My wood burning stove not drawing very well...

[anonymousbrainsnatcher]

We've been using the stove the past three weeks, but it just isn't drawing as well as it used to.

I clear out the ash tray regularly, have got the vent open, but unless I crack the door slightly, I just cannot get the thing going very well...

Chimney sweep coming next week, so possibly that will sort a bit, but just wondered whether there is anything else I can check/do to try and improve performance?

TIA.

Wait for chimney sweep. We had a couple of dead birds in ours and loads of soot. Poor pigeons!

it could be that the chimney needs sweeping as you have already identified.

It could be something daft like the wind's blowing the wrong way... our coal fires are absolutely fine but every so often when it's particularly windy or it's blowing a different way to normal we can't get the fires to draw.

Thanks. Won't worry too much until sweep has been, like you say, easy that a bird or something is stuck. Will just have to carry on helping it out a bit in the meantime...

Hopefully after that, we will be fire-tastic again!