Questions regarding solid fuel cookers/ stoves

johndaman66

Hi All,

I have a number of questions regarding solid fuel cookers/ stoves that hopefully ye may be able to assit me on. My queries are rather long and drawn out so I do apologise in advance.

About 5 years ago my mother replaced a solid fuel cooker with another one from the Stanley range. It is set up to heat 7 radiators. The blessed thing has being a nightmare since she got it in. It takes ages to get going and the heat out of it has only ever been moderate at best. Two of the radiators have never gave out any real heat despite continuiously bleeding them. Mainly turf and coal is burnt in it. On maybe 2 or 3 ocassions it did give off good heat and heated the radiators pretty well but we had to shovel coal in at a serious rate to get that heat and think maybe there was a strong wind blowing in a particular direction too at that stage if thats anything to do with it. Worse still it blows out a serious amount of soot around the house.

In fairness the plumber who put it in was a bit of a cowboy if you ask me. He did chip the top of it when he was bringing it into the house and left a joint in the piping for the rads loose in the attic. This leads me to believe it is perhaps possible that appliance was not installed correctly which leads to the poor efficiency and vast amounts of soot being blown around the house?

My mother now wants to take it out and put in a wood burning stove. I think that maybe shes being a bit eager and perhaps she may well end up with the very same problems as with the solid fuel cooker. I'm wondering in the first instance would it be an idea to get a plumber to check the installation of the solid fuel cooker already in place. We really don't want to be in a siutation where were almost out the cost of putting in a new stove by getting the existing one checked/ reinstalled/ messed around with only to be back to square one again.

I'm also somewhat apprehensive about the heat output of a wood burning stove, particularly when its being used to heat 7 rads. I just think on the face of that a wood burning stove wont have that amount of heating capacity but am open to correction. Either that or one would need to be shovelling in timber at a serious rate?

I personally think it might be a better idea to install a multi burning stove. Even though she would plan to burn timber mainly at least the option would be there to burn coal/ briquettes/ turf/ firelogs etc However, she rang a few suppliers and seemingly according to them its a pretty bad idea to burn wood in the multi burning stoves. Could somebody in the know please advise if this is the case?

We would have a good supply of trees but I think my mother is under estimating the amount of trees that would need to be cut. She reckons 6 to 7 mature trees would see her through most of the year. I reckon much more bearing in mind that the stove would be going for a good 7/8 hours daily every day throughout Winter and much of Autumn and Spring also. We are also unsure of the average cost of getting a workman to fell a tree and chop it up into firewood. I'm wondering could somebody give me a ballpark figure please? We do acknowlege that felling trees at certain times of the year is not permissable and that the wood would need to be seasoned for a spell also.

If anyone could provide me with constructive pointers/ answers to my concerns I would be much appreciative.

shane0007

If you are continuously bleeding rads, there is a more serious underlying issue with the system. A properly installed system should never have to have rads bled. This will certainly lead to internal rust and sludge in the system.
Just changing the boiler will resolve nothing unless the system itself is addressed.

With regard to heat output, wood will have to be very well dried to obtain the maximum heat output for that wood type. Different fuel types have varying kw outputs but some are also dependent on their moisture content.

Before spending money on changing, have the system completely looked at to see where the issues are as you may find that the existing boiler does not need to be changed, but other works are required to the system.

johndaman66

^^thanks for your response shane0007. It was most informative and a few of your points confirmed what I was thinking myself.

I think we might be best to get a plumber to look at the entire existing stove before we abruptly remove it and put in a new one.

Could somebody also clarify to me if it would be ok to burn wood in a multi burning stove or would doing so eventually cause damage.

Also, could somebody provide me with a ballpark figure of getting a workman to fell a mature tree and chop it into firewood...if we were to go down that avenue.