Wood Burning Stoves - am I doing something wrong?

I have a wood bruning stove which works fine on the face of it. But I seem to get through masses of wood ! I would like to put a few logs in and let them kind of simmer over night, but I have to pack it to the gunnells for it to survive. I have the unit fully damped down with just a glow near the bottom, but it burns all the contents overnight. It's a10Kw stove with a damper in the flue and two low and two high air control valves.

Some basic questions. How do I make the wood last longer? I have read about people drying out wood for 12 months and splitting to aid the drying but this seems to be done for wood to burn cleaner and hotter - whereas I just want it to burn longer to make my stock last.

Do I need to protect the base of the stove? I have put some fire bricks in the bottom - was this misguided? I always maintain a bed of ash for the logs to sit in, but perhaps the ash is too high up and nearer the vents? I was concered because the side walls and the back have fire bricks hanging in place for protection, but there'e nothing for the bottom. A full on grate is supplied if ever I wanted to use coal, but nothing for log burning on an ash bed. the bottom of the stove has ribs so it's not a completely flat base, I am thinking up using the ash pan that is supplied with the grate. It could sit on the ribs to provide a bit or protection - I don't to scorch this area.

Where can I buy a new handle for the door? It's a wooden handle and a brassh square section that starts at 15mm square and tapers back to

20mm - I am struggling to find this kind of replacement item on the internet.

I cleaned the flue 9th September 08 I have run the cooker / stove 24/7 ever since. Today 12th Jan 09 - we have blocked flue - I presume it's because of the build up clinker on the sides of the flue and at the pot - because of the volume of wood that we have got through and the damped overnight burn - I am presuming that when running with flames and full heat/draught then no build up can occur.

Any advice would be greately appreciated.

Kev.

Reply to
bignose
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I doubt it burns the wood, it pyrolises the wood and vents the "offgas", a smog of gaseous products of incomplete combustion and particulates and vents them up the chimney...

... where the tars condese out and line the chimney, eventually blocking it.

AJH

Reply to
andrew

You need to replace the rope seal around the door,this can be the cause of too much air entering the fire without control,replaced mine and it was almost a differnet fire,much more controlled burning.It seams to nedd doing every 3 to 4 years

Reply to
ALex

I think that if it's going to split, it'll do it near the top, where it gets hotter. At least that's the way that the one in our house had died when we moved in (we tore it out for insurance reasons, but I suspect we'll put a modern one in sometime soon)

I just checked, and that particular one* is 1/4" plate all round. There's no grate, ash and wood all just sat in the bottom of the stove - but there's no sign of any warping or other damage to the base; I suspect it just never got hot enough there.

  • very much someone's home-made project...

Hmm, maybe the handle off a garden implement (trowel or similar) might do the job?

Reply to
Jules

Denser wood.

Oak.

It is almost impossible to damp a 10Kw stove down low enough to stay lit overnight, on wood.

Coal might do it .

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Length of burn Dependent on type of wood used and air flow. Some very good advise here

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handle could be made by a local friendly small machine shop or alternatively use a file handle, readily available from any good engineering stores. Alternatively look for a large pull cord switch knob, the one that dangles on the end of the string on the bathroom lightswitch.

Reply to
RW

Describe your wood supply. Are you using hardwood logs from a supplier or scrap timber? What size are the logs?

10KW is a fairly substantial stove, I let mine (a jotul f600) burn freely so that it burns cleanly - I tried throttling the air supply at night but it just started sooting up. But I have a very large space to heat, so I'd usually want it burning at a reasonably fast rate.

It is just about possible to get it to stay in overnight by putting in very large logs once the firebed is plenty hot but quite small - but I rarely bother - I let it burn out.

Again once a hot firebed is established, no problem with running it slowly and around a quarter-full, but on full air - just requires to be fed regularly a few bits at a time - or a very few large pieces.

Reply to
dom

Thank you very much for all your enthusiastic responses.

To address some points. I was aware that too much air may be slipping in through the door, so I recently replaced the rope which I tend to do about every two years.

I think I will just go ahead and run it with ash directly sitting on the bottom - thank you for the advice on a stove which has been run unprotected and survived.

Virtually all the wood being used is Conifer. It's a mixture of large logs 7" in dia, medium 3-4" and small 1-2" I will now try to get hold of some denser wood perhaps Oak or Beech

I think I may have to resolve to let it burn out overnight to save stock - but it was nice to retain some heat flow throughout the house during the recent cold spell, and it was most convenient and easy to fire up in the mornings because the box was still warm and just a couple of embers ere enough to catch new logs alight.

Running 1/4 full on full air is the way I used to do it. It means that very little ash is left because it all burns efficiently (I only cleaned the ash out twice from October to March in 2007 with this method but the wood all burns away quickly and never makes it through the night.

Thank you so much for the help, kind regards, Kev.

Reply to
bignose

I forgot to include:

The pile of wood that I have used in the last six weeks was 6ft tall,

6ft wide and 15ft long. This was not a neat cut pile - it was a tangle of 6ft length 7" diameter logs and lots of smaller branches etc (all Confier), but it was all chainsawed to fit and then burnt. Initially I thought it looked like 3 years worth! based on my previous experience, but at that time I had never run the stove overnight, but had read that lots of people do, so I am now assuming that those people that damp down and run overnight have a more than plentiful supply!!!!!

Kev.

Reply to
bignose

This might sound obvious, but have you read the manual for the stove? Ours (a 7.5Kw and 3Kw Stovax units) explicitly says to not try to keep them in overnight by damping them down - it then produces too much tar, soot and other gummy stuff which will stick to the flue and be the cause of a potential chimney fire the next time it's run really hot...

I'd also suggest that if you've managed to block the flue to get it cleaned out now before it catches fire...

We know when ours are running efficient because they keep the glass clean.

And we mostly burn conifers too, but well seasoned wood - 18 months to

2 years, although with the recent issues with the forrestry commision (where we have a local permit to collect), it looks like that source will dry up soon )-:

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

Get hold of your local tree surgeon. He'll probably be more than happy to deliver FOC as it costs them usually to have the trees which have been cut down disposed of. Local one here is a friend anyway and occasionally dumps 4 tonnes in my front drive when I ask !

Reply to
RW

Yes, that's how we keep our (12-14kW I think) stove running overnight, we burn wood most of the time but put coal in and close the dampers for it to run overnight.

Reply to
tinnews

I have always covered the wood in the stove with ash to burn overnight with good success you rake through it in the morning to find the still glowing wood and openup the stove to get things going again

Reply to
Chris S-S

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