Keeping your stove ticking over?

[egs]

Hi there. i have a Hunter herald stove` dual fuel. coal and logs. just wondering if anyone can give me some advice on the best way to keep it going through out the night and daytime.

 

i normally put a few logs on then once they are half burned i put a good few shovel fulls of coal on then ad logs every so often. however its seems to burn out if i leave to for long intervals (5-6 hours)

 

im using hardwood ash beech sicky birch or cherry.

[Matthew Arnold]

Do you have an air flow controller on the sides and bottom? And a flue valve?

[Bolt]

if its easy to relight, just let it burn through.

 

"Shut in" fires can tend to lead the problems IMO from the trivial (sooty glass) to the expensive (tar and creosote leaching through your chimney).

[gensetsteve]

when its burning well before going to bed put half the contents of the ash pan on top of the fire.

[John Barleycorn]

The trouble with most of these "dual fuel" stoves is that in fact they are set up to burn coal & coke.

Wood burns best on a bed of embers, but coal & coke need to be a raised grid to get the air through them. The wood embers drop out the bottom & you end opening the air vent too much to keep it going, so it burns out.

[gensetsteve]

if its easy to relight, just let it burn through.

 

"Shut in" fires can tend to lead the problems IMO from the trivial (sooty glass) to the expensive (tar and creosote leaching through your chimney).

 

I would agree with this half a fire lighter is 1p trade price. A log is 40p. If your not in let it go out.

[County4x4]

^^ What they said!

 

I will get round to getting some pictures of some of the crap that I got out of a completely blocked flue which had built up as a result of slightly damp wood and keeping the stove on a very low setting. Doesn't tend to do the chimney much good at all - especially with a modern stove where the heat and draught going up the flue is a fraction of that from an open fire - so it cools down even more when the stove is slumbering, and all that crap condenses out on the inside of the flue. It can be a real pig to sort too - most chimney sweeps - myself included, will charge extra if the flue is all full of crap.

 

Also not a good idea to burn wood and smokeless or coal together - due to the fact you'll be producing sulphuric acid which is another thing that won't do your chimney any favours! Either is fine alone - but not together.

 

Andy

[djbobbins]

I have an open fire and have similar problems in keeping it lit for extended periods. I would expect a stove to be more controllable (airflow into and flue out?) but if that's not the case and you do decide you need to keep it hot for longer periods, I can propose two potential options. One is cheaper and not guaranteed to work, the second more expensive but I'd hang my hat on it:

 

1) Buy some slack. I get mine for £2.50/25kg. The particle size is much smaller than housecoal, therefore a shovel full will form a more solid layer of fuel over the top of your fire, reducing airflow and slowing the burn down. I normally put a shovel of coal on top of a log and a bit of housecoal.

 

2) Buy some "Homefire". It's a hexagonal smokeless fuel and is the mutts bits as far as a slow hot burning product is concerned, IMO. I had a few odds and ends of it mixed in with some coke from a bunker a work colleague was clearing out. I had to separate the ashes out for cooling, because the bits of Homefire were still glowing red. This was about 6pm, when the fuel had been put onto an open grate about 9:30 the night before. It's not as cheap as a standard coal but might be worth a go. See fourth one in this list:

 

Clews Recycling Ltd

[raker]

I just let the glowing ash build up through the evening by putting a bit of coal on as well as logs.Creates more ash than logs do. I only do this at the weekend, not if everyone is going to be out for the day. Then i chuck some coal on and close the vents off.

TBH when i do this i dont find sooty glass in the morning, just a steady glow which picks up when i put a log on.

[gibbon]

New to stoves but a big lump of dry holm oak seems to keep mine going at night