😀

I bought an old stove on ebay the other day, a good quality one but in need of refurbishing. Only paid £68. lifting it into the car boot when i collected it was an exercise.

Spitting wood is good exercise too. Its well below zero and the ground is hard frozen but I was soon down to a t-shirt and sweating. I’d read wood can often split very easily when frozen, hence why I went out. Don’t believe everything you read. Although to be fair, the wood was not frozen, just a thick layer of frost. Still a lot of water coming to the surface on several axe strikes.

I’m not that far along (yet) will probably be having wood delivered.
MsD doesn’t want me to have a chainsaw & the police took one of my axes away..

Fuel – what are the advantages/disadvantages of softwoods Vs hardwoods?
Also, naturally seasoned Vs kiln-dried logs.
Seems a fair discrepancy in price.

Basically all wood of any type has the same energy per kilo. However soft woods are less dense, so less energy dense. Seasoned hardwood will have a specific density around 0.75, soft wood about 0.5. So for the same energy output you need to process, store and burn half as much again of soft wood. So more splitting, more large piles and more refueling the stove. On the plus side it dries quicker, about a year instead of 3, it lights quicker and it burns hotter. Soft is good for getting the stove lit and quickly up to temp, hard good for a nice steady burn.

Kiln dried pricing is odd as the money isn’t made in selling it…. It’s almost a waste product. The money is made in government green grants, called rhi. Run a kiln and get paid, a princly sum even. As for burning it, well it depends on the moisture content. It might be ‘too dry’. Below 10% and it’ll go ‘Woof!’. A controlled burn will be hard. However chances are it’ll be about 18? when you burn it, unless you store it inside. If stored outside it will absorb moisture and equalise with surrounding air, and just like air seasoned logs, gets to 15-19? in the UK, depending on summer vs winter and south vs colder north.

Oh and it varies a great deal on numerous things, but soft usually cuts and splits a bit easier.

I just realised…a dwarf with no axe? Need to remedy that.

Finishing on a full burn, is not leaving it to smoulder. Vents opened up, intense burn to leave only fine ash.

Soft/hard mix of firewood is best for the reasons nn mentions. Kiln dried isn’t worth the premium, unless you plan to keep it in your airing cupboard, it will just pull the moisture in again, osmosis, equilibrium and science and stuff innit.

We mostly run the firewood processor at 250-300mm as that fits the majority of stoves and we know which customers have stoves that will take the bigger bits that slip through, stoves that require small logs are a pain, not enough sheds to dedicate one to the few people that have midget stoves.

Some species split easier green, others when seasoned, some hardwoods are no good after 18 months (horse chestnut), some softwoods are hard to cut and split once like Sitka spruce once dry. Many variables, a good source is most important for decent dry stuff, not last weeks hedge cuttings.

We now have a small living room and put a small log burner in two years ago. We did stacks of research and ended up with a Charnwood C-Four, it’s been a lovely thing that everyone likes the look of and works extremely well. The others I was hugely impressed by, and anyone around here with one says the best by far and the Woodwarms, extremely well made, the Firefox is there small one.

Every tree is different though to split, depends how fast it grew, was it alone battling the winds or sheltered? Did it grow tall and straight seeking the light or short and branched to soak it up? Knots and twisted grain are evil no matter what the species. I’ve had 2 foot diameter horse chestnut that was an absolute dodle to split….. I’ve currently got a load of Ash that is absolutely wretched….. I’m hoping it will get easier as it dries as it’s currently f’ing awful to work on!

One more thing muddy, a range of split size (diameter) is handy. Several small bits gives intense burn, one large bit gives a slow and low burn.

All of the above is why we don’t bother with wood anymore. Far too much faff if you don’t have masses of spare time for hobby burning, and the space to store several years worth of wood.

Our lounge stove runs on cheap manufactured nuggets, or anthracite cobbles. The big boy in the kitchen that drives the radiators runs on anthracite beans. Morning routine is riddle, reload, forget. Evening routine is riddle, reload, take ash out, forget. The only thing we use wood for is getting coal burning.

We’re getting one of these fitted on Monday – we chose it as it has a huge window.

Ok, can someone explain to me what a recouping baffle does in a wood burner?

Lionheart

Out of interest how wide and deep is your chimney breast and what size hole have you got for that Charnwood?

Ok, can someone explain to me what a recouping baffle does in a wood burner?

Never heard of one, but apparently….

The Hunter Herald 8 Recouping steel baffle is a triangular baffle that is used to protect the top of the firebox to ensure it is insulated and protected from the continuous heat produced by the stove.

All stoves have a baffle. It’s a roughly L-shape piece of metal plate, probably 5 or 6mm thick, and it stands upside down so it covers some of the back and much of the top of the firebox. It provides tortuousity (might never just made that word up) so flames and sparks shouldn’t get up the flue, and protects the top plate from excess heat. Never heard of a ‘recoupling’ one though.

If you run the stove too hot ( more likely on coal than wood) then a warped baffle is possible, but replacing these is easy and cheap compared to a top plate. For example, I’m refurbishing a Franco Belge Belfort, it needed a baffle, it cost me about £25 to get a new one.

Ah, i’ve been playing with it (it came sat in the bottom of the stove with no explanation as to purpose) and i ‘think’ i’ve found out how it fits into the stove. The instructions give no clue!

Does the stove top still get hot enough to ‘cook’ on? MsD has this mental image of doing mulled wine, and roasting chestnuts on it.

Ah, i’ve been playing with it (it came sat in the bottom of the stove with no explanation as to purpose) and i ‘think’ i’ve found out how it fits into the stove. The instructions give no clue!

She’ll be roasting your nuts on it if you get it wrong.

Yes stove top will get very hot. You’ll find it will cook and boil stuff. Note stove paint is not that hard and easily scratches with cook pots, if that might bother you perhaps get a trivet, it will still boil stuff on a trivet.

Like that stove with big glass. It won’t stay they way though….. One burn and can we see a photo? The bottom, by the log guard, will be black. The rest will stay clean with decent logs though I reckon.

Yes, trivets have been mentioned! Getting impatient to have the job done now, another week before its finished.
Found a local wood supplier so all set really.

Another Morso Squirrel owner here ….

@ muddy: If you haven’t got one yet, get a stove thermometer. If you don’t have one I can guarantee you’ll run the stove too cool and mess up your flue.

@johndoh: Nice looking stove. Is it steel or cast iron? If it’s steel, is the door also steel?
We have a pair of Clearview stoves and although the bodies are welded steel (my preference) the doors are cast iron. I’m guessing this is because a cast door will not flex as much.
It will be interesting to see how well your stove seals 10 years down the line (if you still have it!!).

Too cool? In THIS house? You obviously haven’t met MsD..
She is cold on Mediterranean holidays!

Rope seals around the doors, what sort of lifespan should I expect? All this is new to me.

P.S. The exposed brick of the ‘damp’ wall is drying out nicely, colour changing every day.

Seal should last two or three years at least, the glue with probably go first.
Easy fix, I did one of ours the other day – took 5 mins max.
Buy rope and glue off ebay and don’t get the cheap stuff.

Another Morso Squirrel owner here too and X27 axe.

My parent’s stove must be almost 20 years old, still on original rope seals in good nick. I’m not sure what wears them tbh. Test seal by checking it grips a piece of paper

Seals don’t wear really, but they do compress over time and eventually will allow too much air in – even with an adjustable door.

Like I said though, it’s probably the glue that will go first so you replace the lot.

Get a Stove fan. They spread the heat around the room.

http://iqdesign.ie/smartfan.html

Get a Stove fan. They spread the heat around the room.

What about if you have a convection wood stove?

Finally got ours in last night – but can’t light it until tonight (Parkway Aspect 4).

*The rest of the room/fire surround etc is work in progress but we wanted the stove in for Christmas 🙂

We have a Nordpeis Orion. Can boil a kettle on it which is a bonus.

Nordpeis

Very nice stove johndoh, I prefer the simple square ones.

This is mine so far, way things are going, it probably won’t be finished until Feb

Very nice stove johndoh, I prefer the simple square ones.

Cheers – we chose it as it has a really big opening to maximise the flames. Thankfully the steampunk-style stove my wife wanted was too big for our available opening 🙂