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  • Woodburing stove help…
  • nickb
    Full Member

    Hi

    We recently had a Contura stove put in, with a new flue – this:

    [note – wiring still being sorted out…]

    We’re having problems with it in 2 areas:
    1. It’s a real pain to light. When cold, theres a constant downdraft from the flue, enough to blow out a match pretty quickly – see the video:
    http://s1209.photobucket.com/user/docnickb/media/2013-12-04203558_zps5c145106.mp4.html
    The guys that installed it have added an extra metre to the flue outside (it’s now prob 5-6 feet above the roof) and put one of those spinning fans on the top of the flue, but to no avail. Any suggestions?

    2. The glass goes black pretty much every time we use it. We’re using dry wood – last was a bag of silver birch as recommended by the installers. When burning it tends to be ok, but as it cools (once going out) it goes black. We’re needing to clean the glass 1-2 times a week if we want to see the fire. I assume this isn’t normal, and it may be connected to the flue issue (burning too cold?)

    Any suggestions for me to take back to the installers?

    Thanks,
    Nick

    cb
    Full Member

    if you search on line there is a stove installer manual. Guide for self builds essentially but I seem to remember it talks about issues like these. We have a similar stove, no draw problems but the glass does get dirty regularly, which is easily cleaned but still a tad annoying. The wood we have been using is 5 years old so as dry as will ever be.

    johndoh
    Free Member

    Is it a multi-fuel stove?

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    Our glass does get dirty when dying down or not burning hot enough. We just open the vents to get the heat up and it soon burns off.

    As for the back draft, no idea, sorry.

    EDIT: Great looking stove!

    scud
    Free Member

    As above, getting the fire burning really hot burns the crud off the glass.

    oliverd1981
    Free Member

    Do you have extractor fans running in other rooms? have you tried openinmg a window slightly until it’s burning well?

    sharkbait
    Free Member

    to stop the downdraught get heat into the flue as quickly as possible by lighting with plenty of newspaper – I can imagine that the flue will cool down quick quickly though compared to a brick flue.

    With regards to the glass going black – this is probably related to not running the stove hot enough or your wood is not very dry. I’m not aware of Contura really but please be aware that not all stoves are equal and some are more expensive for a reason – so it may be that that stoves needs the glass cleaning more frequently.

    Edit: put a thermometer on the stove so you know whats going on.

    johndoh
    Free Member

    Is it multi-fuel???????

    smartay
    Full Member

    Down draft fault, used to fit “H” pots to rectify especially if under hills or trees
    The glass problem is probably due to lack or air wash, top air or leaving stove on too low a setting
    My parents Trianco solid fuel boiler needs a fire lighter in the flue to get it to draw from stone cold

    That cable looks very close to heat source, our stove is 6Kw whats and I wouldnt run a cable that close

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    nice stove. We’re considering moving ours to the corner of the room. and I must say the twin wall down to the stove does look nicer (we have single wall flue half way up then twin wall – looks a bit ugly).

    As for the draft – do you have enough ventilation coming into the room? Presumably your air brick isn’t blocked. Do you open windows/doors when lighting the fire? Might help.

    Don’t worry about the window sooting up. Fix the downdraft and you’ll get the fire going faster, which means less smoke (and therefore less soot). Though TBH, even with an air wash on ours, it still blackens up. We clean the stover once a week, and do the glass then. But it lit every day during winter.

    globalti
    Free Member

    Down draft is sometimes a problem when we re-light our Aga after the summer; the flue is cold and air comes down as easily as it goes up. A few seconds of my plumber’s gas blowtorch up the flue warms it enough to kick start the updraft. With a traditional flue built into the fabric of the house it will stay warm for 20 hours or so between burns but an exposed metal flue like yours will go cold very soon. As suggested above, a blast of heat is what’s needed; a bit of newspaper oughht to get the flue warmed up.

    The sooting happens when combustion temperatures drop at the end of the evening. Burn the stove hot with good dry wood on a bed of multifuel embers and buy a bottle of glass cleaner.

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    Some stoves are good at the ‘airwash’ thing…

    …and some aren’t.

    I wouldn’t sweat about cleaning it TBH. All part of the fun of burning stuff in a metal box with a window.

    As for the downdraught, it’s not abnormal. It might be due to trees or something nearby (or similar environmental problem) and nothing much to do with the height of chimney above the roof. Once you’ve got the draw going its ok, so clearly isn’t a big problem.

    The usual trick is to burn a few bundles of newspaper in the stove to get the draw going the right way, and then light the fire as normal.

    FWIW we have two stoves, one lights very easily and always draws when cold, the other is a right sausage – and usually needs the newspaper trick.

    buy a bottle of glass cleaner

    Don’t bother, that stuff is a solution looking for a problem.

    Scrunch some newspaper, make it wet, get some ash on the wet bit, and use that to scrub the glass. Takes the tarry stuff off in no time.

    globalti
    Free Member

    Same here actually – two identical stoves with identical flues on identical slopes of roof yet one is a beggar to start and burns really sluggish – probably due to the airflow over the roof.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    see if its dirty after a burn.

    when you come to use it next light it. get a good fire going – it will self clean.

    if your fires not hot enough to clean the window your wood is wet or your damping it too much – which will cause the cresote to deposit in your flue.

    flowerpower
    Free Member

    Same here – two Morso stoves (although different models). Same height of flue and chimney, opposite ends of the house. One lights well and draws like a train, the other just puffs smoke back out into the room for the first 15 mins.

    Like the newspaper idea – will try that – thanks.

    As for black glass – yes just burn it off 🙂

    lemonysam
    Free Member

    Scrunch some newspaper, make it wet, get some ash on the wet bit, and use that to scrub the glass. Takes the tarry stuff off in no time.

    Even better if you use a bit of vinegar to wet the paper.

    nickb
    Full Member

    Wow – in meetings for a couple of hours and 16 posts! Looks like wood burners are far more popular than bikes on here… 😉

    @johndoe – no, as far as I’m aware it’s a woodburner only (details here)

    I’ve tried the ‘newspaper bundles in/near the bottom of the flue’ trick, but the downdraft is so strong that it just fills the room with smoke. Apparently paper generates lots of smoke, but not enough heat to reverse the air flow. We’re now using a blowtorch to warm the stove for 5 mins before lighting, but it’s still a bit hit-and-miss.

    @sharkbait – I may try the thermometer trick. What temp should it be burning at? FWIW, the stove was about £2.5k (excluding installation!), so at that price I hoped it came with people that clean it for us every week, but apparently not…

    Cheers all,
    Nick

    johndoh
    Free Member

    Ahh okay, I thought that if it was a multi that you might have had the wrong vents open – we made that mistake the first year running our Morsö

    sharkbait
    Free Member

    Nick, check were the manufacturer suggests a thermometer is placed – if they don’t state anywhere then about 1m up the flue (we have Clearview stoves and they recommend putting the thermometer on the stopve just above the door).
    You should be looking for >200c for normal running.

    nickb
    Full Member

    @sharkbait – thanks for that. Quick question – it’s a twin wall flue, so insulted all the way up. I assume that means that the temp wouldn’t be as high as 200c on the flue? The stove has a cast iron top, so I can check there. Sound right?

    Cheers,
    Nick

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    Looks like wood burners are far more popular than bikes on here

    In the past week I’ve lit about 14 fires and gone for 0 bike rides.

    …something wrong there!

    I’ve tried the ‘newspaper bundles in/near the bottom of the flue’ trick, but the downdraft is so strong that it just fills the room with smoke

    fill the firebox with newspaper, light it, shut the door – don’t mess about trying to get it close to the flue – what you’re aiming for is a lot of hot looking for an easy way to get out of the box.

    cudubh
    Full Member

    We have a contura stove which is currently burning away merrily. We found the best way to get it going quickly was to use the upside down method, cheat & use firelighters as they get it hot quickly, & use lots of dry kindling on top of those. This seems to get the flue hot quickly so it draws much better. We were burning slightly damp wood last year & the glass tarred up a bit (& it was hard to get going) until we started adding the odd ecolog to get the temp up. The same batch of wood is blazing away this winter & glass spotless. Hope this helps, Mrs CD 🙂

    globalti
    Free Member

    Yep, he fuel must be good and dry.

    samuri
    Free Member

    Our glass goes black but clears once we put new wood in.
    Ours is dead easy to light though, bit of scrunched up newspaper, loose chippings over that, couple of logs. I just throw a match in, open the vents and shut the doors. Once the logs are going I chuck a load of wood in and shut the vents.

    br
    Free Member

    Also looks close to the (normal) wall, is it a special stove that allows that?

    Have you an air-supply into the room?

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Now you mention it br . It looks alot like…. A patio heater maybe its supposed to be gas inside not a solid fuel 🙂

    redstripe
    Free Member

    I don’t know why but our old ‘poacher’ woodburner used to soot up the window all the time despite knowing the procedure and how to control the vents. Our newer Burley one in the same place, same flue, same source of seasoned wood never does. Just assumed some woodburners draw better or burn more efficiently than others.

    Mugboo
    Full Member

    Contura 51l here with a chimney. Woodburner only, we screw up lots of paper, throw in plenty of kindling and once it’s lit we leave on full with the door on the latch. Let the wood burn till flames die then pop on some smaller logs with a bigger one. By the time that’s burned the the thing is beginning to sing 🙂
    It definately needs plenty of kindling and plenty of ash left in.

    Not sure that helps, ours lights easily now it’s got plenty of ash and as long as I’m not skinny with the kindling.

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