(Matron)

OK – thought I’d finally mastered getting our multi-fuel stove up and running but in the last few days/fortnight it’s been increasingly temperamental; not convinced some of the wood I’ve been sold is that great (it hisses, not a good sign) however not all of it does that. Trouble is the fire is just so “fussy” – I can’t just put logs on and leave it, I feel like I am constantly having to adjust the dials to either increase or decrease the air flow and it’s generally a PITA. Put a new log on and it almost puts the fire out, whereas before the bed of coals underneath would be so hot it would just take immediately.

Question is – it’s only been installed just over a year (not by us) with a liner etc etc and was swept over the summer; is there anything obvious that could have occurred with the chimney recently to make it so difficult to use? I am going to call our chimney bloke again tomorrow but wondered if anyone had any thoughts in advance?

Quite apart from anything else, am getting through wood at a criminal rate, almost to the point that it makes no sense to use it – and would be cheaper to use our ancient, inefficient, gas boiler 24/7 instead, which wasn’t really the plan when we moved in here!!

Woe is me eh? What a frightfully middle class problem I have 🙂

check inside, in case any of the baffle bricks have dropped. A small bed of ash may assist flow rate, obviously a big pile is not so good. Obstruction in chimney – bird nest (unlikely) / fallen bit of masonry.

But if it goes well at the start, it should keep on track. Possibly a leak, or cold spot – our problem stove vents into a chimney flue cavity, on the north side of the house – it was a real pain to light, and was finally fixed with an extra pipe into the flue proper – bypassing the large (cold) space above the stove..

Do you have the same problem with coal? If there was significant moisture got into the chimney is there a chance that you have ice towards the chimney pot end of things?
I know my mates that have wood burners are getting through wood at an incredible rate too, not thats any help. Is there anywhere that you can source suitabel fallen wood from local woods (with permission of course). My mate always has his axe and chainsaw to hand and goes collecting wood every other day during that last cold spell.

Hmm, both interesting thoughts – cheers for that.

Have been giving serious consideration to trying coal though, Suggsey, maybe I should try it out!

If you are going through logs at an alarming rate then surely they are burning,

If you are going through logs at an alarming rate then surely they are burning,

Yes indeed they are burning but not very “satisfactorily” and not without a great deal of attention to ensure they’re sitting in the right place to start burning etc etc – I know that a fire is to some extent a living thing but you’d like to think that if the stove is “hot” that you didn’t have to give adding more fuel *that* much thought to stop the flames getting put out?

[edit]And actually now I think about it the logs *have* seemed to burn very slightly less quickly of late so perhaps there is a blockage or something. Might just be my imagination of course, still got through a cubic metre of logs in under 3 weeks 🙁 [/edit]

I’d say look up these guys local agent certainly wood – kiln dried logs that light and burn very very well – try a bag or two to see how you get on (having checked baffles etc etc as well)

Took me a wee while to work out that it’s best to get a real good bed of hot embers, close vents down quite a bit then just add the odd log to keep it ticking over.
Tweaking will ‘always’ be needed – there’s no ‘magic’ setting – weather effects the draw, wood is not all the same and all that….

It’s almost certainly damp wood. Build a woodshed if you have the space, and season it yourself.

In my experience damp wood can cause all the problems you mention. Burns cooler, uses more fuel, and can’t be shut down to run on tickover.

wet wood will do this it burns erratically . smokes loads before actually burning and rarely flames up so difficult to keep a proper fire in without the assustance of coal to form the bed /ashpan heat. This is why you are having to feed the baveman TV with your prods and attention.
Wet wood actually gives of less heat but at this time of year everyone is going through tons of wood as it is very cold you are in all the time etc.Wet wood is rubbish for fires and when i can only get this I use coal for the base and top up with wood and repeat as required.
Coal does allow you to vent at a more regular and even rate as it burns less erratically than wood.
Wood is best used for roaring fires IMHO to heat the house up massively then complain it is too hot. Firebricks in the burner may help if they are not present

Wet wood can ‘fur’ up a flue lining very quickly. I’d buy a set of sweeps brushes (about £15 from B&Q) and give it a quick clean out.

Was the liner backfilled when installed?? If not be very careful if you take to it with your home made brush kit! They are easily punctured and that would really upset you!! Plus was/is he/she a decent sweep that you used last time, it’s been known for them to cause the same damage!

Sounds like damp wood to me too. Because of the huge demand for seasoned wood due to woodburners being in-vogue there is a huge shortage; even loads advertised as seasoned are likely to be mixed with some green wood. One alternative is kiln-dried as suggested above or plan a year ahead and season your own. Even if stored in a wood-store, during the recent freezing weather ice will have formed on the wood which will have made it damp.

Munkster, definitely try coal.

We get the stove going with wood until it burns down to.a nice bed, then a layer of coal and 1 log. The thing then keeps going all night with only 1 log every 1.5 hours or so. The stove is also much more stable and requires less faffing with than when just burning wood.

That’s on a Morso 04

Sounds like your woods too wet too. Where you based, we get ours £50 for a metric tonne

Don’t try coal, its a lot less environmentally friendly than burning wood.

sounds like your wood is unseasoned softwood. is it damp? Do you keep it outside where it is getting frozen? Its always best to burn properly seasoned hardwood.

I use a mixture of coal ovals and logs, yes damp wood can cause these problems but so can a bad draw. We had a crap sweep who left a load if bird nest in when we had ours fitted and it caused no end of problems.

Remember if its got dual air, then lower for coal and top for logs. May require some setting up and change with each log load.
Sounds like unseasoned wood.
We opted for multi fuel as my experience with wood burning proved that you require your own private woodland to keep up with the stoves demands.
At present we are burning Supertherm ovals-hot and virtually no residue!

A cubic metre in 3 weeks . I can do that in a weekend!
Bet its your wood.
I try to burn some damp stuff to calm it down a bit but I must admit to having the biggest wood burner in the universe. I can get 90% of a piled wheel barrow in in one go.

The secret to woodburners is to “turn them in”.

ie, when the wood is burning, turn the airflow (or top damper if you have one) as low as possible without putting the fire out.

The wood will then just smoulder away – almost getting to a pyrolysis reaction,giving out a large amount of heat over a long time period.

However, as everyone else has commented – season your own wood. You do need a covered log shed / store.

OK, OP back here – just taken the plate thing out that sits at the top of the stove innards to check there was nothing obstructing above there – am now wondering where it needs to sit when I put it back! Should it be pushed all the way towards the back of the stove (flue is located towards the back of the unit) or should there be a gap at the back for any reason?

It’s an Eva Westminster 400 apparently in case anyone knows them…

[Edit]And yes, I know that the real plan should be to season my own wood but have only been here about 6 months and it’s bleeding cold NOW! 😀 [/Edit]

Keep warm NOW by building your wood shed NOW 😆

Thank you for your constructive (literally) input… 😉

No stove thread is complete without a gratuitous wood pile pic.

stick to coal, its better 😉

Hmmm, think I may have cracked it – pushed the plate wotsit inside the burner towards the back and now it’s working much much better. Wonder how long it’d been like that for – I’m new to all this wood burnery larks so not surprising I’ve not realised something was amiss (if indeed that was what it was…)

Thanks all again for suggestions… Hopefully a bit warmer now.