THE BETTER WAY TO BURN WOOD
Wood takes its combustion air from above
the firebed and will always burn best on a
bed of embers (approx 25mm deep). For this
reason you don’t need to clean out the ash
bed, except perhaps if it overflows (and then
you only need to remove some of the ash) or if
you are standing down the stove at the end of
the heating season (see page 39). You do not
need to riddle the embers either and for this
reason there is no riddle mechanism on this
wood burning only stove. When lighting or
refuelling gently tamp down the embers with
one of the pieces of wood you are about to
burn, to make a level bed – but even this may
not usually be necessary.
Your new stove can burn very well, or very
poorly, depending on how you light the fire,
how you refuel the fire, and, of course, the
type and quality of the fuel that you are
burning. A flue temperature gauge and log
moisture meter are both cost-effective
investments and both are highly recommended
if you want to maximise the efficiency of your
stove and minimise the amount of logs that
you use.
Always wear protective gloves when loading
a burning stove and place logs and other fuels
precisely where you want them by using heat-
resistant tongs. Never throw them in.
When refuelling always open the stove door
gently to avoid unnecessary air turbulence
which could cause ash or small lighted embers
to be drawn from the firechamber and beyond
the protective hearth. Never operate the stove
without the fire fence being in place.
When burning logs the end grain of a log will
allow any remaining moisture and gases to
escape, therefore always point log ends away
from the glass to prevent the glass staining.
• Ensure your logs are ready to burn
Always use fully seasoned or kiln dried logs
with a moisture content of less than 20%.
Unseasoned logs (aka wet or green logs) do
not provide the same fuel efficiency, will burn
poorly, produce less heat and will also produce
creosote tars which will quickly stain the glass,
clog the flueway and chimney system,
potentially making the stove unsafe to use.
Burning wet wood produces an excessive
amount of dirty smoke which will be extremely
damaging to your local air quality.
• The ideal Log
We recommend that hardwood logs should
be approximately 250mm (10”) long. This
provides sufficient air space at either end of
the log to allow any moisture and combustion
gases to escape freely. This size will also limit
potential damage to the vermiculite panels
from any over-sized logs knocking into them.
Do not be tempted to use over-sized logs
as they could be very slow to light and could
also create excessive smoke. When they
eventually catch fire they could very easily
over-fire the stove.
Ideally you will need three different thicknesses
of wood log as you start the fire and then build
it up through each lighting phase.. A detailed
description of these sizes and how important
they are to getting an effective fire quickly
established is discussed overleaf (page 22).
It is unsafe to operate this stove with
the door open. The only exceptions
to this are at the lighting phase when
it can be left slightly ajar for the first
few minutes to provide a boost of
combustion air for a quicker start and
only ever when the stove is attended
or when refuelling, when this should
be kept to a minimum.
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