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Getting To Know Your Burner / Lockdown Bored.


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Not really a question or anything but just a topic for conversation ... probably partiatially driven by lockdown boredom as well.

 

I'd seen comments in the past about getting to know your burner and it does take a while to learn how it responds to different situations.

 

Having read you're best off with a deep'ish layer of ash left in it, I'd let it get bigger and bigger over time and recently found out it was suffocating the air supply especially when staring it up so don't leave so much in now as I used to.

 

Biggest thing though ... the instructions tell you to spread the embers out before reloading, as a kid and having had many a camp fire (possibly virging on pyro) and learning they burny best with the wood in a wigwam type formation allowing loads of air in betweem and the fact they were pointing upwards allowing the flame to burn "up" the stick helping to fuel the fire.

With a wood burner it works much the same way and you get a great flame ... BUT ... I think it puts the flame / heat at the top of the burner nearest the exit point / flue and a load of the heat's getting lost.

The last few days I've spread the embers out and lay logs in flat and whilst it's been the coldest stretch we've had this year and I'm convinved it kicks out a shed load more heat ... partially due to the flame going the whole way up the side / rear of the burner heating what I'm guessing are ceramic plates instead of the heat disappearing straight up the flue, but also the logs settle into a slower burn as the flame from the bottom's not constantly burning the top so it also seems to be using a lot less wood ... win, win 😁

 

Anybody else that's bored during lockdown please feel free to chime in with your tips and tricks  

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By raking the embers it removes the insulating white ash that cover them making for faster ignition and cleaner burn of the new fuel...well thats my theory anyway based on my observations and the fact that when barbequing the ideal fire should have a layer of white ash on top so you don't set your bangers on fire.

 

 

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15 hours ago, slim reaper said:

By raking the embers it removes the insulating white ash that cover them making for faster ignition and cleaner burn of the new fuel...well thats my theory anyway based on my observations and the fact that when barbequing the ideal fire should have a layer of white ash on top so you don't set your bangers on fire.

 

 

 

This makes sense and raked over you can see it's all red hot embers on the top ... shame I only learnt this in the last year of using a charcoal BBQ before I went to the dark side ... gas 😱.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Norwegian Wood book tells you to light a wood burner by putting the big logs at the bottom, the opposite of what you might have thought would be right from lighting campfires.  In effect you set a fire in between/on top of a couple of logs, letting the wood gas come up and burn.  However, I find it works best for lighting if I use a small (~1" diameter) stick to lift the bigger logs off the ash.  Flame gets underneath the logs lighting the whole surface of them faster than if they are just placed on the ash.  (Not when re-loading, only when lighting)

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I line the 4 sides of the grate/firebox with finer split conifer, and crumpled up newspaper or torn-up cardboard in the middle, light, and then place a few more finer split sticks on top.

And leave the door ajar on the snib for say 5 to 10 mins.

Then add more sticks.

Simples

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2 hours ago, Rob_the_Sparky said:

The Norwegian Wood book tells you to light a wood burner by putting the big logs at the bottom, the opposite of what you might have thought would be right from lighting campfires.  In effect you set a fire in between/on top of a couple of logs, letting the wood gas come up and burn.  However, I find it works best for lighting if I use a small (~1" diameter) stick to lift the bigger logs off the ash.  Flame gets underneath the logs lighting the whole surface of them faster than if they are just placed on the ash.  (Not when re-loading, only when lighting)

Your campfires will take quicker if you lght them up a bit anf not at the base, Same as Norwegian Log Book suggests, larger logs at the base and the hot embers will set them on fire. Benefit of this is that you don't flick ember in the air putting a large log on if it allready the the base of the fire

 

My top tip, dry kinding and after that we all have our favourite ways

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I use the Norwegian method in my Jotul Stove.  
 

The describe it as the Swiss top down method.  2 logs at bottom.  Bit of newspaper a scrumpled up and then 1 inch or so square kinlin in a grid fashion for about 3 or 4 layers.  2 fire lighters on top, shut door and open vent.  Heat rises and the more wood lights and drops embers, it lights up the bottom logs and the more heat the more draw, after 5 mins I close the vent half way and you get a proper good bed of embers in The middle and the two logs alight.  
 

The load up the bigger logs on the lit ones.  Space is key, I always try and prop one up on another.  

Burns clean and hot, even with spruce and pine.  Might darken the glass as it lights if it is a bit sappy, but once lit the glass burns clear.

 

629747DD-E996-4086-86C2-ECF1581DF289.jpeg

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10 hours ago, Rob_the_Sparky said:

The Norwegian Wood book tells you to light a wood burner by putting the big logs at the bottom

 

I've been doing this not because I'd read it somewhere but because it creates a base to criss cross kindling suspended over the firelighter underneath and when the kindling's burnt and it's time to top up there's a base of reasonable size logs already alight to lay some midlings across. 

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