Footflaps, must be farenheit

Nope Centrigrade..

Stove fan won’t be up to speed until the Stove body is about 200C.

Definitely Celsius. Proper operating range is about 110C to 270C ish. Above that you waste more energy up the flue and as you get to about 400C you’re in danger of damaging stove and flue, although a short blip probably OK.

My thermometer goes reads ‘too hot’ at 250C/475F.

It got close to 250C once and the stove was doing a good impression of a blacksmiths forge, and the metal strip under the fan was starting to tilt it off the stove to stop it overheating! Stove top (and stove) is obviously is rather hotter than the flue which is thinner and has plenty of surface area to dissipate heat.

From experience you are not getting enough airflow we into the stove.

I live in a very late 80’s timber framed property that has modern well sealed windows and sometimes when the weather conditions are right I have to open the longs windows to assist the flue in drawing air through the stove. Once it’s burning and up to temperature it’s fine.

So before you start doing anything else I would check that your room is ventilated correctly to enable the stove to operate.

Remember Carbon Monoxide can kill and if you stove have been installed according to Regs you should have Carbon Monoxide monitor in the room anyway.

OP – what is the max output of the stove?

I think you might try splitting a few logs. Insides may catch fire faster than outsides, and the inside corners should go quickly.

And scrounge a few logs from someone else to compare with yours. It does read like yours are damp.

Yep, what the git said ^

Why don’t you try lighting it using your usual method with just lots of kindling, and maybe some thicker sticks, and see what happens.

If it still dies out it’s an air supply issue (in which case open a window slightly during the first 10 mins) or you’r logs aren’t as good as you/the log seller think they are.

A couple of observations:

You can never put too much kindling on

You can never have too many firelighters

If your house is so airtight that you’ve to open a window to get the fire to draw, you don’t need a stove – just switch on your central heating instead 😉

If your house is so airtight that you’ve to open a window to get the fire to draw, you don’t need a stove

From my understanding (from what our fitter said), if a stove is >5kw then additional venting is required. For <5kw venting generally shouldn’t be required.

From my understanding (from what our fitter said), if a stove is >5kw then additional venting is required. For <5kw venting generally shouldn’t be required. [/I]

This is a legal thing.

Yeah that’s true 🙂

Jeez. How complicated can people make lighting a fire? Just get it lit, chuck more burnable stuff on, the hotter the fire, the bigger the burnable thing can be. Don’t turn down any vents until the fire is set in properly., then close them all progressively until you are maintaining temp with just the airwash. Don’t over think it!

(Edit; 13 sheets FTW)

@ bash – I just re-read your original post, for last night I lit a fire and thought about it. I too have a Highlander five, though seven years old. I assume they haven’t changed much.

The instructions say don’t leave the door open. I shut mine quickly, especially when it’s going well as it starts roaring. This makes me think you have damp wood. See if you can scrounge some dry logs from mates. I’m in West Wilts.

It may help to use kindling then smaller logs to start, round ones about 2 3″ dia, or the equivalent size in split pieces. As it gets going, add one more, bigger, at a time. The aim is now two sideways and one diagonally across the top.

Each time a new piece goes on, prod and poke the bottom-most, for you want to have a layer of red-hot charcoal at the bottom. When you have that you can add one of the biggest logs. And when that’s nearly done, prod, poke and spread the charcoal again, then add another.

If it sounds a lot, well I usually start the fire while I’m cooking my dinner, fortunately I can see it from my kitchen.