how do you light your wood burning stove efficiently

[noyouhavehadawee]

do you use firefighters and kindling or old newspaper or what? we are in the installation process and i still can't light our chiminea never mind this . i am looking to avoid smoke filled house and giant ash piles.

At least once a year for a stove (some people will advise quarterly)

Once a year for a coal fire.

It's important to stop build ups that can then lead to a fire and protect your liner if you have one.

thanks everyone i was about to ask next about sweeping, you made me lol anyway with all the firefighter talk - sadly i had to take my guinea pig to the vets this mornin and she was pts so kind of took the shine of my stove excitement, fake chimney breast now complete and git big hole in wall

to reiterate, once a year sweep - get it done in summer when the sweeps are all bored...

fires burn better on a bed of wood ash as long as there is still airflow. A bed of knotted newspapers, some small dry sticks, one firelighter, vents open, light and shut door. Once roaring put on more wood. It is a knack and really is just practice.

all wood MUST be dry. And you only burn suitable fuel - it is a stove, not an incinerator.

I got a trial pack of ecofirelighters which are brilliant, but at £2 a pop it isn't happening.

I watched a chimney fire a few months back, rather exciting, destroyed one house & badly damaged 2 others. First the old lady owner who started the fire knew of it (merrily burning away in her loft) was when people were banging on her door telling her to get out.

I have a stove thermometer & use that to know what temp to get up to, there is a long thread on MSE about it.

Our has improved massively since we were tuaght the top down method.

Big bits in first. Then middling. Then small. Then kindling. Then fire lighter. Then a bit of kindling on top of that. Then use long handled thingiemabob to light firelighter.

Flappy thing on the top of the insert open till it's down to the big bits being properly on fire. Then closed with vents open, aiming for a smaller fire with a hotter burn, rather than loads of wood smouldering.

No more hassle for early moring lighting in pre coffee fug.

WAYYYYYYYYYY less smoke.

Annual proper clean by professional.

do you all have stove thermometer is it essential kit do you think ? what is MSE ? stove in situ now just finishing chimney today and bit of plastering then i can look at it till it gets cold again

Don't wait till it gets cold before you do the first light. Ideally the installer should do it to check all is well.

Open all windows.

You don't want it to be actually cold and the stove needed in action if you discover a fault in either the appliance, the brickwork, the flue ..or anything else.

We don't have a themometer, but ours is an insert so I'm not even sure where I'd put one. Will ask Mr Installer.

A carbon monoxide alarm you do need.

If your chimney is on an external wall, you can get a hatch installed on the outside of your chimney stack, to sweep the chimney from there.

DH sweeps our chimney like that. It doesn't take him long (about an hour) and the outlay in getting the hatch put in, and for the brush, is probably about the same as getting a chimney sweep in for the first couple of times.

Never use firelighters. Old juice/milk cartons work well.

Tightly scrunched newspaper on bottom held in place between two suitably shaped logs, wax carton on top of that, layer of kindling then logs stacked around. Open all vents, light newspaper and keep the air going in through the vents until it is all going well and then start to reduce the air flow.

Old juice/milk cartons work well

Mine are all plasticy. Won't that send ...stuff.. into the atmosphere and cause residue on the flue ?

I use "eco" firelighters. They are brown and not nearly as good as the white ones are they ok ?

Don't use the foil-lined ones. I use the waxed cardboard cartons and just snip off the plastic spout.

I meant the milk cartons that come in tetrapaks, not the plastic bottle ones.

it is external and does indeed have a hatch so just looking at some brushes now

Don't use waxy stuff in a wood burner. You'll coat the inside of your flue with tar and that will help start a fire up there.

When we had our burner installed the guy told us we needed a carbon monoxide alarm, which he gave us, and then we needed to have it swept once a year by a regulated chimney sweep. We needed a certificate from the sweep to prove we had had it done because if it caused a fire and we hadn't had it cleaned the house insurers could get difficult.

I absolutely love my wood burner. It looks fantastic in the winter and it really chucks out some heat. It's not really much faff at all and it's well worth it. Enjoy!

No, I meant the paper/cardboard milk cartons, but they look...shiney. Like slightly plastic coated.

The thought of putting them in the fire makes me a bit nervous.

Don't use firefighters here...just bed of lightly scrunched newspapers, kindling on top then bigger bits of wood on top of that. Flue vent open until a god fire going then stack up and clse over though not vompletely. We only ever burn soft wood off cuts though, no idea about actual logs.

This is our take on how to light a stove...
www.woodburners.com/about-us/blog/2013/01/10/how-to-light-your-woodburning-stove/

I cover the floor of the firebox with speed up newspaper, then kiln dried kindling on top of that, then smallish bits of wood on that. Works almost every time now, but there was a six month learning curve before I got it reliably every time. DH is still useless at it.

Am now thinking I should get my chimney swept again this year, as you've scared the bejabbers out of me with chimney fire talk.

Screwed up newspaper. Sigh. And light with matches. DH often tries to use a lighter. He's an idiot.

I lit it myself tonight I was a bit nippy and thought id had a go - threw the towel in after twenty mins and chcucked in a fire lighter then dh came in and nearly passed out at the heat belting out .

We just use screwed up newspaper with dry, small logs on top. We generally do 2 logs facing front to back and then another 2 horizontally on top of them. We don't need kindling (although the logs we choose to start it with are usually split halves of an 6" diameter log, or quarters of anything bigger...so pretty puny!) and we never use firelighters or fighters We sweep it once a year (and by "we", I mean DH - bloody horrible job!!)

The woodstove is our primary heat for Canadian wintertime so we get plenty of practice. We arrived here in late November, 8 years ago, so it was a case of master it quickly or freeze

Top tips for a stove (assuming you can get it lit)

Clean the glass with dry wire wool when cold. Takes 30 secs using a 5cm square and is no hassle if you do it regularly

A magnetic stove thermometer is useful (esp. if you don't use the stove everyday of the year). Run too hot and the chimney will change colour, the wood you stick around the stove will start to ignite (in my experience anyway)

Welders gloves are good if you need to poke the fire - the ones that come with stoves aren't always that good.

I'm jealous. I'm planning the next stove...

I've now moved in to my house with two stoves, and have the sweep coming on Thursday.. :). My kind new neighbour has given us a big sack of chopped up pallet, which he gets free from work. I have a source of hardwood logs too, but another source of free burnable wood is welcome! My question for anyone else who burns pallet is what do you do with the nails? !

Chuck em out with the ash from the fire. We dump ours straight onto our 'compost' heap. I fish them it and stick them in the bin if I can be bothered.

I think every stove is different in terms of how to light it. I lay a bed of scrunched up newspaper, pop a bit of kindling over the top and then lay a pyramid of smaller bits of wood. Lights every time. OH can't light a fire to save his life.

Must get the sweep out.

We use the top down method as carpevinum suggetsed but we use newspaper instead of firelighters. It works every time. Our new Jotul will only light properly this way.
If you have a bad draw then you need to light a few newspapers to heat the flue up first- I knew someone who had to use a hairdryer to heat the flue before they started. Also leaving the door slightly open can often help as well. We just replaced a stove with a really bad draw- it took us a while to get the technique right.
Check your house insurance- most insist on having it professionally cleaned once a year. Doing it yourself might be just as good but may not be good enough for the insurance.
Enjoy your stove.