so, the girlfriend has a stovax wood burner – installed new at the beginning of the year when she moved into her new house.

I’ve struggled to get it to really rip and kick out much heat – it just seems to get going, and then if not constantly attended to it just runs out of steam and leaves half burned logs.

I’m not a seasoned wood burner type, so I thought this was the (disappointing) reality of these things.

now, we’ve jhust come back from a weekend in cornwall, which had a different burner, and this thing absolutley RIPPED – kicked out shit loads of heat, very controlable, lots of flames, yet you could control how quickly it ate through the logs. I felt like a man once again.

So, what am I doing wrong? wood? technique? are Stovax shit? Can’t remember what the other brand was, only that it kicked arse.

Any wood burning tips much appreciated!

Jimbo

Are the logs seasoned?
Have you got a nice ash pan? Wood likes a nice bed of ash to burn
How is the draught done [vents to the fire] as wood prefers draught over the wood rather than under?
Do you get a proper draw from the flue?

Some wood is rally rubbish at burning what kind of wood do you have?

Out stovax is fine, tried other fuels if havent got seasoned wood. We use peat or recycled wood bricks to get going then top up with wood after.

Seasoned wood.
Nice bed of embers.
Play with the vents to a) get enough air in and b) keep enough heat in

All the problems I’ve had are with green wood – leave it a year.

What model? Wood grate (not coal)? Properly installed? Decent fuel? Flue up to scratch?

Too many variables – and nothing wrong with Stovax.

Your vents are probably closed.

I start mine with the door open, about 5mm, this works like blowing on the embers and gets it going real well.

When you get it going, one of these means you can heat the whole house…. Magic…. http://www.ecofan.co.uk/woodstove-ecofans.html

Are you sure all the vents are open and seasoned wood?

Slight hijack but Charlie, is that convection fan really worth it? My neighbour has mentioned it but seems so small i suspected would be like a wasp farting on my stove .

Yep it works. I point mine at the stairs and leave the bedroom door open by an inch, it then Heats a two bed house.

Very very very effective

You don’t get a hot spot near the fire, nice even heat.,

I was sceptical, especially since Sheldon recommended it and he rides a 650b, but it’s very good.

I just clicked Charlie’s link and had a look. Cool product and I like how it generates its own power. The lapsed mechanical engineer in me then had a euraka moment as I realised you could use a Stirling engine and do away with the need for electricity at all.

Alas, as so many times, I’ve been beaten to it: http://www.stirlingengine.co.uk/d.asp?product=VULCANSTOVEFAN

I NEED one of those.

i too have one of those eco fans – they are great for heating the house.

Ours broke for a short period and the difference throughout the house was noticable – the living room remained warm but the hallway and upstairs never warmed up.

Trying to sit down and relax with a stirling engine going – no thanks.

As mentioned, nothing wrong with our Stovax, just play with the vents, best to turn it up flat out to start, and get a good red hot base, then turn down a bit.
On the fans, easy and cheap to make yourself, peltier about £10, motor £5 plus some old pc processor heat sinks. That’s what I’m currently making (The top of our stove gets to about 160 deg C)

There are 3 vents on our Stovax, 2 are visible on the front of the stove and one is located underneath out of view. It is an inset stove so maybe not the same as yours. Worth a check to see if that is it.
And it does a proper job when its on full bore.

My guess is as long as there is no issues with the install, the wood could be green. You can get a meter that tells you the water content of your wood ( as long as you use it correctly).

Been using a Eco fan and agree they are great for giving you a more even heat to your room

I always start mine with good dry tinder cut down to an inch or so in width, pile it up on top of a few newspaper balls and open the vents up to get it started, ( if you have a air vent that draws air in below your wood open that one slightly to draw air underneath, once going switch this one off and use the top one to control the fire) then when you have a nice bed of hot embers add well seasoned logs and close the vents down to control the flame and burn rate ( don’t turn them totally off)

The type of wood you burn makes a difference too, Ash is my favourite if you can get it.

Was the fire fitted by a Hetas registered builder or someone who followed the build to the correct building regs, it’s quite a minefield out there with so many builders fitting stoves on the cheap and not to building regs.

Get hold of some hotties or similar heat logs to rule out wet fuel first.
Get hold of a moisture meter to check your fuel. It’s worth it.

If it doesn’t work well with them then your chimney is most likely the problem.

Does your stove have a long horizontal section off the back of it?
Voids in the chimney, eg a big soot box low down?
Very Short?
As mentioned, some stovax (Stockton 7 inset is one) have a third vent hidden underneath. Does yours?

Get a proper chimney sweep to sweep it and see if they have any pointers for you.

what kind of wood do you have?

Seasoned wood

Get hold of some hotties

Sniggers…

Stovax are apparently considered to be top notch woodburners – so its most likely either the flue the wood or vents – or all 3

Mine roars like a Lion.

Good to hear the praise of Stovax, as we’re getting one in this week.

Might be worth getting the Installers back saying you’re not happy, or have it checked out by someone else (probably cost their time).

Sounds like the flue is blocked.

I had a Stovax and it was great. Is the glass going black? If so then definitely the wood is too wet.

She’s not had a visit from the local fire-officer due to smoking out next door? 😉

Best guess would be that your wood isn’t dry enough, as others have said. This site explains it far better than I can…

http://www.ed-knights-logs.co.uk/additional_information.php

You can get to recognise by weight, feel and cracking if firewood is wet or dry. It helps to learn the main types too, beech f’rinstance goes into multiple thin cracks when it’s ready.

Some ‘seasoned’ wood is wetter than other seasoned wood.

no draft out your chimney because its all going into scotcheggs attic ? (see the other thread )

I have a rebranded Stockton 3 Stove (kensal 20) it works fine and can be used in a smoke control zone if fitted with the smoke kit. With wood it will not burn for more than about 3 hours before the eco fan stops but with smokeless fuel will still be hot in the morning and with a bit of raking and the vents open springs back into life. There is a huge difference between different smokeless fuel.

Do not ever burn smokeless fuel with wood as the emmissions can cause the liner to be damaged (accoeding to the bumf you get with the stove) and if you use smokeless fuel you need to ensure you have a 906 liner.

which stove do you have ?

The holes at the rear are for the secondary burn and are what makes a wood burner more efficient.

as the othere have said get some good hardwood then read the stove instructions and follow them

thanks for the replies all – reckon it’s shit wood after reading up a bit more.

gonna try some heat logs to make sure though – Mikey – I think it’s a stockton 3 – does yours just have the two vents? (primary and airwash)

glass does go black pretty quick…..

Another here for the Ecofan, (must be a SS thing)

I only bought mine as it looked pretty but as charlie says works a treat.

no I have 3 vents

2 at the back for secondary burning and are preset

a slider at the bottom for when you are burning smokeless fuel

a vent at the top for the airwash and is what I use when burning wood

it is hard to build up a bed of ash on the grid as it falls through so I got a baking tray about the right size then hammered it flat, I remove some ash about once a week but still leave a cm of ash

the bottom 2 inces of the glass goes black but the rest stays clear, well goes white ish if the whole of the glass goes black the stove isnt burning well, have you got a liner in your flue?

stevomcd – that fan is amazing!

op – as others have said, sounds like poor wood – easy to check…..

may be chimney is too low so you’re not getting a good draw on the fire – this was the problem in our old house and a trip to the roof soon fixed that – made a vast difference.

charlie, others – am assuming the fan sits on the stove top – does it look aesthetically fine, or a bit odd? silent in use?

To a usefully large extent, any decent woodburner is a woodburner – just somewhere to hold fuel and provide a means to control the rate of burn – you let air in at the bottom, it passes through and feeds the combustion and then out and away.

‘Wet’ wood is rubbish, so I’d knock that variable out first – internal construction wood is usually a safe bet (like the stuff you’d use for first-fix / partition walls), so it might be worth asking for a small bag of offcuts from a local joiners / timber merchants / friendly builder and burn that as a test.

Then I’d be thinking about the draw …
Are you getting much smoke circulating in the stove when you first light it?

Draw is complex and it’s affected by things like …
The rate of burn,
The chimney’s internal volume,
(These two especially so in the initial stages of the fire, or when it’s slowing down),
If they are lined / what their materials are,
If there is any cowling, or tapers / baffling on the chimney pot,
Their overall positioning in relation to airflow, (you might have an older house that would have had good draw when built, but that airflow has been changed since by newer construction works).
The weather!

Mine is a good example of this mixture – so you’ll probably need to try a few things on different occasions to get to the bottom of it.

I’ve got a fairly large volume chimney, so on cold, damp, still days/nights it takes a while to get going properly, it just smoulders and smokes in the firebox, as the energy from the combusion isn’t yet high enough to drive the convection (and the avection of smoke) up and out past the lump of cold/damp/still air in the chimney. Once it’s going it warms the air, then the draw is great, but the large volume of cold ‘dead’ air can take a little while to heat up.

… but as I live on a big hill exposed to wind in almost every direction, on windy nights, I have to start off with the top vent almost closed to get the little kindling-fire settled and happy or it’s just ripped to death by the air-flow howling through it – plus I need to manage the burn rate carefully in the wind, as it’ll tear through whatever you give it in no time at all.

I’m not 100% convinced about the blackening on the glass being a useful diagnostic … as mine’ll do that over time pretty much whatever I burn. I have ‘air-wash’ vents on my stove, but my fires tend to dislike air flowing in downwards, so I don’t bother with them. Spit on a bit or newspaper, dab it in wood-ash and it’ll clean off easily enough (don’t use the ash if you burn wood and coal tho’ or it’ll damage the glass).

I’ve had a woodburner for 25+ years now, and as long as I can manage it, I’d never not have one (ok, might be kinda harder to do when I’m sat in a nursing home drooling into my soup, but you get the picture 😉 )