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Tips for lighting the fire
Use finely cut, dry kindling wood.
Firelighter cubes or gel work best when ensuring ignition of the kindling.
Cross stack kindling over and around fire lighter like a small tower.
Use ample kindling wood to ensure a good fire, you want to get the fire hot as
fast as you can.
Tips to help get the highest heat output:
Open the air slide to increase the amount of combustion air to the combustion
zone.
Use smaller pieces of wood and lots of it. Small pieces of wood have a larger
surface area compared the same volume of wood but in larger pieces.
Feed the fire regularly. Keep the fire topped up with fresh wood to keep the
temperature up in the combustion zone.
Use dry wood. Wood with a moisture content of less than 16% will burn much
hotter than damp wood. Use a moisture meter to determine the moisture con-
tent of the wood.
Use a soft wood. Soft woods like Radiata Pine burn fast and hot.
Warning, extended periods of running your fire extremely hot will dam-
age the consumable components at a faster rate and can risk damage to
the firebox.
Tips for increasing the burn time:
Shut down the air slide to decrease the amount of combustion air to the
combustion zone.
Use large pieces of wood. Large pieces have a smaller surface area compared
to small pieces of the same volume and will burn slower.
Use a hard wood like Blue Gum (where permitted). Hard woods are denser and
take longer to burn.
Completely fill the fire box with large pieces of wood. The more wood in the fire,
the longer it takes to burn.
Load the wood at the right time. If you load the fire when there is a large
amount of red embers, the wood will all combust at the same time. A good idea
is to let the fire burn down quite considerably and push the embers off to one
side. Stack the wood in the firebox and the wood will ignite on one side only
and slowly burn from one side to the other.
Tips for using the wet-back:
The hotter the fire burns, the more hot water the wetback will produce.
If you require some hot water but not too much heat into the room, try
burning a small fire at the back of the firebox below the wetback.
Tips for using the cook top:
The cook top is hotter in the middle than at the sides and hotter at the
front than at the back.
Like the wetback, the cook top’s temperature is linked to the output of the fire.
Any stains from pots or mugs can easily be touched up with matching high
temperature paint.
Useful Tips
Get the most out of your Woodsman
