Wood burner reverse draw

a rental place we had in whistler had a solid fuel open fire with a gas start – ie a bbq element shoved under the wood basket. You could just chuck some logs on, whack it up to full and enjoy the fire, no need to worry about draw, kindling, etc..

@kormoran – Is this the thing?

@gobuchul yes! That’s a more modern version, ours was a sort of blue hammerite colour and shaped very like an old school hairdryer. It was on a chromed stand similar but with it loop into a round base. It had a weird key to turn it on

I had been trying to remember it’s name and thought it might be grenadier, but guardsman of course

Did it not just blow any ash left in the corners of the stove all around the room?

No but it was back in the day when we’d clear the fire out and be left with clinker each day. We didn’t have the bed of wood ash that you have these days with wood burners.

It wasn’t especially blowy, it was more just super hot air

To be fair no one was really worrying about air quality in houses then. We were in London so burning smokeless coal too, the grenadier was really good for getting that alight

I just looked up the price. Jesus wept

Re:firelighters. I keep all my oily rags etc from diy in a container that I pour oil into from pots of olives and sun dried tomatoes etc. The oily rags make great firelighters.

Normally through the (previous) year I’m able to forage enough firewood locally but this year I’m going to have to buy some for the first time in years :-(