog partially seasoned wood).

You need to hunt around for a good log merchant, and then try to find somewhere to store it at home (in the dry). If you can't find a good supplier then stick to smokeless coal or heat logs till you can build up your own supply of wood for seasoning. (Wood cut in the in spring 2014 won't be ready for burning in winter 2016).

Ask your chimney sweep for recommendations of wood suppliers, or try any local pubs that have real fires!

[mylittlemonkey]

Thanks all for great suggestions. Will try researching a good supplier of seasoned wood and leaving the door open for a bit when adding wood to fire. I can't find a make on the stove but the handle for the ash tray says esse on it. I will look for instruction manual on their website. lastly Thanks so much for advice re carbon monoxide will Def be getting one of those.

[PigletJohn]

mutifuel stoves will burn solid fuel, which burns hotter, contains more heat, and burns longer, than wood.

It's handy to have some around, even if you only use it when ut's too cold/wet to fetch in wood, or you have run out, or you want to bank it up overnight. You will be able to set the air intake and/or damper nearly closed to minimise speed of burn.

if like me you are very slovenly you can put a lot of household and kitchen rubbish on it (not plastic). Fatty meat scraps burn well!

[PigletJohn]

btw if you hang around freegle or somewhere, and have a big scruffy car, you can pick up old fence posts, offcuts, doors, floorboards etc for nothing.

I no longer have a multifuel so give away my unwanted timber.

[UriGeller]

I second going to a proper wood merchant. We recently got a load of petrol station logs that are not properly seasoned. right now they are useless, and stacked in the airing cupboard for a few months in the hope that might help.

I've got chillies strung up above my stove, drying out!