A Novice With A Log Burner Stove

[TheCatsBlanket]

This will be our first winter with a multi fuel stove, and although I lit it a few times following installation, now that it’s getting cold, it’ll be lit most nights.

I can’t explain, but for some reason I feel a bit scared at the thought of a real fire in the house, no idea why. Please would all those who’ve got one and use it regularly, tell me it’ll be the best thing ever once I’m over the novice stage. I’ve watched so many helpful videos on YouTube on how to properly light it and how to get the best output, but I’m so apprehensive to get started.

Nah your fine… make sure you have plenty of dry seasoned wood. You might need a firelighter until you get better with kindling. Have a good fire protective glove/gauntlet and enjoy away.

oh and be prepared for the ash cleanup, doit first thing so its ready for next night

the fire is enclosed in a box.

soon you’ll be an expert in drawing air and enjoying the flames. Mesmerising.
( expecting lots of environmentalists to tell us we aibu)

Put a few pieces of kindling at the bottom of the stove and add a firelighter. We use Feniks firelighters, add a few more pieces of kindling, I stack them Jenga style. Once they have caught and are burning add a few larger bits of wood and once they are burning add the larger pieces. Make sure that the dampers are open until the fire is going properly and then close it down as required. Make sure that you have a carbon monoxide detector in the room and a fire extinguisher nearby too. Make sure your wood is seasoned and have your chimney swept each year. Stove fans are really good for circulating the heat into the room and buy yourself a stove top kettle for making excellent cups of tea, washing up etc. I have also cooked amazing beef stews in a cast iron dutch oven with a trivet underneath.

Make sure you warm up the flue with some burning newspaper in the firebox - if it's unused for a few hours there will be a column of cold air in the flue which will make it hard for the flames to draw if you go straight in with kindling/wood, and you might get smoke coming out of the vents.

Sounds like you're just worried about a bloody hot fire in your house...? But it's safely contained in a metal box. Assuming it's been installed properly, and you keep childrens fingers away it's very safe. Burn properly dried fuel.

Assuming you get your chimney cleaned regularly it should be fine. Don't use unseasoned wood. Don't decide that the top of the stove would be a good place to dry your washing quickly 😀.

We have an open fire in one living room, a wood burner in the other ( I have no experience with multifuel stoves) and have used them for years and years with no problem. I grew up in a house with no central heating and a coal fire as the only source of warmth. Nothing dreadful happened.

I advise you to get to know the stove - how fast it heats up, how much fuel you need and how much the vents need to be open to keep it at a fairly constant heat (you'll find this varies a bit with wind direction and strength, I expect.) It takes a while to be confident using it and not wanting to check it every 5 minutes!

Now for a couple of horror stories. A friend banked hers up, left the air vents wide open by mistake and went out for an hour or so - the metal of the stove was glowing when she returned. The teenage son of another friend decided to use the woodburner to have a go at blacksmithing! Fuelled it with coal (it was NOT multifuel) and overheated it so much the whole thing cracked and distorted. Neither of these were good ideas 😁.

We haven't bothered in the woodburner room, but we keep a bucket of sand near the open fire in case we need to put it out in a hurry (eg. a chimney fire). Chucking water on it is dangerous (and messy), it has to be smothered.

I keep seeing on the tutorials that it’s best, almost vital to keep a bed of ash at least an inch deep to get a really good base for the embers. Do you clean yours out daily?

Not sure what I’m worried about to be honest, I’m hoping it gets really hot as the house needs heat ( oldish house with solid brick walls and high ceilings) I just hope I don’t fill the room with smoke when I’m lighting it.

Yep because we have it on most of the day when its needed, never lights as well the next day if not clean as the air inflow is hindered.

really good tip from a pp about warming the flue

Yes, keep a bed of ash OP. I don’t clean mine out daily, just check it before laying fire next day

Yes, getting to know how the stove works seems to be key to getting the best out of it. It was only installed in May so chimney has been cleaned ready for use. I’ve got lots of seasoned wood both hard and softwood, tons of kindling and firelighters too. I just need to get over my novice status and hopefully I’ll be an expert in it soon.

For cleaning the burner, get a fireplace vacuum, they make life much easier. The cost about £50 but are worth it.

www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=fireplace+vacuum+cleaner

I felt a bit like this but now I love it.

Agree with the Jenga method above for kindling. Make sure it is properly alight (not just the firelighters) before adding your wood.

You may find it quite hard to light on first go. Wood burns better with a bed of ash so while you will need to empty it, don't go mad with the cleaning.

I thought this was a pretty good explanation https://www.southyorkshirefirewood.com/burning-wood-on-a-stove.html

Oh and buy a flue thermometer. It avoids the glowing red type incidents above. You can keep it within the correct limits.

I think to start with you want to feed it with wood constantly but it's inefficient. Let it get well down but so it is still a decent temperature and then add.

I would guess that the biggest hazard (apart from inhaling the pollution particles) is probably the chimney catching fire.

So keeping it well swept is a must.

Get a Stirling engine (whirly fan that sits atop the stove). Ours sends heat all round the house.

I’ve had a stove for years and still sometimes it smokes into the room when lighting it. It all depends on the weather outside. If it’s a still, calm day it’s good to maybe open a window in the same room to get a draught to get it started. If it does start smoking just close the doors and open the window. Once it starts getting a good burn it’ll be fine. It’ll be a learning curve but the worst that’s ever happened to me is burning myself on the hot doors when refilling but I’m a bit of an idiot when it comes to hot things and my hands. Most of all, enjoy it. Nothing better than the heat from a flame.

Already got a george, henry, little dust buster and now think I might get one of these von haus things! Thank you for the tip!

A few things I’ve learnt over the years of running a stove..

i pack as much wood/ kindling into the stove as i can when lighting it, this is to try and get the temperature up in the stove as high as possible before i need to open the door again to put more in. This is to try and avoid opening the door again when wood is still burning as if its going to make any smoke come back into the room this is when it will happen. I normally sit in front of it on the footstool and adjust the airflow / door ajar so its burning as fiercely as possible to get the stove temp up, or until its melting my face and i have to move.

it is a bit daunting at first having it. Going full whack , but you get used to. It as time goes by.

a stove thermometer is a very good idea so you know that it’s running at the right temperature.

when i refuel i always wait till the wood in the stove has all burnt and its just glowing hot coals. This way you dont get any smoke come out just heat as you open the door.

when i open the door to refuel i have the log/s ready in one hand and and open the door very slowly at first to let the air in steady , this stops a sudden rush which means you dont get any ash blowing out or. Any sudden pops/ spits from the fire and bits shooing out. I only open the door wide enough to put the wood in then shut it straight back up. I’ve seen pictures of other peoples fires with ash all over the hearth and wonder what they are doing to get it like that ?

The main thing is to keep it running hot. 200c -230c is a good range. If its running hot its burning clean and efficiently and once the stove is up to temperature then i find it needs a lot less fuel and it will just tick over nicely.if you find your getting a bit too warm ,open a window for a bit rather than trying to run it at lower temps.

Each stove I’ve had seem to run slighty different its just understanding how to get the best out of them…….. but the one thing they all do is if your running them right is kick out some serious heat .

i tend not to use ours till about November because it gets too hot in the house unless it’s really cold outside.

good luck with the fire …….

The one we have now is a Charnwood, its a good stove but I preferred the clearview we had in the last house…….a few pictures

Always worth putting some screwed up newspaper on top of the fire before lighting.

It burns quickly and draws air through the fire helping it to catch properly

As I live at in the bottom of a valley in a hilly and windy area my burner can be a pain in ass to light sometimes. If you find it's difficult to get going and smoking, open a nearby window or door to give more oxygen until lights and warms up the flue.

As long as your stove has been professionally installed with a lined flue, you'll be fine.

Use paper with dry kindling and then dried logs on top, No need to stack it high. Start small, experiment with the vents to get the right level of heat for damp autumn evenings, then ramp it up as you get more confident and frosty nights arrive..

My stove uses a flue behind the wall of my ds' bedroom. If we have the log burner on in the evening, his room is cosy when he goes to bed. 🤗

Thank you all for the advice and also the suggestion to get the ash vacuum which I’ll be ordering from Amazon soon. I’m looking forward to becoming an expert over the next few weeks, honestly can’t wait to find out just how warm they make the room/house. I’ve already got one of the fans to make sure the warmth gets pushed out into the room.

I’ve been so used to gas fires my whole life, just a click and it’s up and running, that the preparation to actually make a fire is daunting, but hopefully I’ll not look back once I’m a master fire builder 🔥

This happened to us-choking smoke filled the room and it stank for ages. We thought the chimney was blocked but the sweep said it was perfectly clear and told us about the cold air. So we either light a bit of paper or another trick is to leave the door open before being lit so the warmer air from the room warms the chimney.

This is only necessary when it’s cold outside, btw.