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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To hate woodburners / open fires

30 replies

livingintheNL · 31/01/2016 20:34

Where I live quite a few people have them, and for a few months each year you cant open the windows to get fresh air as it just stinks of smoke and when ever you go outside it smells of smoke. Its way worse than car fumes imo.

OP posts:

specialsubject · 31/01/2016 20:39

amuse yourself with the chimney fires that may be coming - with good dry wood and swept chimneys there shouldn't be much smoke at all.

I rather doubt they are in use 24/7, wood isn't cheap or effort-free. So you can get fresh air in the daytime.

also I assume you are in the country, so this rather goes with the territory.

Pastamancer · 31/01/2016 20:40

I love my open fire, we put it in when we bought the house. Lots of houses round here have smoke coming out their chimneys in the winter, we don't have mains gas so only oil central heating available. I must check our coal levels to see if we need to stock up on more. I love the smell of smoke on a cold winter's day

PiperChapstick · 31/01/2016 20:41

YANBU, we had one in our old house I hated it. It stank, the fire always burned out, it was too smokey and wood etc costs a bomb in winter.

RudeElf · 31/01/2016 20:44

Yanbu to hate them. Thats how you feel.

I love them. Love the smell too. Especially if someone is burning turf.

VoyageOfDad · 31/01/2016 20:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

confusedandemployed · 31/01/2016 20:52

Odd. I live in an area which is packed with them - have one of my own too. I think they smell delicious, are lovely and cosy and I get firewood from my MIL for life since she chopped down her orchard. What's not to like?

confusedandemployed · 31/01/2016 20:53

Oh and I agree with the PP - if your fire is smoky and smelly your wood is wet and / or your chimney needs sweeping.

HarlettOScara · 31/01/2016 20:57

I lived in the city until recently and it was the fumes from neighbours' oil boilers that sickened me.

I live in the country now and my wood burner is merrily burning away as I type. I doubt my nearest neighbours, a quarter of a mile away, neither know nor care how I'm hearing my house.

NoelHeadbands · 31/01/2016 21:00

I love mine, most of our neighbours have them as well so it smells lovely outside.

If it helps I drive an electric car

AllOutOfNaiceHam · 31/01/2016 21:01

Ours runs our central heating. I hate it, too.

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 31/01/2016 21:05

Love love love my burner
And my wood at the moment is free and last winters supply was a fiver
Saves us a bloody fortune

MaisyMooMoo · 31/01/2016 21:10

I've always wanted one but is it true they're carcinogenic?

toolonglurking · 31/01/2016 21:12

I love our wood burner, it's our only source of heating (back boiler), and it is lovely! The wood is cheap as chips (£23 a tonne) and three to four tonnes is enough to heat our 4 bedroom house for the winter.
And it smells gorgeous!

green18 · 31/01/2016 21:24

www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/interiors/9839432/Everyone-loves-a-wood-burning-stove-but-are-they-bad-for-us.html

Read this the other day when I was searching for info on them and it rather put me off!

gladisgood · 31/01/2016 21:27

I love mine. I've installed one in every house I've owned! They are soooo warm.

Plus they run off renewable energy - the trees I burn will replenish at least twice over in my lifetime ( unlike oil, coal or gas) - I make sure that I plant more than I burn.

One of my neighbours burns pallets on his, though ( and the treated/painted ones absolutely stink) so YANBU if your neighbours are like mine!

OTheHugeManatee · 31/01/2016 21:30

If your house smells of smoke you're doing it wrong. HTH

thebestfurchinchilla · 31/01/2016 21:31

www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-fireplace-delusion

PaulAnkaTheDog · 31/01/2016 21:35

Two of our neighbours have them and the smell is awful. It's obvious they aren't using smokeless fuel.

NorksAreMessy · 31/01/2016 22:03

Don't you dare take my woodburner off me!
It is one of my deepest and most enduring pleasures.

I love unloading the logs and stacking them beautifully in the log shed. (Keeps me warm + exercise)
I like lugging a load in and stacking them round the fire (keeps me warm + exercise)
I love lighting the fire and snoozing and snuggling
The dog beds are all tucked around them, so happy fuggy pooches.

I even like cleaning out the woodash to go on the garden.
Best thing....I bought a fab little heat-activated fan for it recently. It sits on top of the logburner and pushes hot air into the rest of the room.

CointreauVersial · 31/01/2016 22:06

YABU. I would kill for a real fire, but we have no chimney and nowhere to put a burner.

JolseBaby · 31/01/2016 22:11

I don't like woodburners but I love an open fire. I grew up with one and I miss banking the ash up at night to keep it going, then coming down in the morning and getting the embers going again.

I miss going out with a chainsaw and wheelbarrow with my DDad to help bring the wood in. I was never any good at splitting logs but I am a dab hand at splitting kindling though.

It will be one of the things that I look for when we move.

seasidesally · 31/01/2016 22:12

i love my open fire

only visible smoke comes out of the chimney when first lit,then thats it,i do get very dry wood for it and get lots of heat from it

also ive read that some people have to redecorate yearly

well they cant be using it propally,my walls are Dulux Egyption cotton so very light and they will not need painting again for along time,also mine is not dusty as some people complain of

basically some people dont know how to use fires/burners well enough,thats when yo get the problems

RiverTam · 31/01/2016 22:15

If it's cold enough for a real fire it's surely too cold to have the windows open! If you want to air rooms do it early.

Better open fires in cold days that all the idiots who have bonfires on fine breezy days. Now they are twats. Bonfires are for miserable evenings when people don't have their windows open and their wasting out.

mincepieprivateeye · 31/01/2016 22:20

As others have said, if it smells and is smokey then there is something wrong with the fuel/stove
Ours is an AGA Streton SE, smoke exempt. We use both kiln dried logs and heat logs, the heat logs give lots of heat but leave hardly any ash and are really economical. Love our stove, it gives a huge amount of heat if you need it but isn't drying like central heating, it looks good and isn't expensive to run.

elfycat · 31/01/2016 22:21

We have one. In the first few days of burning with it we had a neighbour knock and complain about the smell. I said I'd check the flue options, but they haven't been back so I guess it might have been the manufacturing chemicals burning off. Our is a re-burner, the flames come out and get burned again to comply with the Clean Air Act.

pretty woodburner IMO

It is beautiful. It doesn't smell at all inside the house. We use well-seasoned wood and not damp/treated stuff. I don't burn it in the day if any of my neighbours have washing out.

I did find out that smokers tend to find woodburner smell more distasteful than non-smokers (my neighbour is a smoker) as they get used to a different flavour of smoke.

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