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The combustion is good if:
- After the lighting phase, there are no visible smokes from the chimney pot.
- The ashes are gray and white and no unburned wood remains.
- There is little soot in the chimney and inside the heat exchanger.
For a good, environment friendly wood combustion, these are the conditions :
- Use only seasoned wood (at least 2 years)
- Be sure the fireplace maintains a high temperature
- During the combustion, maintain an adequate combustion air supply
- Do not overload the fireplace while lighting the stove
A bad combustion is characterized by:
- Very dense smokes
- Gray or dark yellow smoke
- Unpleasant smell
- Very dark ashes with unburned pieces of wood
- Black mouth of the chimneypot
- High wood consumption
WARNING: RISK OF BACKFIRE AND EXPLOSION
Never use gasoline, kerosene, alcohol or other similar flammable liquids to start or poke the fire in the
stove. Keep any flammable product away from the stove while it is lighted.
During combustion the fireplace door has to remain closed. Whenever you need to open the door to
introduce wood in the fireplace, open the air registers for a few seconds before doing it.
Use the heat glove supplied to open the door and to reload the fireplace. By doing so you will be able
to put the logs gently into the fireplace, avoiding unecessary trauma to the refractory bricks.
Warning: the proper use of the heat glove is for charging the fireplace and NOT to
remove glowing embers from it.
During combustion, some parts of the stove (door, handle, glass) can reach high temperatures so it is
necessary to be careful and to use precautions.
If during combustion, loss of smoke should occur, do not charge anymore wood, ventilate the
room immediately and cool the stove. When the stove is cold, check the reason of the loss and, if
necessary, contact the Manufacturer.
However, if the smoke comes out from the stove while loading it, ventilate momentarily the room and
continue to load more slowly, giving time to ignite the wood.
The fireplace must be kept closed except during lighting, charging and embers removing, in order to
avoid smoke escape.
For night operating, use large size logs and possibly of hard species (beech, oak, etc..) and if the
wind and draft conditions are reasonably stable, the stove will continue to burn calmly. If you want to
prolong the combustion for many hours, you may need to adjust the combustion airs to a minimum.
COMBUSTIBLE
The proper combustible is wood.
Commercial firewood is usually divided into soft wood and hard wood. The hard species are
characterized by a strong and heavy wood and provide a substained and persistent flame (eg. Beech,
Ash, Walnut, etc..)
The soft species, light and soft wood, provide a short term flame (eg. Chestnuts, Poplars, Birch, etc.)
The resinous species (eg. Larch, Spruce, European species of Pine) while providing a significant
amount of heat during combustion, have some drawbacks described below:
•
Have a low specific weight and therefore burn quickly
•
Contain resin, have a rather sooty combustion and therefore require more frequent chimneys and
stove cleaning
•
They produce hot particles
•
They produce few embers
It is recommended to burn strong wood (eg. Beech, oak, etc.) and especially not to burn: garbage,
painted wood, plywood or particle board, fibreboard or packagings because it could damage the
stove and the chimney flue.
It is important to burn dry and seasoned wood, at least two years, since humidity has a significant
influence on the quality of combustion. Infact, when the wood is very wet, it lower the combustion
temperature, and also the first part of combustion is used to dry the wood at the expense of yield.
Moreover, this lowers the temperature of the smoke and creates condensation and creosote which is
very dangerous, flammable and with an unpleasant smell.
