A very middle aged question about our fire and why it’s not working..

[PardontheFrench]

We have moved into a new house and one of the most exciting parts for me was it had an open fire which we have never had before.

It has had its yearly safety check and certificate done in November so in theory should be good to go but when we lit it last night the smoke didn’t go up the chimney but out into our room.

Google tells me it’s likely a nest but as it’s nesting season there is nothing we can really do to the end of this month.

DD has had a look up and said she can feel and hear the wind from the chimney and I’ve read that sometimes there is a switch/lever that need to be turned to open it up however that doesn’t seem obvious..

I guess I’m just hoping someone more knowledgeable than us might be able to give us some advice on what to try.

You need to get the local chimney sweep in to have a look. If you are lucky you'll get the same one the previous owners used.

Does a cert and a safety check include a sweep? November was 10 months ago. Id still get it swept before using it.

There is usually a switchy thing. Is it an open fire or a stove? If open, have a grope around the bottom of the chimney. There should be something to pull or push.

Was it windy outside? Sometimes even a good fire can blow smoke in the way if it's windy.

I second the chimney sweep idea.

Unfortunately the other possibility is that it's poorly designed. My auntie had a chimney breast that seemed to just be the wrong shape or something, and it never drew well no matter what she did. Did the previous owners of your house definitely actually use the fire?

Real fires/stoves can be a pain in the neck. I live at the bottom of a valley and have a wood burner. It is difficult to light when it is windy/rainy which is quite often. They can also get a kind of a 'cold plug' of air which needs hot air to shift which is a bit of catch 22. In these cases the smoke starts to come into the room.

If my burner is having a tantrum, I generally just open the patio door next to it for a bit. This gives the burner a bit of extra oxygen to get going and start to draw up the flue. Does completely defeat the object of why I've lit a fire on a cold day though.

I'm sure a safety check covered making sure the chimney is drawing the smoke and fumes out effectively. You might just need to work on your fire lighting technique a bit if you've not had one before. There's quite a few forums out there where you can get advice.

A chimney sweep definitely seems like the person to ask.

Get a carbon monoxide monitor as well.

Probably very outing but we are in military accommodation, hence why I felt so lucky to get a house with a fire.

Thankfully all houses are fit with a carbon monoxide alarm and this one gets a sweep and chimney safety check yearly, though totally take on board about what a previous poster said about November being 9 months ago.

Previous residents didn’t use the fire as put a tv above it so can’t even ask them what they did.

Had a good feel about inside, can’t feel anything that might be a switch but might get DH to have another go at lighting it tonight and just see if it needs a bit longer to sort itself out with a door open…

You must get it swept again. November was far too long ago and it's needs doing after nesting season.

We do ours in August/September ready for the autumn season. The sweep will be able to give you plenty of advice as first time users.

Oh and a good sweep gets booked up early. I'm going to text mine now.

Open fires can sometimes do this and our log burner also can usually cause by humidity levels

You can get coloured smoke things*to test the chimney isn't blocked.

A really hot fire usually sorts it out. Open fires are harder to get to draw air than log burners so you can get draw screen* risk life and limp with a sheet of newspaper like I did.

*not sure what these are actually called!

Okay well if you are just going to give it another go, then my tip would be to light lots of scrunched up newspaper in the fire first, before laying the actual fire. You want big yellow flames. This clears any cold air in the chimney and establishes the draw of air. Then you quickly lay and light the actual fire.

Have your fire wood logs been dried in a shelter for at least a year without rain getting into them?

So DH is very keen to get into his chopping and storing and drying wood era but we have just moved in so the wood we lit it with was from firewood and kindling bags from Tescos which I’m presuming are ready to go.

Tbf the flames did seem to be big and yellow when we lit it. It was actually my DF that did it and was very quick to put it out so nice the room stayed filling with smoke muttering something about how it would kill us all! 😅

I think DH might have played about with it a little more and wonder if we just didn’t give it enough time to get past the cold air spots or get hot enough.

in being very inpatient as like I said previously they will come and sort it for us at the end of nesting season, I was just very excited and really wanted to have a moving in fire.

I’ll include a picture for any flame experts.

A good sweep will also use a test log thingy. Not sure of its proper name but after it’s all swept they light something in the hearth to test the draw.

Has the chimney got a cowl on it? You won’t need to worry about nests then.

@Tulipvase what’s a cowl, hopefully we do have one!! 😅

It’s like a little hat that sits on top of your chimney, stops birds nesting etc. you should be able to see it.

Possibly more common on chimneys with log burners tbf.

Re the cold air plug preventing an upward draw: we had our gas fire checked a few weeks ago and the smoke bomb thing the engineer used to test the chimney filled up the room and set off the smoke detector in the hall.

The chimney wasn't blocked, it was just cold air in the fireplace (on an internal wall) preventing the smoke being drawn upwards. This was during a few days of hot weather so I was surprised that the indoor fireplace temperature could be cold enough to form a plug but the engineer said the high external temperature probably exacerbated the plug because of the difference in temperatures, rather than the 'cold' air being very cold.

A friend solves this problem by using her hairdryer to blow warm air up the chimney for 5 mins before lighting it!

Ours used to smoke loads if the wind was coming from the north, and also if the chimney was cold first fire of the year.
We put a wood burner in that solved all the problems!

As others have said, go outside to see if you can see any evidence of nests, or the cowl on the top of the chimney.

Yours looks a lot like mine, which the sweep said would have been converted from a gas fire which would have originally been there. Unfortunately this means the flue isn't great.

Ours advised to warm the chimney first, we do this by lighting either a couple of firelighters or balls of newspaper towards the back of the grate, let them go out, then light the fire properly after 5 minutes or so. I am going to try the hairdryer trick!

@Allthehorsesintheworld

'a test log thingy' is the correct term.
All chimney sweeps use it, similar to the 'long stick thingy' that the 'spikey black thingy' fits on which they poke it up the chimney.

So many great tips, thanks so much!

I'll try this next time myself!

I was going to suggest warming the flue first by holding something burning up it but this is safer!

A lot of fireplaces are hard to get started drawing when the flue is cold.