STOVES questions and answers here(see mod note in post 1)

Briany3

high just got a new inset stove everything going great,well the fire place Brest gets a bit hot, hot enough to boil water on. Throw water at it and it evaporates. Is this common.
Briany

gomamochi1

therealmccoy wrote: »

Both are fantastic stoves, and will work a charm on the Radiators and Water. But because it is a large open plan space, the Inis has the advantage of giving much better heat to the room than the Stratford.
Inis gets my vote. Where are you based, I might be able to recommend someone good in your area?

Based in Louth thanks if you have any suggestions where to get either one. There is nearly 1 grand in the difference!
Thanks

cranefly

Briany3 wrote: »

high just got a new inset stove everything going great,well the fire place Brest gets a bit hot, hot enough to boil water on. Throw water at it and it evaporates. Is this common.
Briany

Sounds to me their is something seriously wrong if it is as hot as you say it is,
it is common for a chimney breast to get warm even a small bit hot, but not hot enough to boil water.
Is their a baffle plate fitted to the stove, it sounds like all your stoves heat is going up the chimney. if it is possible do not light any more fires in your stove until you get someone to look at it, try calling back the installer to take a look, the baffle plate is at the top of the firebox inside the stove, it normally can come out so you can clean the chimney.

ballyharpat

I have a baby Gabriel stove, the secondary air opening is on the top. I bought the stove 2 weeks ago-used. I.ve sealed it up with new rope on the door and the glass, which has improved performance.
The main problem is I cannot close the secondary air on the top of it, it has a handle that slides side to side, but it only slides halfway, it's okay to burn wood, but for burning coal, it wastes an awful lot as it just burns with a high flame all the time..... ANy help would be appreciated, thanks!!

moonshadow

Hi ballyharpat, The secondary opening on that is only designed to close halfway. The manual is readily available online.

ballyharpat

moonshadow wrote: »

Hi ballyharpat, The secondary opening on that is only designed to close halfway. The manual is readily available online.

Thanks Moonshadow, I have a firebird insert stove with a boiler in the kitchen, it's great, I have a stanley oisin in my other house and that gives great heat, gonna try and seal the joints with some fireplace cement and see if that does anything to improve performance, seems to throw an awful lot of heat up the chimney and very hard to regulate.....

Stiffs

I fitted an Insert stove recently 6.5kw

The granite hearth face is getting hot. The mantle piece that under the mantle shelf is getting warm. I fitted a stove in the past and have experience of fire boarding, stone work etc. I was under the impression a insert was spec'd to fit in a standard fire opening without major modification. But i also understand that the top of the stove gives out mass heat.

My question is whats the best course of action to reduce this from getting so hot?

Fire board the back of the hearth internally or fire board directly onto the stove itself?

The stove firebox flue opening is sealed to the chimney clay flue by flexi pipe. So the heat that comes off the stove behind the face of stove has nowhere to go but into the shelf area.

If i fit the fire board over the stove will this push the heat out the front of the stove?


My other question is why are the clearances for free standing stoves different to inserts that fit snug into an existing fire place?

And lastly, Ive had mixed advice on the whether to insulate the shelf area - as in pack around the flue to the wall to up the clay flue open area with rock wool throwing the heat out the front of the stove rather than getting trapped in the shelf area.

Hope this makes sense?

TTTT

ballyharpat wrote: »

I have a baby Gabriel stove, the secondary air opening is on the top. I bought the stove 2 weeks ago-used. I.ve sealed it up with new rope on the door and the glass, which has improved performance.
The main problem is I cannot close the secondary air on the top of it, it has a handle that slides side to side, but it only slides halfway, it's okay to burn wood, but for burning coal, it wastes an awful lot as it just burns with a high flame all the time..... ANy help would be appreciated, thanks!!

I have a Baby Gabriel and the airwash closes fully. Maybe you have the British Smoke Exempt version that has a stop on the airwash to insure complete combustion and reduce smoke emissions.

You can take off the airwash plate by removing the baffle and taking out the 2 screws. behind it there are 2 more screws holding spring brackets that hold the sliding plate for the airwash. maybe it can be replaced with a normal one?

if you contact the importers - The Stove Yard in Down ( +44 (0)2891 814443) they should be able to advise.

cocoman

Stiffs wrote: »

I fitted an Insert stove recently 6.5kw

The granite hearth face is getting hot. The mantle piece that under the mantle shelf is getting warm. I fitted a stove in the past and have experience of fire boarding, stone work etc. I was under the impression a insert was spec'd to fit in a standard fire opening without major modification. But i also understand that the top of the stove gives out mass heat.

My question is whats the best course of action to reduce this from getting so hot?

Fire board the back of the hearth internally or fire board directly onto the stove itself?

The stove firebox flue opening is sealed to the chimney clay flue by flexi pipe. So the heat that comes off the stove behind the face of stove has nowhere to go but into the shelf area.

If i fit the fire board over the stove will this push the heat out the front of the stove?


My other question is why are the clearances for free standing stoves different to inserts that fit snug into an existing fire place?

And lastly, Ive had mixed advice on the whether to insulate the shelf area - as in pack around the flue to the wall to up the clay flue open area with rock wool throwing the heat out the front of the stove rather than getting trapped in the shelf area.

Hope this makes sense?

If its an insert that just slots into the existing opening without breaking out the fireback then there is a ceramic blanket (its like cotton wool) that you can get to wrap around the stove before you slot the stove into position.

The idea is that it prevents heat from transferring to the fireback in the fireplace and out into the room instead. I think firewool will do the same thing but the other stuff is better (and dearer!).

I'm not sure about the clearences but maybe its because the insert works on convection where the heat is blown away from the stove.

mad dad

hi,

I have recently installed a Charnwood free standing stove (no back boiler, just room heater). The Stove is connected to a 6inch flexi flue liner in an existing chimney, which is back filled with vermiculite. My problem is I'm unable to control the rate of burn. I'm satisfied the door seal is good- I have done the paper test on it and it's tight. There is a 4 inch external air connection to the rear of the stove and everything appears connected correctly and in accordance with manufacturers guidelines. There is a single air control lever at the bottom of the stove - but it has little effect on the rate of burn on the fire whether it's in or out!

I have another Charnwood stove in the house which works great and I am very happy with and as a result I know how controllable these things should be.

Anyone any ideas or pointers?????

Cheers

chris_ie

Hi, currently trying to sort our house out for heat. At the minute it's not holding the heat too well. We have an open fire in the sitting room (I know quite a lot of heat gets lost there) and we have a stove (w/ back boiler) in the living room. We noticed at one point that behind the stove was wet, turned out this was due to rain water coming down the chimney. On checking, the flue goes into the chimney but there are small gaps around the flue.

The stove doesnt heat the room that well, at times you'd have to stand right in front of it or open the door to let heat out. But going by others on here the heat is that warm they have to open doors!

Also considering maybe an inset stove for the sitting room now. Love the open fire effect but some of the inset stoves I've seen look like they could still sort of do that anyways.

Galego

A question for those who own a stove without back boiler fitted in the living room. Do you have a trv or close manually the living room radiator when heating the rest of the house with the central heating?

onefortynine

has anyone ever bought from "Valuestoves" in Clare? they seem to do their own brand and cheaply too. would like to hear opinions on the quality. I have a small-ish front room and I won't be going for the boiler type so a 4kw multifuel should do nicely.

charlie_says

Yes I've had similar performance problems with my Stratford EB16i.

After spending close to e2500 on it including the fitting I'm not massively impressed with it. I don't think it's the stove though as they have an excellent reputation and others have great experience with it. I think it's either an installation or chimney problem. New pump was installed to the existing system and seems decent. The stove is the sole entrance to a 3 storey chimney on the ground floor.


My problems are:

Heating the 8 (most not very large) radiators is a what I would describe as adequate at best.

Bugger all heat to the room. It's supposed to be rated between 1-5kW to the room but it puts out very little even after being on for hours with a fairly raging fire.

Uses up too much fuel. I burn kiln dried ash (occasionally good smoke giving coal) and it tears through the logs only to provide the the OK heat to rads and bugger all to the room. I have to have all the controls up to the max to get this little heat, so it burns everything quickly. If I turn the controls down the fuel does last a good long time but delivers poor heat.

Also unless you open the door very carefully (leave it ajar for a minute or so before I gingerly open it) to load fuel a good wiff of smoke will escape into the room.

Sigh....

I think I either have a down draught or an up draught problem. I would love to be able to find a definitive way to test this. Trying to put cowls on the chimney is not a cheap solution and I'm uncertain of it's effectiveness. I get quite loud wind noise (certainly louder than the open fire) when there is a bit of a gust outside. Also should I try to refit my cast iron door due to the expansion of the unit after the first few fires and the seal being not quite snug?

Any heating guys know where or what I could do to diagnose the problem? There seems to be a multitude of things that can go wrong with these things but when they work they are awesome. Also everyone seems to have different opinions - are chimneys very unique in their characteristics? Arrgh!

Many thanks....

Dtp1979

onefortynine wrote: »

has anyone ever bought from "Valuestoves" in Clare? they seem to do their own brand and cheaply too. would like to hear opinions on the quality. I have a small-ish front room and I won't be going for the boiler type so a 4kw multifuel should do nicely.

Generally anything with the word value before it is utter crap. Stoves being no different. Don't buy these cheap stoves. You get what you pay for

gunners111

stratford eb 16i stove stove poor performance

there does seem to be a lot of the heat going up the chimney, you can hear it is quite loud even when there is little wind outside if you open damper fully burns loads of fuel for little heat, my stratford replaced a Waterford erin free standing stove which was much more economical to run and gave out way more heat.

I wonder if changing the cowl will help

any plumbers got any ideas could it be it takes so long to heat the rads and water it is starving the room heat ,room is only 13ft x 12ft

chris_ie

gunners111 wrote: »

stratford eb 16i stove stove poor performance

there does seem to be a lot of the heat going up the chimney, you can hear it is quite loud even when there is little wind outside if you open damper fully burns loads of fuel for little heat, my stratford replaced a Waterford erin free standing stove which was much more economical to run and gave out way more heat.

I wonder if changing the cowl will help

any plumbers got any ideas could it be it takes so long to heat the rads and water it is starving the room heat ,room is only 13ft x 12ft

Currenty have a Stanley Erin and struggling to get decent heat in the room.

charlie_says

Another question for people with plumbing knowledge.

With my boiler stove, it heats the domestic hot water as well as rads. Is it possible to disconnect it from the domestic hot water and only heat the rads easily? I can post pics of my tank and piping if necessary.

The domestic hot water heats up and is very hot but I would appreciate the fire heat going to the rads more as really there isn't much showering going on in the evening when the fire is on and the rads don't get very warm.

Dtp1979

charlie_says wrote: »

Another question for people with plumbing knowledge.

With my boiler stove, it heats the domestic hot water as well as rads. Is it possible to disconnect it from the domestic hot water and only heat the rads easily? I can post pics of my tank and piping if necessary.

The domestic hot water heats up and is very hot but I would appreciate the fire heat going to the rads more as really there isn't much showering going on in the evening when the fire is on and the rads don't get very warm.

No I'm afraid

RJF

Hi Dtp1979, what are your reasons for saying no?

charlie_says

Thanks for the reply.

Do you mean it can't be done at all or easily, I thought maybe turning off a valve between the stove hot water and the tank? I assume that the rad water system is seperate to the tank? I really don't know.

I'd be prepared to spend if the stove could actually heat the rads better. Hot water usage here is only in the mornings and I can use the electric hot water heat on the timer as normal as I don't have a fire lit early.

Dtp1979

Valves are not permitted anywhere between the stove and the cylinder. There must be 1" pipe joining one to the other. If a valve was installed it would stop the gravity curcuit that is critical to the correct and SAFE operation of the stove

Markcheese

With your old stove was there any sort of flue baffle /damper that controlled the draw up the chimney ? If the draw is very strong it should be possible to add a control to your flue -
Also did you match the stove boiler to your houses requirements ?
It's all grand for a supplier to say "it'll do 10 rads" or something but big ones ? , small small rads ? -well insulated rooms ? Draughty ones that'll never heat -

charlie_says

Markcheese wrote: »

With your old stove was there any sort of flue baffle /damper that controlled the draw up the chimney ? If the draw is very strong it should be possible to add a control to your flue -
Also did you match the stove boiler to your houses requirements ?
It's all grand for a supplier to say "it'll do 10 rads" or something but big ones ? , small small rads ? -well insulated rooms ? Draughty ones that'll never heat -

Yeah got an good crowd who did buy and fit, spec done properly. I think it's a chimney draught problem but not certain.

dosebier

Hi All,

Want to put a stand alone small wood stove in a new sunroom, the sun room will be a normal one storey height (not flat roof).

My question is about the flue, how high does it need to be over the roof? the stove will be located in the end corner or sunroom (so not directly beside the house).
is there any good practice in doing this that I need to be aware of?

Thnks

Calahonda52

dosebier wrote: »

Hi All,

Want to put a stand alone small wood stove in a new sunroom, the sun room will be a normal one storey height (not flat roof).

My question is about the flue, how high does it need to be over the roof? the stove will be located in the end corner or sunroom (so not directly beside the house).
is there any good practice in doing this that I need to be aware of?

Thnks

http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/BuildingStandards/FileDownLoad,37240,en.pdf
will get you there

There are two main points, the recommended flue height in its own right, and then height above the main roof of house, not the sun room.

As the geometry is not clear, you need to tell us a bit more.

gunners111

chris_ie wrote: »

Currenty have a Stanley Erin and struggling to get decent heat in the room.

the Stanley erin was supposed to be rated the same KW to water as the stratford eb 16i, but stratford was rated 1-5kw to room where as the Stanley was only rated 3kw
I found the Stanley much better to heat room, I am beginning to think I may need a different cowl, had the chimney lined when I changed stoves wonder if this is the reason for such poor performance
any thought appreciated

dosebier

There are two main points, the recommended flue height in its own right, and then height above the main roof of house, not the sun room.

As the geometry is not clear, you need to tell us a bit more.

Thanks for the info, there is a lot of reading in that link. So are you saying that a small flue on a one storey extension isnt possible? and it would have to rise to the height of the normal house roof?
Its a small 4x3M sunroom (3.5M roof high) that I'd like the stove in, joined to the back of the house.and had wanted the stove set in the far corner of sunroom (part not joined to house) in between a patio door and large window for max heat effect.

Thanks

HeidiHeidi

dosebier wrote: »

Thanks for the info, there is a lot of reading in that link. So are you saying that a small flue on a one storey extension isnt possible? and it would have to rise to the height of the normal house roof?
Its a small 4x3M sunroom (3.5M roof high) that I'd like the stove in, joined to the back of the house.and had wanted the stove set in the far corner of sunroom (part not joined to house) in between a patio door and large window for max heat effect.

Thanks

What happens when the wind/breeze is blowing from the top of your flue towards the back of the house? You'll wind up smoked out of it, or your neighbours will. There was another thread about this a while back.

I have no idea of regulations, but this would be one good reason why the flue should rise above the overall height of the house.

Calahonda52

As in the title!
Its a grey black soft rope