Anyone else filling their houses with smoke because the flue is cold?

No, I don’t get that, although it does take half an hour or so to get a decent draw going.
I’m in a bungalow though, so the chimney’s less than 4m high which might help.

Anyone else filling their houses with smoke because the flue is cold?

I’ve had this once or twice when it’s been very cold. My solution is to close all the vents and double the number of fire lighters.

No, I don’t get that either, we are very high up and quite exposed where the wind seems to blow contantly so we often have the opposite to you, as the flue warms up the draw does increase even more and I’m continually turning the fire down for a time after lighting it.

Open a window, preferably on the upwind side 😉

The only time I get that is when lighting with the Guardian rather than the Daily Mail – paper sometimes goes out and the column of smoke comes back down the chimney. Stick with the Mail is my advice. 😉

We’ve never had that, does your lum need swept?

Its fine tonight. Yesterday and the night before were awful. Bloody thing wouldn’t draw and filled the room with smoke. When it did go it roared like a V8!

Ours does that if its been very cold and the stoves not been lit for a couple of days.
Basically you want o get heat up the flu quickly to reverse the air flow so maybe two firlighters (i only use half a fielighter normally) and plent of small sticks that will light quickly. Job done.
I dont think opening a window will help (as its not an open fire).

The only time I get that is when lighting with the Guardian rather than the Daily Mail – paper sometimes goes out and the column of smoke comes back down the chimney. Stick with the Mail is my advice

That’ll be on acount of all the brimstone 😉

use the bottom vent only until the chimney is up to temperature, like already said, use plenty of kindling to get a hot fire going quicker.

Haven’t had that problem. I think as already mentioned, you need to get the fire running as hot and as quickly as possible. A well insulated steel flue will also help too.

They all struggle/are harder as they are so cold even my boat one which is only about 2 metres long. It takes a while to get any heat in th eflue /stove. just make a smalller fire to start with that has a greater heat intensity before trying to build up the fire -opening the front door can help get a better drawn- or make it wirse try this carefully.

Same problem here, I have a small flap on a 45 degree bend. I open it and light a newspaper in it there and away it goes. no probl lighting it them. If you can;t get right into the chimney, perhaps a firelighter set in the chimney (will only work with rear exit) might help

just got a handy soluion, heated the black flue pipe with a blowlamp until warm, of course taking care not to burn the paint and away she went with no bother

We get occasional downdraughts that seem to be due to cold weather and prevailing wind direction.

Lighting anything in the stove results in clouds of smoke billowing into the room until the cold air is warmed.

The best solution we found is to open the door and heat the stove pipe with a hairdryer, which quickly reverses the draw without worrying about smoke in the room or poor combustion leading to flue problems.

Not wanting to sound patronising, I have been fitting wood burners for over a year now (5 a week approximately)

Whenever I have a burner that will not draw, I use a lot of screwed up news paper to start with and leave the door open slightly to feed the fire/paper with plenty of air. Then when the heat starts to make the fire/flue draw I add cut up cardboard then when this is going add the kindling and progress to a log when it looks ready. I also leave all the vets open until the log is really established, closing the door only when it is pulling enough to survive on the air coming through the primary and secondary air sources.

I have never had a problem lighting a stove this way and have never used firelighters to light a stove.

Give it a go and see how you get on.

We have an open fire that is sometimes slow to start & gets downdrafts.

I find that blowing hot air up the flue for a couple of minutes before lighting the fire works a treat. We use an old £4 hairdryer.