County4x4

Just a quick heads up to advise that you make sure you have your chimney swept regularly if you're intent on keeping a woodburner in overnight - as it's about the worst thing you can do as far as your chimney goes. Basically you've got a smouldering fire with virtually no draught at all chucking smoke into a rapidly cooling chimney - which will already be running much cooler than an open fire chimney. That smoke will be hanging around in the chimney for plenty long enough to condense and build up into thick deposits. I've seen many a liner completely blocked like this - and there's also a much bigger risk of a chimney fire. If you really do HAVE to keep the stove in all night - the best way is to reload a good while before bedtime, and run it pretty hard for half an hour or so before closing it down. This will drive a lot of the moisture and volatiles off the wood, and it will produce a lot less smoke when you close it down - so much less crap to condense in the chimney. We find that our briquettes will stay in all night - though not because we aim for it, and we don't load up or close down the air at bedtime. It just gets left as it is - and normally there's enough life left in the morning to re-light from the embers remaining. Never been able to do this with any other type of briquette, and have quite a few customers who tell us the same thing. Cheers, Andy

Are these imported from Eastern Europe mate? Andy

We generally get a Lodgepole Pine. I'm not really keen on sparse looking trees with long sections with very short needles. The pine is a much fuller looking bushier affair - and they seem to have a vice like grip on the needles too - very few on the floor after it's taken out again. Greenlands Farm garden centre down near the Longlands Hotel have them Hodge - and last year they were asking about 25 quid for a seven footer. A Nordman tree down at Bolton le Sands was around £65 with a stand! Cheers, Andy

Never seen anything home made that's up to the job of briquetting. Some small operators are using second hand machinery picked up fairly cheaply from other industries - like swarf presses and shredded paper compactors - but they generally produce pretty soft briquettes that don't last five minutes in comparison to decent ones. Customers that buy their briquettes tend to end up being one time purchasers. There's also the issue of getting moisture levels right - too wet or too dry and you won't get briquettes at all. Might be a better bet getting in touch with an outfit like Durham Heat Logs to see if they fancy buying the sawdust off you? Cheers, Andy

I was more than a bit surprised to read this on the DEFRA site: I've always told people they shouldn't be burning this stuff in their stoves - and I still don't think I'd want it in mine in spite of the above. The quoted stuff above is from the commercial and industrial section of the DEFRA site. There is a link on the page to a waste wood document, but the page it points to is missing. I've not seen any info on using it in a domestic setting on the DEFRA site. Andy

I think another problem is that many small operators are jumping into the market with machinery adapted from other industries, where they are used for waste compaction to cut final disposal transport costs. Unfortunately a lot of these machines - although pretty cheap - operate at much lower pressures and produce relatively soft briquettes. I trialled some from a company in Sheffield who were using an adapted shredded paper compactor, and although their ingredients were all good, the briquettes were very soft and there was a good deal of loose sawdust in every bag. The soft briquettes burned much faster - and we could do 15 kilos easily in an evening. The ones I sell by comparison - we'll use about five kilos tops in the same period. Andy

Liverpool Wood pellets briquettes are okay - but imported so not so green as you may have believed. The ones I sell are oak/beech - and they don't do any of that expanding /collapsing business that many briquettes do. Currently burning them in the stove alongside logs (freebies - we haven't bought logs for years) and lighting the stove with briquettes and then refuelling with logs - probably three times through the evening. By bedtime - ALL the logs have been completely reduced to ash - but we still have red hot embers remaining from the briquettes we lit it with! Lot of customers buy ours specifically to keep their stoves in overnight. Andy

Not strictly arb related - or even loosely arb related come to that, but I wonder if anyone could identify this little monster found growing under the floor in a narrowboat? Cheers for any help! Andy

Can sort you out for a tenner each for the IBC cages if you can collect from Heysham or Lancaster Hodge. Generally for logs I'd say the ones with metal or plastic pallet bases would be your best bet as they'll sit out in the weather better. However - the metal ones have a metal tray in the base - so you might waant to hack a few holes out for extra ventilation. Can get hold of as many as you like - just let me know! Cheers, Andy

I think it's great. Seriously Abbie - you might need to expand a bit I think! Advertising your business via your own website? Someone elses website? Other peoples adverts on other peoples websites? What exactly do you want to know?! Andy

Far too many people get talked into buying stoves that are far too big, and then have to run them really choked back if they want to be in the same room. This won't do your chimney (or liner if you have one) any good at all - I've seen plenty of liners completely blocked with tar/creosote and it can happen in a matter of weeks. The risk of a chimney fire is also much greater. If you're going to run the stove at an efficient setting, then a large stove will also take a lot more feeding. It's much better to have a smaller stove running fairly hard - and I don't advise anyone to try and keep them in overnight - much better to let it go out and restart in the morning. A decent stove burning decent fuel can be chucking the heat out in a matter of minutes. Not much to choose between iron and steel - iron's better if you want fancy details in the body - but there are absolutely top of the range stoves made in both materials. Many of the Chinese stoves are poorly built, hard to control, impossible to keep the glass clean and use way too much fuel - you'll spend the money you saved on the stove on buying more wood for it. I'd agree with several of the comments regarding Villagers - they're okay, but they're not great compared to a number of other makes. Some of their designs are pretty dated too. Cheers, Andy

I heard today that the chairman of Woodfuel Wales is the top man at Certainly Wood. Can anyone confirm this? I also heard that the previous chairman was the owner of a big stove importing operation. As the members of these schemes and so on tend to get together to discuss business and how things are going - could this potentially be a problem? I did hear of a stove retailer who was part of the scheme who went out of business after building up the market in his area, and then "reporting back" sort of thing at one of their get togethers. Next minute, the chairmans company have set up in an empty shop just round the corner and are undercutting him by a fair old chunk until he gives up leaving them with no local competition. Is there a possibility that an outfit like WFW can get a load of guys signed up to help develop a market in an area, and supply a lot of knowledge of that market, only for the chairmans company to come in once it's blossomed, use their buying power to corner the supply of timber, undercut the other guys and clean up? Just a thought? Andy

This sort of thing: Andy

20% if being sold on for resale by another business - 5% if being sold direct to the end user Andy

Quick pointer on smoke tests - lighting a smoke pellet in the fireplace isn't a smoke test as many people seem to think! A proper test needs two of you. You'll need to just about seal the fireplace up with plastic sheet or use the board that's there already which would be even better, and then light a pellet or two behind the sheeting. Your mate stationed up on the roof by the chimney pot with an armful of rag or an old sheet or similar waits for the smoke to appear, and then bungs the sheet into the chimney pot to seal it. At the same time, you finish off sealing the bottom end. The smoke expands and slightly pressurises the chimney, which will then show up any leaks. Lighting a pellet in the fireplace alone tells you nothing more than there's a draught up the flue. Andy

Don't think Jotul make a bad 'un! And they've been at it long enough I reckon! Andy

True, but carbon monoxide from a dodgy stove installation is just as good at killing you as carbon monoxide from anything else! You are quite free to fit your own stove - there's no question of that. To make it a legal job, the installation needs to be signed off by the building control department at the council. If not signed off, and if there's any sort of problem, then you WILL be held liable. Have a read through Building regulations Part J - that will tell you all you need to now about making an installation compliant. A liner is not always necessary, but in most cases, the stove will work better with one. I wouldn't touch a Clarke stove even for the workshop - they are the poorest of poor, and you'll end up with something more or less uncontrollable that will require feeding like an elephant at the zoo. The last pot belly stove of theirs I saw didn't even have seals on the door - they really are rubbish. I'd buy a half decent second hand stove and then take it with you when you go! I'd also get a sweep in to give the chimney the once over before you buy anything else - I think there's one on the sweeps forum up your way - can check for you if you like? Cheers, Andy

Yep - cheap generic Chinese tat. Wouldn't have one meself. They're also sold by an outfit called "astove" - who have recently tried spamming on another forum. Have a look at the customer reviews on the astove website, and then tell me if you think they're genuine - if they are then they have an awful lot of customers who use a very odd variety of English! Andy PS @Alycidon - just out of interest my mate used to do warranty repairs on Esses, and he reckoned that their quality control often left a bit to be desired - don't know if it's still the case though

Do you have access to another meter to compare readings - that does sound kind of high if it's been drying for a while? Or maybe try new batteries to see if there's a difference? Andy

Sorry Gilmour - just noticed that these are imported - so not for me I'm afraid. Cheers, Andy

Are they your nets Gilmour? I'd be interested in prices (located in Carnforth, LA6) if you wouldn't mind dropping me a message! Cheers, Andy

I will indeed Steve once I figure where to put it. I actually mention arbtalk all the time in other forums. Latest time was in the money saving expert forum - and a couple of people said it was a fantastic link - but it was then removed as "no advertising is allowed"!! Huh?! Makes it kind of difficult to say anything in response to people asking about chimneys or stoves or briquettes or whatever - as you can't answer at all without some of the people on there shouting foul! Can't really see how it's helping anyone when it gets like that - though obviously it's an entirely different sort of forum to this one. Anyway - I'll keep spreading the word and get a link on my site before the week's out. Cheers mate, Andy

What is it with Russian kids?! I've seen other videos on youtube of them mucking about with a home made bungee off a tower block, and climbing up a massive suspension bridge. I reckon they must be wired up different!! Andy

Hi all, I spoke to my IBC guy and he'll supply the all metal ones at a tenner each collected from the Morecambe area. These have metal pallet bases rather than being a cage screwed to a wooden pallet so should be a bit longer lasting out in the wet. If that's any use to anyone, please drop me a line. Cheers, Andy

or Ray Mears store oddly enough - though he does insist on painting his own little logo on the handle!