Multi fuel stove problems - how do I make the bloody thing work?

[kitsmummy]

We have an Aarrow Ecoburn 11 multi-fuel stove, which supposedly has a massive heat output (11kw) for our 21' x 14' room. We've burnt £100 of logs on it in 6 weeks (evenings only, we're at work Mon - fri daytimes)but the bloody thing never gets very hot, certainly not hot enough to heat the room to a comfortable temperature.

At the time of installation, both installers were saying "Phew, it's going to be hot in here, you'll need to keep the doors open" etc etc, but it's bloody freezing!

The installer has come back to check it and he did get it going nicely but he lit it with a whole bag of kindling, which obviously we can't do each time. We haven't used coal yet, but then again we were actually supposed to be having a woodburner, not a multi-fuel, but they installed the wrong one. The wood we're using is plenty dry enough, the installer tested it and said it was fine.

My parents have a smaller Franco Belge woodburner in a similar sized room and the room is always really warm, way warmer than ours ever get. They keep it going nearly all day and use way less wood than us too! We can't shut ours down or the fire goes out, so we've always got it on full burn.

Any ideas? At the moment we've spent £1800 on something which doesn't really work. It's cheaper for us to use the oil central heating and have the radiators on than it is to light the stove and sit there cold

We had the same problem when we had ours installed, the wood burned away and there was v little heat coming out. Once we started adding coal to the kindling, it made such a difference. Now we light it with paper, a few sticks and some coal, then when it gets hot, throw a log on. The stove gets roasting doing it this way, and you can just feed it with wood, although I chuck a bit of coal on intermittently. The heat really comes into the room, we have been known to throw all the downstairs rooms open to spread the heat about once the living room gets too hot to bear.

We have a 4kw fire and there can be a massive difference in heat output depending on who lit it. When my husband has a fire from my point of view he never puts enough wood on and it never gets really hot. Bit of wood, bit of flame but it's decorative rather than functional. My fires get properly hot and clean the glass that his fires messed up. Once it's going we use a log an hour.

For the first half hour or so it will go out if it's ignored, it needs to be hot before it draws properly.

Couple of thoughts...make sure the door is shut when burning once its going. It sometimes seems counter intuitive, but leaving the door open just lets the whole thing cool down, and it doesn't let the stove get hot enough.

Start with paper, kindling, maybe a firelighter, couple of average sized kiln dried logs. Make sure air vents are open. Light paper. Keep door ajar until fire is going. Then close door.

Leave it for a while to get burning really well. Then turn down the lower air vent first (if burning wood, opposite if coal), and slowly adjust the upper air vent (again if wood). Add larger logs once its established (or you could add some earlier if its not hindering the rest taking off).

Make sure you let the whole stove get hot. Its actually this which helps it be efficient with the door closed. It may take over an hour for it really to get properly hot.