neiln

I sometimes wonder how people break decent stoves, they are well built. Ok door rope seals wear but are easily replaced. Baffles have a hard life from the heat and any moisture coming down the flue drips on them, each year when I pull mine out to sweep the flue I notice a few spots of surface rust on the top of the baffle I assume from this moisture. I can see how easy it is to crack a fire brick or the door glass if a large log rolls, or a log is just too big but you try and shut the door on it not realising it's protruding. Door catches wear, even hinge pins, that I understand. However look on eBay at used stoves and you find morso, Franco belge and plenty of other good stoves with cracked and warped plates and burnt away grates. I assume this is total misuse and almost certainly coal not wood. I know if a door seal goes, or vents are left open the stove is going full bore and hot hot hot, but a small wood stove at least will burn through its load like that pretty fast, and likely before it does serious damage. Surely it needs coal to get serious damaging heat for long? Or a foolish user loading firebox after firebox after firebox full of small splits with the vents wide open.

Alycidon, I don't get your point. I self installed, and notified BC, but doesn't stop me using a stove with wet wood, or even from using a non approved stove. I can install a non approved (for wood stove). Inform BC, completing the paperwork to say it is suitable for smokeless fuel (assuming it is). Once BC are happy it's safe they don't police what I actually burn. I agree though that the current rules are pretty good but not often enforced.

Maybe with ir cameras looking for heat plumes from chimneys but not smoke so easily.... Most burning is an evening thing.... It's dark when the stove is on.

They can't do it it as a purchase tax as it would encourage people to stick with old stoves which are more polluting. That leaves an operating tax. A flat tax per stove/house would be unenforceable without lots of resource, so pointless. That leaves a tax on fuel. It may be possible to tax wood sales.... Easier above a certain volume maybe....vat registered ones maybe.... But again does this work counter productively? Would it make for more small boys, more tree surgeons doing a few cube on the side, and does this mean the less well area seasoned? Perhaps. A ban in cities seems more likely than a tax I think.

Forgot to say, I'm finding a m³ of mixed hard/soft seems to cut about £60 from my mains gas bill, factor in the warmer house and it must be worth £80-£100 readily enough if not more, it's hard to estimate. ,so heat from wood bought would be a similar cost to mains gas heat is my finding. Cutting and splitting scrounged ARB waste saves lots of money but is time consuming, I reckon I save myself about £8/ hour, give or take a pound. You have to enjoy saws and axes to do it for fun, and consider the saving a lovely bonus.

Installed 2*5kw stoves and my gas use is just under half what it was. All my wood is scrounged for free, ARB waste from a local tree guy, I cut, split and season for 2-3 years myself. I also supply wood fire my parents. House is 3-4 C Warner downstairs too than if only using the central heating. Because I get the wood free I burn as much as I can. 2 stoves, 2 installs including flue lining, 2 chainsaws, numerous splitting axes, PPE cost comes to £3k or a little more but I'll be in profit in 5-7 years. Good job I enjoy the hard work though, else I'd never do it.

I guess coal does come a long way too these days, since we've closed our own puts down. I'd forgotten that.

https://windfarmaction.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/energy-density-of-wood-v-coal/ Energy density means the wasted energy due to shipping mounts up I guess. Compared to UK coal drax needs 12 X the volume, and is shipped what? 100 times further. 1200 times the shipping by volume mile, that mounts up. The maths still aren't strong but there is my point, the op article needs to be stronger and then it can put a decent case against the anti-wood lobby. It's possible! I do personally think biomass from local source is good, biomass from distance is not. Oh and I believe wood stoves are written in to the UK carbon reduction strategy, so they are needed and won't be disappearing. Dirty wood piles!? 25m3 stacked in my London zone 3 garden, swept and polished weekly, clean as a whistle.

There are no sensible workings, its about as bad as the OPs article for badly presented 'facts'. I think it is based on the shipping, the processing and i suspect mainly the fact that the wood is wet and its energy output is low, a lot of the wood burnt just turns that water to steam, hence a lot of carbon emission to atmosphere for no useful return. I'm guessing though, as the facts aren't well presented. Anyway, relate that to a wood buring stove and we can see, locally grown and processed wood, PROPERLY SEASONED, and air dried not kiln dried, is maximising the green credentials. kiln drying, burning wet and shipping in from far afield all eat away at that green credential, and eat it quite quickly if some ar to be believed. Fuel choice will definitely outway any green saving from a 'modern stove' pretty quickly. We could go into how green the forestry source is too but its a hole that gets messy. what I'm saying is, with all of this, its NOT a simple subject and its very difficult to determine X is greener than Y and by how much, and the OPs article is too simple to take the debate far at all, or to educate users, or potential users, on how to burn clean and green (green in a good for the world way, not wet wood, but you know that), but at least its chipping in to getting a debate going so its good overall (if a thinly veiled plug for 'buy a new stove' )

the workings in this article are as poor as the one written above I'm afraid http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5619215/Burning-green-pellets-filthier-using-coal.html and it doesn't matter if its 'scientific press' either https://theecologist.org/2018/apr/16/hardwood-forests-cut-down-feed-drax-power-plant-channel-4-dispatches-claims

If that article written by someone in the industry is the best that can be done, there's little hope for the future of stoves. Its too simplistic and not super accurate. How green a stove is in both the local pollution and the wider carbon emission debate is largely down to the fuel. Wet wood sucks in any stove, modern tube stove, catalytic, what ever, they smoke if the fuel is wet. Make a stove that can tackle that, or work to make the fuel dry. Also wood fuel is only carbon neutral if its harvested sustainably and then harvested, processed and transported efficiently without consuming a lot more carbon. that's not very easy. I believe Greenpeace have shown Drax power station emit more carbon now than when it was coal fired, because wood is shipped so far to feed it. We need to work to push locally supplied, sustainably produced, properly dried wood.

I've got the bison one too and its got a good head but my handle was awful, some sort of softwood, fat and heavy and broke very quickly, think I'd only processed about 6-8m3 of wood with it. I re handled it with a hickory handle, cheap one of ebay. It made the tool feel soooo much better, better balanced, more slender and lighter handle. How long it will last I'm not sure... the grain orientation on the cheap handle is poor

Oh go on, I'm sure we can argue despite agreeing, agreement doesn't seem to stop many arguements here!

Ahhh,. If the op is looking at the rigid insulated pipe then yep, ignore me, mostly! Other than afaik, for liner at least, duraflue is one of the better brands so I suspect their other flue products are fair too. That would explain the cost..... Oops.

Oh and just to add, I see the burley needs a 6 inch flue, having done both 5" and 6" I can confirm what the stovefittersmanual guy says, 6" is a bit heavier and a bit stiffer making it a good deal harder to install. If you have any doubt that it will fit up your chimney, and you've not yet bought the Burley, think carefully. A stove that takes a 5" liner could make the liner install much easier. My second flue was a full brick square, so 8+" square, with just one slight bend. The hardest bit was actually getting it bent up and into the fireplace and off up (and across) into the start of the flue. Getting the nose around the bend half way took 2 or 3 goes, but then it slide up ok, but it needed me pilling from the top, my brother giving it all he had pushing at the fireplace, and my dad and mum guiding the rest of the liner across the dining room and though the conservatory towards my brother. It needed ALL of us. The 5" went in a virtually identical flue but slightly narrower at a bit under a full brick square. I did it the same way but only had dad and mum down below, not my brother. It went in a teenie bit quicker even with a lot less muscle power and the slightly narrower flue. I definitely needed the extra muscle from my brother for the 6" liner.

As far as I'm aware Duraflue is one of the good makes. I installed 8m of 5" last year for a stove i installed at home and just last weekend I installed another 8m of 6" for a second stove. I've had no problems with the installs, the liner seems very robust. My chimneys both have a 25ish degree bend in them about halfway up so the flue liner took some pushing and shoving from below, and some heaving on a rope from above, to coax around the bend but it seems to stand up to it fine. Obviously I've only run one stove, and only for one winter (about 1200 hours operation) but I've had no trouble. I opted for the 904 grade stainless even though I currently only burn wood, the 904 grade will stand up better to the sulphur in coal of you ever burn that, and it isn't much more costly. However...how much are buying!!! its 30 quid a meter, so unless your prices include nstallation, are you really buying 30+m or are you confusing metres with feet? I bought my 5" stuff from stovefitterswarehouse and all seemed well, except they failed to deliver on the original day. They were very apologetic when i called to chase it up, but i had to call. So i suggest a phone call if you order with them, don't just rely on the friendly sounding emails you get. Second time I ordered from someone else as it was slightly cheaper as they seemed to have a sale on. I forget who though...I got it back in about March and its been sat on my patio in a big coil for the last 6 months! If installing yourself (which isn't hard IF you can get to your chimney top easily, and I can) don't forget your other bits, the hanging cowl for the top and a nose cone to help pull the liner through. I found my 5" cone worked fine for the 6 inch liner too, it screwed in place fairly neatly inside the liner instead of outside, and I wrapped a bit of duct tape around the join to smooth it over.

I've heard good things about that book before, I'll have to look out for it.

While I agree wood in a sunny and airy spot dries loads in the late May to Early September period, I find myself raising an eye brow at sub 20%, especially hard for Oak. The OP will need to learn what woods work best for him, a combination of what you can get, what burns well in your stove, what dries well in your spot and what splits easily.

Your welcome, I hope you find some tips useful. That maul you linked is the Spalthammer. it is available in Europe but not the US, the US last year brought out the isocore tool range including the maul. TBH the spalthammer is probably good and you'll find it at about 50 euro if you google, but I didn't find many reviews and wasn't sure on the shape, it looked old fashioned, gave me the impression it would stick. When maul sticks firm its a real PITA! I was considering it but then got the Stihl pro cleaving hammer as an ebay bargain. The other one to consider at the ~£100 price is the granfors bruks, its goregeous and probably the best quality...unless you drop ~£600 on a John Neeman. I'd be too scared to swing one of those!

Glad you got an X27, they are great tools. Depending on what you are splitting and how gnarly it is you'll find some stuff that needs more oomph and may want a bigger maul too, 6 or 8lb head. I've a Stihl pro cleaving hammer which is pretty good but expensive at ~£85. If it were available in the UK thogh I'd get the Fiskars Isocore maul, only it isn't. I even asked Fiskars UK about it and they said they have no intention to bring it here, shame. Some amazon US sellers will ship it but it is then even more than the stihl cleaving hammer. The other option, and probably still needed on some rounds, is 2 or 3 wedges (I like the roughneck twist wedges and hate log grenades) and a sledge hammer. No block lasts for ever, so keep a couple of larger knotty rounds to one side. A slight slope on its surface can help as often the round you are splitting will not be cut perfectly straight so a sloped block allows you to balance it easily. I'm currently using a bit of willow which on the down side the x27 sticks in a bit, but on the upside its light and easy to move. If like me you are space constrained and might need to move your block about a bit a lighter block is nice. Depending on your set up you also need to think about storage, pallets to stack off the ground and a tarp for the top over the winter months, or build a more permanent drying shed. You may also want to think about transport of rounds and splits, some sort of hand cart can be handy for gathering them up and moving to the wood shed or inside to the stove. I'm currently using an old pram which is brilliant for it. I also suggest you consider a pickaroon/hookaroon or sappie (different names for the same thing) for picking up rounds and splits. I find mine a real back saver, far easier than bending down with both hands to pick up splits. I use a small one I made from a tool called a mortar pick which cost about £10, its a 15" long handled pickaxe basically. I also use a 30" handled bison one I got from ebay. the head on that is good, the handle was awful and broke in about 2 months. Just fitted a new hickory handle this morning so hope to get more use now. I bought cheap as I wasn't convinced how useful I'd find the tool but now i love them and if buying now would probably get the fiskars wood Xpert as the other fiskars tools seem so good. Lastly, hardwood split now will not be dry for this winter, maybe ok for next but will be best left until 2019/20. Softwood split now may be burnable but not ideal for this winter, but will be fine for next. Work on a year ot dry softwood and 2 to 3 for hardwood, although cutting and splitting small for a small 5Kw stove means things dry a bit quicker. and this really is the last (well maybe!) don't forget stuff like a companion set, stove fan and a set of chimney brushes for your Christmas list. Enjoy

Ok, parts ordered from FR Jones as they are reasonably priced. After VAT the clutch drum, flock/fleece air filter, fuel filter and the 2 filler caps is a few pence under £40 so it didn't seem worth faffing with Chinese AM stuff.

Thanks Rough Hewn, you are the latest of a growing number of people that tell me its a great saw. Heavy and drinks mix but solid and powerful. Mine needs just a little spruce up. I got it from ebay and it seems ok for an old saw but when I picked it up it was fitted with the wrong chain (1.3mm gauge in a 1.6mm gauge bar) that was absurdly tight, I guess in an attempt to hold it straight and make it cut. First time trying it I soon found it wasn't cutting right and it didn't take long to find the chain problem. I've checked the bar and its fine, rails straight and 7+ mm of depth on the groove so some wear left yet. New stihl chain ordered, and am looking into the drive sprocket replacement as that is knackered, wear grooves are almost a couple of mm deep!. I'd considered going to rim but I won't wear chains out often cutting a bit of firewood and when I found a clutch drum for £5.49 I thought there's little point going to a rim kit if that drum is half decent. Still considering it though, would you recommend any particular kit? Other than that it ran ok but stalled from time to time on idle so I pulled the air filter and found it totally clogged on the back side, now clean but I want a new one anyway. I pulled the plug and found it was clean but a bit loose and judging by the oily mark round half the squash washer it wasn't quite sealing. It was also a Rocwood, so I'll replace it for an NGK. Hopefully with new filter and plug it will run fine. If not I may be back asking more questions! Oil and fuel mix filler caps look OEM but old and a bit mangled, someone has been screnching them up tight to get them to seal, so before they mangle completely at a PITA moment I'll change them. I'll give FR Jones a call to see if OEM caps aren't too much, and check the price of filters at the same time, then make a decision. I'm kinda content to possibly waste a couple of quid on chinese caps and filters that don't work but what i don't want is a filter to fail in a way that blocks my carb or causes more damage, or a cap to seem ok but then split and spill oil or fuel mix everywhere.

Those are wise words I think Spud, thanks. I'm sure you would know though that an old 038Super is not going to be a daily use work saw, its very much the occasional use firewood saw. I want to stay safe though, so don't fancy a leaky fuel cap (like my worn out Stihl one, which left a puddle of mix on my patio table as I strpped out the worn clutch drum earlier today)

I'm after a replacement clutch drum and drive sprocket for my recently acquired 038 AV Super. Are the chinese AM parts ok or made of cheese? I've found the correct part number - Stihl 1119/00, on ebay for £5.49 from China, has anybody got any experience with these parts, OK? Here's a link CLUTCH DRUM RIM SPROCKET 3/8 7T w/ BEARING FITS STIHL CHAINSAW 038 MS380 MS381 | eBay I also need a replacment air filter,fuel filter and fuel and oil filler caps, looking at these, anyone got any experiences? Air Filter Cleaner, Felt for STIHL MS380 MS381 038 Chainsaw - 1119 120 1607 Accs FUEL TANK FILTER FOR STIHL 026 029 034 036 038 039 044 046 066 088 CHAINSAW | eBay Gas Fuel Cap&Oil Cap Fit For Stihl 020 021 023 024 025 026 028 034 036 038 048 | eBay Cheers.

The scary thing is how blunt the chain is