Log burner. What am I doing wrong??

[Miljea]

We have a log burner (ftr, here when we bought!). It's a 'cassette' burner, inset into a 20 year old fireplace.

We've lit it reasonably successfully for 10 years. But this year, I'm really struggling to get it to 'take'.

My technique:

A tiny square of fire starter, with a 'frame' of kindling around it, supporting 2-3 small logettes of compressed sawdust, which catch and burn merrily away. Which I add t with more logettes, for maybe 15 mins. But this doesn't generate enough heat to set a log on fire.

We have a reliable log supplier (of seasoned, usually hard wood) but DO we need an intermediate step, of, say soft wood? Pine? 🤔

What do you think?

Are you using the vents intelligently?

I wonder why your technique worked fine before but not now. Do you have new cracks in the stove or something else (an air leak) which means the airflow isn't being channeled right?

When was the chimney last swept?

Sweep would comment if you need a service or if there are cracks, frayed rope, etc. I never heard of a cassette stove before & don't know what their special rules or features are.

Sweep and clean the whole thing out abs make sure it is dry

Sounds like it's not drawing properly.

Assuming you've had your chimney swept, give the vents and the baffle plate a wobble, see if that dislodges anything.

Also helps to keep the doors open just a crack until it gets going properly.

This is the log burner.

I admit I don't touch the vents at all, the two on the front bottom of the two doors are open, as is the 'slider' above the doors - that is the 'air-wash' to keep the glass clean.

It was swept last year ( and the sweep admitted there was all but no soot, as we burn well-dried wood and compressed sawdust logettes).

I do keep the door open 1/4-1/2" open initially, often with the lounge door ajar, even the front door if it smokes too much (initially).

I'm thinking it's fuel, that I need an intermediary between sawdust logettes and hard-wood logs?

We use kindling which is usually pine

Usually buy it from homebargains or iceland

What you are doing sounds a lot more systematic than what we do, so I can only assume the hardwood is different now. Larger/newer?
We never leave the stove door open. Never.

I put logs straight on the kindling and it catches fine...

Why do you leave the door open btw? They work better with it shut.

I use newspaper, about 6 sheets separately folded to about an inch and then tied into a “knot”. Maybe an egg box too or the inside of a loo roll. Soft wood kindling in a pyramid over this, and then the seasoned logs. Whole lot constructed before I light it, with the vents fully open until it’s roaring.

Use pine or similar species. See if you can find fatwood online or go and find some-this is the stuff thats in the limbs nearest the trunk thats full of pine resin and stuff so goes right up. Do feather sticks with your kindling (on youtube). Not sure what size logettes are but I use those small bits of square wood about an inch wide and 5 inches long, usually found in hardware shop.

I light cotton wool pads, then add peeled bark of any sort which lights the kindling wood (a lot of it) then I close the door and get the air flow going. the kindling wood will get easily hot enough if you use lots of it and have it spaced out to burn pine logs. Go from the pine logs (or cedar or Birch) to hard woods of gradually increasing sizes. Keep your logs by the fire so they're warm before going in.

A chimney needs to draw for it to work. Check that birds haven't stuffed a load of twigs down it to build nests. Corvids are a devil for this. If you can't get a full draught of air moving up, the fire won't go. You can get cones that burn coloured smoke so you can see the strength of the draw.

If my log burner is slow to get going I use a blow torch. A bit of intense heat on the kindling or first log really helps.

Has your chimney sweep put everything back properly.
We struggled with our woodburner one year and then the baffle plate fell into the fire one night and we realised it had been put back the wrong way round.

Yes check the chimney sweep has reassembled it properly. I used a different sweep one year and had the same problem as Oreservoir above, it was very annoying as he came back twice but failed to spot the mistake.
You shouldn’t be leaving the door open to get it going. The vents are there for a reason. On mine (now moved house so sadly no longer have it) I used to leave bottom vents wide open to start with and then adjust as required. I used wadded newspaper, kindling and a couple of smallish logs to get going, rarely needed anything more. Once it was well alight I’d add bigger logs. The trick was to get it as hot as possible as fast as possible. I really miss it!

I can start our log burner with one firelighter and logs. The logs have been stored for minimum of a year outside in a roofed but side-open log shed.
I leave the door open initially for a good blast say 10 mins, then leave the draft controller open for say 10 mins, by then it's roaring.
But we have an old house so a very tall chimney - good draft.

In the past we had to sweep a chimney twice to get out all the ?rook ?squirrel nests. Is it that?

Jackdaws are another nest builder - noisy chattery black birds - are there any around?

We had this, it got worse and worse until the whole room filled with smoke and we couldn't light a fire.

One chimney sweep expert said it was our chimney and gave us a £2k quote to do all manner of repairs.

We got a second option who said the first was over the top and gave us a £1 quote to put it right.

We got a 3rd quote from a fireman who does chimney sweeping and he charged £46. He advised us the whole burner needed to be stripped down and cleaned out and offered to do it if DH couldn't find the instructions on how to do it.

DH found the instructions and no word of a lie, got a whole tesco bag of soot out of the thing. Basically it had sealed itself with all that soot, and once cleared was firing away, good as new.

That's his annual job now. And the whole thing went from £4K to £46 to remedy!

Thanks all! Some different techniques to try!

I must add, tho, that 'door open' means 1/4", sorry if that wasn't clear! That's one door just very lightly shut on the handle; if you twist if further, it seals quite tight.