STOVES BY kW

Before you start using your stove, there are a few things to keep in mind:

The vent settings, lighting methods and the firing intervals depend on the chimney draught, the wind and weather conditions, the heating requirements, the fuel etc. Therefore, it may take a while before you become familiar with how to operate your stove correctly under various conditions.

Overheating

The first couple of times you use the stove, keep the fires small to temper the metal before making bigger fires. Many people cause overheating when lighting a fire in a cold house thinking it will warm them up quicker. Overheating can damage both the stove and the chimney, and also cause a fire. If you have an enamelled stove, the enamel will be damaged if you light a big fire which makes the stove red hot from cold. Screws can become burnt solid and gaskets can crumble away and stove plates can become loose, allowing cracks to appear.

Before lighting, fully open the secondary air supply vent.

Arrange a small bundle of kindling (and better still a couple of firelighters).

Light the kindling

If the chimney is completely cold, first you need to let a little warm air into it in order to start a draught. After 5 or so minutes the heat will produce a draught through the chimney, and the door can be shut.

Embers

After approx. 10-20 minutes, a nice layer of embers will have formed in the firebox. More wood should normally be added while there are still embers. Use the poker to spread the embers, but ensure that most of them are at the front of the stove.

Re-stoking

Place a few pieces of wood over the embers in a single layer, with a distance of approx. 1 cm between the pieces.

When the air supply vents are opened fully, and the door is closed, the fresh wood will ignite within 2-3 minutes.

Optimum combustion

Finally, adjust the air supply control to the desired position, and optimal combustion will continue until glowing embers are left in the bed after which you can re-stoke.

I have a woodburning-only stove - how
much ash should I leave in the stove?

Keep a 2-3 cm thick layer of insulating ash. The ash layer insulates the bottom of the stove in the same way as the side bricks. This ensures a high combustion temperature which contributes to cleaner combustion.

The ash layer also protects the riddling grate against burn-through. Empty the ashpan as required. Remember to keep the ash in an ash bucket for a couple of days until all embers are extinguished.