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

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Just an update on repair my stove, so I took off the stove last night. God it is a heavy beast. Then took into taking down the flue. Everything was covered in a black tar like substance so no easy job. Ended up pulling the supports out of wall with hammer and screwdriver.

The thing was full of rust and sh*t. Took a few pics of it lying on ground

From what I can make out they had a connector from the flue into the chimney but the actual chimney is not lined. This could be the reason for the condensation.

Going to head to a local supplier tomorrow and see what I need to buy and take into repair job next week. Main question is will I need twin walled flue

Best of Luck to you..

Hi Lads,

I wonder can anyone help me. I'm looking for a hetas engineer to help/advise on a problematic stove.

I had an inset stove installed last year but it has never rid itself of that chemical fume smell that often comes at an early stage of use. We were told that this would burn off after a while as the paint cured but it has never gone. If anything, the hotter the fire, the worse the fumes. Not smokey, but a real chemical fume smell. The stove is practically unusable as a result.

I cannot get the original installers to come and check it; i wont name them but they are in the Limerick area (as am I) and their aftersales has been appalling. Anyway, i'll have to get someone independent to look at it in order to get to the bottom of the problem.

Any advice/pointers etc massively appreciated.

Cheers,

M

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Think link was posted by someone earlier and I found great
http://www.stovefittersmanual.co.uk/

See specific section here: http://www.stovefittersmanual.co.uk/articles/installing-a-twin-wall-flue-chimney/

Thanks a lot that's a great link.

Hi. We recently installed an ACR Ashdale multi fuel stove into the corner of a big kitchen/living space.

We just can't get it to work right and Ive no clue what the problem might be. It doesn't seem to be drawing as well as it should. Yesterday I tried to light it and smoke was actually coming out around the door. It was windy out and the wind was coming straight at the wall where the flue pipe is located. Would this effect the stove?

We have only managed to get it to light properly once. There was good heat off it but again we seem to have issues as the glass went all black. I thought the stove had an air wash facility.

Any one have ideas on how to work this particular stove? It has 3 sliders. Not really sure what these are for. The book refers to them as primary and secondary air but what does that mean?? We also have air coming from outside into the stove.

If there is a problem with my stove I need to sort it asap so Im looking for help soon!! Clueless as to what it might be myself! Any tips or advice is REALLY appreciated!

Water John wrote: »

Not my area, but is your flue clearing the roof?

Yes John. We have a taller than normal two story house. High ceilings inside. The flue goes out the top of the stove and up inside the room before going out through the wall and up again to a good bit above our roof.

Casa 2013 wrote: »

Hi. We recently installed an ACR Ashdale multi fuel stove into the corner of a big kitchen/living space.

We just can't get it to work right and Ive no clue what the problem might be. It doesn't seem to be drawing as well as it should. Yesterday I tried to light it and smoke was actually coming out around the door. It was windy out and the wind was coming straight at the wall where the flue pipe is located. Would this effect the stove?

We have only managed to get it to light properly once. There was good heat off it but again we seem to have issues as the glass went all black. I thought the stove had an air wash facility.

Any one have ideas on how to work this particular stove? It has 3 sliders. Not really sure what these are for. The book refers to them as primary and secondary air but what does that mean?? We also have air coming from outside into the stove.

If there is a problem with my stove I need to sort it asap so Im looking for help soon!! Clueless as to what it might be myself! Any tips or advice is REALLY appreciated!

What type of coal are you using? I tried ordinary cheap coal and it was a nightmare,soot,smoke and tar.Had the same problem with smoke coming out of the vents and getting it to light properly.If you have 'smoky' coal,only use it sparingly until you have a decent blaze going,when you run out of smoky coal,never buy it again.
I switched to smokeless ovoids (I also use timber) and never a problem since.Look in the coal thread in Bargain Alerts for helpful info on deals on fuel.The consensus is if you have a stove,use smokeless ovoids.

Uriel. wrote: »

Hi Folks,

We got a Stovax Riva 55 installed in early summer as we were renovating a newly bought house and had floors up and walls pulled apart etc.

So it's been sitting there since June and we hadn't fired it up. It was a full professional installation job, chimney clean and flue/lining or whatever put in.

So we lit it up the other night. quite a bit of smoke coming into the room when door is open/opened (e.g. for refueling) on the first night. Also glass started to go black and has what seems to be bits of ashes stuck to it.

Fired it up again last night, more or less the same craic.

It's a multi fuel stove but at the moment we are just using dry wood kindling
and these air dried logs from BnM

In terms of air flow, the first night we had the primary open about 50% and the secondary about 25%

last night after some googling we adjusted it to about 50% primary and more or less 100% secondary - though we did adjust them as the fire developed and then died.

Nonetheless still some smoke coming into the room on opening the stove door and still getting blacker.

Can anyone advise as to what we are doing wrong? is the fuel ok, or should we be using something else.

Also has anyone any experience of these stove cleaning pads for the glass? they are supposed to be scratch free and have good reviews.


Thanks.

Hi Uriel,

Regarding the BnM airdried logs.... those logs are way too wet to burn on their own in a stove. You could 'burn' them with coal but they are going to clog up your flue with creosote just like they are blackening you stove glass. They claim to be under 30% moisture but the last time I tested them they were around 45%.

The maximum moisture content that logs for a stove should be is 25% and ideally 20%. There is a Wood Fuel Quality Assurance Scheme which is supported by the Department of Agriculture, the Bioenergy Association, Teagasc and Waterford Institute of Technology who certify members who produce woodfuel to the appropriate standard and you can find them at wfqa.org

When everything is working well and you are using dry logs then you will get a really lovely, hot and clean fire similar to this https://business.facebook.com/pg/cotterbrosfirewood.ie/videos/?business_id=537059543110182&ref=page_internal

One important issue you may be having is that your chimney may be 'cold'.
This may sound strange but I have come across it twice in the last 7 or 8 years and basically what happens is what you describe... fire won't light, will light but won't stay lighting, no 'draw' on the chimney etc....
This will pass if you persist, it may take a week or 10 days maybe even 2 weeks of lighting fires until the chimney heats up/dries out... and here is the weird part, this 'cold' chimney will happen only once so that when you stop lighting the fire at the beginning of summer and not light it again until the autumn, the stove will work perfectly when you light it then.

Hope this helps
Jack

Jack180570 wrote: »

Hi Uriel,

Regarding the BnM airdried logs.... those logs are way too wet to burn on their own in a stove. You could 'burn' them with coal but they are going to clog up your flue with creosote just like they are blackening you stove glass. They claim to be under 30% moisture but the last time I tested them they were around 45%.

The maximum moisture content that logs for a stove should be is 25% and ideally 20%. There is a Wood Fuel Quality Assurance Scheme which is supported by the Department of Agriculture, the Bioenergy Association, Teagasc and Waterford Institute of Technology who certify members who produce woodfuel to the appropriate standard and you can find them at wfqa.org

When everything is working well and you are using dry logs then you will get a really lovely, hot and clean fire similar to this https://business.facebook.com/pg/cotterbrosfirewood.ie/videos/?business_id=537059543110182&ref=page_internal

One important issue you may be having is that your chimney may be 'cold'.
This may sound strange but I have come across it twice in the last 7 or 8 years and basically what happens is what you describe... fire won't light, will light but won't stay lighting, no 'draw' on the chimney etc....
This will pass if you persist, it may take a week or 10 days maybe even 2 weeks of lighting fires until the chimney heats up/dries out... and here is the weird part, this 'cold' chimney will happen only once so that when you stop lighting the fire at the beginning of summer and not light it again until the autumn, the stove will work perfectly when you light it then.

Hope this helps
Jack

Thanks Jack,
really useful information to have.
I have used up my last bag of the air dried wood logs now so moving on to kiln dried now that claim less than 20% moisture content

picked up a pack of the BnM eco logs yesterday to give them a try. Nice hot and clean burn off them but I feel you'd need a heck load of them to keep the fire going for a few hours at night (if they weren't mixed with other fuel).

Water John wrote:

Not sure Mark of the metal on the disconnected stove taking the heat. Enclosed stove without the rads will be much hotter. Will the welds crack? Bigger hassle but are you better off, pulling out the old boiler?

Eeekkk... I really don't fancy ripping the old back boiler out of the wall... it'll be an awful mess.. doubt the steel in the old back boiler'd crack... and even if it did so what .. There's no water it's not sealed so no pressure...
But it would be a much better job to rip the thing out ( I wreck the fireplace which I hate anyway but it's huge ..

If you were putting a stove into a smallish room, like a snug, would it be a good idea to consider putting in one with back boiler to heat water/rads as a way to take heat out of it, i.e. the heat it would throw out would be too much for a small room. Or is it better to just get a smaller/less heat output stove. We've gas central heating.

Ok, thanks. I know its a bit like "how long is a piece of string", but in general what % increase are you talking about by going for a stove with back boiler and all that is needed for this, compared to just a standalone stove? Are you talking twice the price?