I have a wood bruning stove which works fine on the face of it. But I
seem to get through masses of wood !
I would like to put a few logs in and let them kind of simmer over
night, but I have to pack it to the gunnells for it to survive. I have
the unit fully damped down with just a glow near the bottom, but it
burns all the contents overnight. It's a10Kw stove with a damper in
the flue and two low and two high air control valves.

Some basic questions.
How do I make the wood last longer? I have read about people drying
out wood for 12 months and splitting to aid the drying but this seems
to be done for wood to burn cleaner and hotter - whereas I just want
it to burn longer to make my stock last.

Do I need to protect the base of the stove? I have put some fire
bricks in the bottom - was this misguided? I always maintain a bed of
ash for the logs to sit in, but perhaps the ash is too high up and
nearer the vents? I was concered because the side walls and the back
have fire bricks hanging in place for protection, but there'e nothing
for the bottom. A full on grate is supplied if ever I wanted to use
coal, but nothing for log burning on an ash bed. the bottom of the
stove has ribs so it's not a completely flat base, I am thinking up
using the ash pan that is supplied with the grate. It could sit on the
ribs to provide a bit or protection - I don't to scorch this area.

Where can I buy a new handle for the door? It's a wooden handle and a
brassh square section that starts at 15mm square and tapers back to
20mm - I am struggling to find this kind of replacement item on the
internet.

I cleaned the flue 9th September 08 I have run the cooker / stove 24/7
ever since. Today 12th Jan 09 - we have blocked flue - I presume it's
because of the build up clinker on the sides of the flue and at the
pot - because of the volume of wood that we have got through and the
damped overnight burn - I am presuming that when running with flames
and full heat/draught then no build up can occur.

Any advice would be greately appreciated.

Kev.

wrote:

I have a wood bruning stove which works fine on the face of it. But I
seem to get through masses of wood !
I would like to put a few logs in and let them kind of simmer over
night, but I have to pack it to the gunnells for it to survive. I have
the unit fully damped down with just a glow near the bottom, but it
burns all the contents overnight.

I doubt it burns the wood, it pyrolises the wood and vents the "offgas", a
smog of gaseous products of incomplete combustion and particulates and
vents them up the chimney...


I cleaned the flue 9th September 08 I have run the cooker / stove 24/7
ever since. Today 12th Jan 09 - we have blocked flue -

.... where the tars condese out and line the chimney, eventually blocking it.

AJH

You need to replace the rope seal around the door,this can be the cause of
too much air entering the fire
without control,replaced mine and it was almost a differnet fire,much more
controlled burning.It seams to nedd doing every 3 to 4 years

On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:43:19 -0800, bignose wrote:
Do I need to protect the base of the stove? I have put some fire
bricks in the bottom - was this misguided?

I think that if it's going to split, it'll do it near the top, where it
gets hotter. At least that's the way that the one in our house had died
when we moved in (we tore it out for insurance reasons, but I suspect
we'll put a modern one in sometime soon)

I just checked, and that particular one* is 1/4" plate all round. There's
no grate, ash and wood all just sat in the bottom of the stove - but
there's no sign of any warping or other damage to the base; I suspect it
just never got hot enough there.

* very much someone's home-made project...

Where can I buy a new handle for the door? It's a wooden handle and a
brassh square section that starts at 15mm square and tapers back to 20mm
- I am struggling to find this kind of replacement item on the internet.

Hmm, maybe the handle off a garden implement (trowel or similar) might do
the job?

wrote:
I have a wood bruning stove which works fine on the face of it. But I
seem to get through masses of wood !
I would like to put a few logs in and let them kind of simmer over
night, but I have to pack it to the gunnells for it to survive. I have
the unit fully damped down with just a glow near the bottom, but it
burns all the contents overnight. It's a10Kw stove with a damper in
the flue and two low and two high air control valves.

Some basic questions.
How do I make the wood last longer?

Denser wood.


I have read about people drying
out wood for 12 months and splitting to aid the drying but this seems
to be done for wood to burn cleaner and hotter - whereas I just want
it to burn longer to make my stock last.

Oak.

Do I need to protect the base of the stove? I have put some fire
bricks in the bottom - was this misguided? I always maintain a bed of
ash for the logs to sit in, but perhaps the ash is too high up and
nearer the vents? I was concered because the side walls and the back
have fire bricks hanging in place for protection, but there'e nothing
for the bottom. A full on grate is supplied if ever I wanted to use
coal, but nothing for log burning on an ash bed. the bottom of the
stove has ribs so it's not a completely flat base, I am thinking up
using the ash pan that is supplied with the grate. It could sit on the
ribs to provide a bit or protection - I don't to scorch this area.

Where can I buy a new handle for the door? It's a wooden handle and a
brassh square section that starts at 15mm square and tapers back to
20mm - I am struggling to find this kind of replacement item on the
internet.

I cleaned the flue 9th September 08 I have run the cooker / stove 24/7
ever since. Today 12th Jan 09 - we have blocked flue - I presume it's
because of the build up clinker on the sides of the flue and at the
pot - because of the volume of wood that we have got through and the
damped overnight burn - I am presuming that when running with flames
and full heat/draught then no build up can occur.

Any advice would be greately appreciated.


It is almost impossible to damp a 10Kw stove down low enough to stay lit
overnight, on wood.

Coal might do it .


Kev.

wrote in message
...
I have a wood bruning stove which works fine on the face of it. But I
seem to get through masses of wood !
I would like to put a few logs in and let them kind of simmer over
night, but I have to pack it to the gunnells for it to survive. I have
the unit fully damped down with just a glow near the bottom, but it
burns all the contents overnight. It's a10Kw stove with a damper in
the flue and two low and two high air control valves.

Some basic questions.
How do I make the wood last longer? I have read about people drying
out wood for 12 months and splitting to aid the drying but this seems
to be done for wood to burn cleaner and hotter - whereas I just want
it to burn longer to make my stock last.

Do I need to protect the base of the stove? I have put some fire
bricks in the bottom - was this misguided? I always maintain a bed of
ash for the logs to sit in, but perhaps the ash is too high up and
nearer the vents? I was concered because the side walls and the back
have fire bricks hanging in place for protection, but there'e nothing
for the bottom. A full on grate is supplied if ever I wanted to use
coal, but nothing for log burning on an ash bed. the bottom of the
stove has ribs so it's not a completely flat base, I am thinking up
using the ash pan that is supplied with the grate. It could sit on the
ribs to provide a bit or protection - I don't to scorch this area.

Where can I buy a new handle for the door? It's a wooden handle and a
brassh square section that starts at 15mm square and tapers back to
20mm - I am struggling to find this kind of replacement item on the
internet.

I cleaned the flue 9th September 08 I have run the cooker / stove 24/7
ever since. Today 12th Jan 09 - we have blocked flue - I presume it's
because of the build up clinker on the sides of the flue and at the
pot - because of the volume of wood that we have got through and the
damped overnight burn - I am presuming that when running with flames
and full heat/draught then no build up can occur.

Any advice would be greately appreciated.

Length of burn Dependent on type of wood used and air flow.
Some very good advise here
http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_for_burning.html

The handle could be made by a local friendly small machine shop or
alternatively use a file handle, readily available from any good engineering
stores. Alternatively look for a large pull cord switch knob, the one that
dangles on the end of the string on the bathroom lightswitch.

Describe your wood supply. Are you using hardwood logs from a supplier
or scrap timber? What size are the logs?

10KW is a fairly substantial stove, I let mine (a jotul f600) burn
freely so that it burns cleanly - I tried throttling the air supply at
night but it just started sooting up. But I have a very large space to
heat, so I'd usually want it burning at a reasonably fast rate.

It is just about possible to get it to stay in overnight by putting in
very large logs once the firebed is plenty hot but quite small - but I
rarely bother - I let it burn out.

Again once a hot firebed is established, no problem with running it
slowly and around a quarter-full, but on full air - just requires to
be fed regularly a few bits at a time - or a very few large pieces.

Thank you very much for all your enthusiastic responses.

To address some points.
I was aware that too much air may be slipping in through the door, so
I recently replaced the rope which I tend to do about every two years.

I think I will just go ahead and run it with ash directly sitting on
the bottom - thank you for the advice on a stove which has been run
unprotected and survived.

Virtually all the wood being used is Conifer. It's a mixture of large
logs 7" in dia, medium 3-4" and small 1-2" I will now try to get hold
of some denser wood perhaps Oak or Beech

I think I may have to resolve to let it burn out overnight to save
stock - but it was nice to retain some heat flow throughout the house
during the recent cold spell, and it was most convenient and easy to
fire up in the mornings because the box was still warm and just a
couple of embers ere enough to catch new logs alight.

Running 1/4 full on full air is the way I used to do it. It means that
very little ash is left because it all burns efficiently (I only
cleaned the ash out twice from October to March in 2007 with this
method but the wood all burns away quickly and never makes it through
the night.

Thank you so much for the help,
kind regards,
Kev.

I forgot to include:

The pile of wood that I have used in the last six weeks was 6ft tall,
6ft wide and 15ft long. This was not a neat cut pile - it was a tangle
of 6ft length 7" diameter logs and lots of smaller branches etc (all
Confier), but it was all chainsawed to fit and then burnt. Initially I
thought it looked like 3 years worth! based on my previous experience,
but at that time I had never run the stove overnight, but had read
that lots of people do, so I am now assuming that those people that
damp down and run overnight have a more than plentiful supply!!!!!

Kev.

In article ,
wrote:

Running 1/4 full on full air is the way I used to do it. It means that
very little ash is left because it all burns efficiently (I only
cleaned the ash out twice from October to March in 2007 with this
method but the wood all burns away quickly and never makes it through
the night.

This might sound obvious, but have you read the manual for the stove? Ours
(a 7.5Kw and 3Kw Stovax units) explicitly says to not try to keep them
in overnight by damping them down - it then produces too much tar, soot
and other gummy stuff which will stick to the flue and be the cause of
a potential chimney fire the next time it's run really hot...

I'd also suggest that if you've managed to block the flue to get it
cleaned out now before it catches fire...

We know when ours are running efficient because they keep the glass clean.

And we mostly burn conifers too, but well seasoned wood - 18 months to
2 years, although with the recent issues with the forrestry commision
(where we have a local permit to collect), it looks like that source
will dry up soon )-:

Gordon

wrote in message
...
Thank you very much for all your enthusiastic responses.

To address some points.
I was aware that too much air may be slipping in through the door, so
I recently replaced the rope which I tend to do about every two years.

I think I will just go ahead and run it with ash directly sitting on
the bottom - thank you for the advice on a stove which has been run
unprotected and survived.

Virtually all the wood being used is Conifer. It's a mixture of large
logs 7" in dia, medium 3-4" and small 1-2" I will now try to get hold
of some denser wood perhaps Oak or Beech

I think I may have to resolve to let it burn out overnight to save
stock - but it was nice to retain some heat flow throughout the house
during the recent cold spell, and it was most convenient and easy to
fire up in the mornings because the box was still warm and just a
couple of embers ere enough to catch new logs alight.

Running 1/4 full on full air is the way I used to do it. It means that
very little ash is left because it all burns efficiently (I only
cleaned the ash out twice from October to March in 2007 with this
method but the wood all burns away quickly and never makes it through
the night.

Thank you so much for the help,
kind regards,
Kev.


Get hold of your local tree surgeon. He'll probably be more than happy to
deliver FOC as it costs them usually to have the trees which have been cut
down disposed of.
Local one here is a friend anyway and occasionally dumps 4 tonnes in my
front drive when I ask !

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Any advice would be greately appreciated.


It is almost impossible to damp a 10Kw stove down low enough to stay lit
overnight, on wood.

Coal might do it .

Yes, that's how we keep our (12-14kW I think) stove running overnight,
we burn wood most of the time but put coal in and close the dampers
for it to run overnight.

--
Chris Green

On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:19:48 -0000, "RW" wrote:


wrote in message
...
Thank you very much for all your enthusiastic responses.

To address some points.
I was aware that too much air may be slipping in through the door, so
I recently replaced the rope which I tend to do about every two years.

I think I will just go ahead and run it with ash directly sitting on
the bottom - thank you for the advice on a stove which has been run
unprotected and survived.

Virtually all the wood being used is Conifer. It's a mixture of large
logs 7" in dia, medium 3-4" and small 1-2" I will now try to get hold
of some denser wood perhaps Oak or Beech

I think I may have to resolve to let it burn out overnight to save
stock - but it was nice to retain some heat flow throughout the house
during the recent cold spell, and it was most convenient and easy to
fire up in the mornings because the box was still warm and just a
couple of embers ere enough to catch new logs alight.

Running 1/4 full on full air is the way I used to do it. It means that
very little ash is left because it all burns efficiently (I only
cleaned the ash out twice from October to March in 2007 with this
method but the wood all burns away quickly and never makes it through
the night.

Thank you so much for the help,
kind regards,
Kev.


Get hold of your local tree surgeon. He'll probably be more than happy to
deliver FOC as it costs them usually to have the trees which have been cut
down disposed of.
Local one here is a friend anyway and occasionally dumps 4 tonnes in my
front drive when I ask !

I have always covered the wood in the stove with ash to burn
overnight with good success you rake through it in the morning to find
the still glowing wood and openup the stove to get things going again