Trouble in cold weather lighting the woodstove

Some wood can burn with a sooty flame; it depends on how well the stove is designed and used as well as the wood itself. As to a sooty chimney, my sweep charges per visit, not how easy or difficult the chimney is to clean!

We have Scan Andersen 4-5 (taken over as Jøtul F 145, but discontinued), which was here when we moved in. I've never liked it, and consider its design to be strange, to say the least.

Our house is upsidedown so the wood burner (fitted by myself last year) is in the lounge with 1m section in the house then 2 x 30 degree bends through ceiling into cold atic side and up through the roof.

Total flue length 4m and manufacturer minimum length given as 5m so there's a cold, short flue to start with.

Always lay a "top down" fire arangement so bigger wood on the bottom, kindlin "jenga" on top. This puts the flames towards the top of the box and allows rapid ignition of the kindlin which spreads down to base logs. I've also found elevating the 2 base logs slightly by resting them on 2 small strips of kindlin makes a big difference as air can freely pass under the logsto fuel ignition which laying logs on ash bed prevents.

When the weather is cold and windless I do roll up a newspaper torch and burn it at the mouth of the baffle plate so flames get "sucked" up the flue before lighting the charge which with the door left ajar always gets the fire going. Beauty of the newspaper flames is you can actually see the draw as the flames get pulled up whereas hairdrier or blow-torch gives no visual indication of what's going on.

I was on the verge of buying a chimney fan after completing the install as I just couldn't get the fire to light, only to realise I'd left a foam bung in the top of the stove, inserted to stop s*it from dropping into the spiggot when cutting out the ceiling for the flue. (previously posted about on here!)but they were indeed pricey and looked like they might not take kindly to a wallop with a sweeping brush.

Stacking a top-down fire and newspaper fire torch have proven to be perfect. Your friend could also try using off-cuts of constructional timber for the base "logs" as they're quick burning soft wood and typically 0% moisture content so brilliant fire starters on which to add hardwood logs once the firebox is hot.

Cheers Pete

Not withstanding the fact that metals can and do burn in high oxygen atmospheres. All my fire grates of cast iron burn through eventually.

Steam trains used to have a steam jet in the chimney. Turning it on accelerated the flow of flue gases. Maybe an air jet pointing upwards in the wood stove. Chimney would have a similar effect?

Any number of measure could work. The question is really, how many are sensible/necessary?

Tim

That's exactly what the steam locos at the local park (5" and 3-1/2" gauge) use to get the fire going. An air jet, until the steam pressure rises and then a steam jet (the blower) until setting off. Once the loco is moving, the exhaust steam does the job itself.

When stationary and I thought in tunnels, otherwise the natural draught of the exhausted steam from the cylinders entering the chimney was sufficient.

I haven't been able to find any cites for this. Would this be in the garage before any steam was produced where there is electrical power for a blower?

Yes.

Ah, I didn't realise you were referring to 'model' gauge railways.

I don't use any fire lighters just 2 balls of newspaper and 4 or 5 small bits of kindling (split into triangles for 2-from-1) . Getting the flue hot to get the draw/draught combustion cycle going being the main goal.

Slightly damp (rain not green) wood doesn't go on untill the fire has been roaring away for many hours.

:)

Whatever floats your boat but top down lighting with dry logs means the pyrolysis products from the lower logs being heated by the embers of the kindling all pass through a flame and less smoke is produced (smoke being essentially products of incomplete combustion).

The updraught fire you favour tends to produce copious quantities of PICs and pyrolysis offgas all diluted by the CO2 of the lower combustion and cooled by the logs above and as no flame is present they are vented unburned up the chimney.

Top down lighting doesn't work well with higher moisture content logs whereas your method does for the reasons you said, the lower heat dries logs above.