Wood Burning Stoves.

[Philouis]

Does anyone kind person with a wood stove, know of any way to stop the the glass on the front door from blacking over with the very hard-to-clean-off soot?

 I have a proper stove glass cleaner, but it is a messy job to have to clean it all the time.

[Clair]

Read these for tips on cleaning:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1156372/ShowPost.aspx

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/788058/ShowPost.aspx

[Philouis]

Thank you Clair!  I will try the recommended treatments tomorrow morning and see which is the best!   What would we do without you!

[Chris Parker]

Sounds like your stove is not getting hot enough. Ensure your wood is well seasoned and if possible use a good mix of oak / ash. Open up the air vents a touch more to get the stove working and hot , hopefully this will then reduce the sooting.

 

Chris

 

 

[odile]

Thanks for all the good advice - ours will be installed on 15th Dec in time for our arrival on 17th. Can't wait - the guy is coming on 18th to make our first fire. We will be all toastie at Christmas.

[odile]

there is no oak in the Jura - ash and beech - will that do?

[Boxmaker]

Any hard wood will do so long as it is not resinous like pine which will gunge up your chimney and create a later firehazard if it is not swept properly.  However, some woods don't smell nice such as poplar, if you do end up with poplar etc then mix it in with old grape vines either twigs or roots and then the smell will improved greatly.

[woody234]

but is wood cheaper than electric when heating a house thats what i want to know

[mint]

Don't know about electric.  We used about  €500 of logs last winter.

Edit:  maybe it was £500, can't remember!

[odile]

at today's exch. rate Sweet, it hardly makes any difference! happy burning

[mint]

Yes, might as well burn the actual notes to keep warm!

[NickP]

To Boxmaker, We have noticed a farm near us selling "Sarment" Which  I believe are  faggots made  from vines. Would these work in regards to your poplar odour theory. We are having a free standing wood burner fitted next week, and as we are new to wood fires ,we are looking for all the advice we can get. Many thanks NickP

[napoleon]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Don't know about electric.  We used about  €500 of logs last winter.

Edit:  maybe it was £500, can't remember!

[/quote]

It won't matter soon!!

..but seriously, I think that logs are definitely a lot cheaper than our LPG. Probably cheaper than electricity at the standard rate.

Alistair

[woody234]

i will not use my wood burner because it smokes the house out, i use electric heaters and 2 jumpers, has anyone gone from wood to electric or gas, i want to remove my wood burner, its a silly thing

[Phil & Pat]

[quote user="woody234"]i will not use my wood burner because it smokes the house out, i use electric heaters and 2 jumpers, has anyone gone from wood to electric or gas, i want to remove my wood burner, its a silly thing[/quote]

Have you tried to find out what's wrong with it before replacing it?

[odile]

Woody - with a name like that you can't give up on your wood burner. Get a poellier-fumiste to come and fix it. Removing it would e such a shame and could actually affect the value of your house.

[woody234]

what im thinking about is getting a new wood burner with a big door because the 1 i got at the moment is a big thing with built in oven and hot plates on top with a small door 20cm x 20cm and the logs i got wont fit in the door

[woolybanana]

Ah, it is designed for firewood as opposed to logs?

Do you have the name of the manufacturer and other details, please?

[woody234]

i am bak in uk at the mo so i dont know the name but it might be somthing begining with d like delongni

[The Riff-Raff Element]

The other thing that can cause the door to blacken quickly is a worn door seal (that kind of fabric thing on the inside of the glass). Some people claim that this should be replaced every season, but mostly that is because they are selling them; we've found every couple of years is perfectly adequate. It's a fairly straightforward job - takes about 2 hours including time for the glue to dry.

[nectarine]

I've seen some comments in this forum about 'self-cleaning glass' ... our Godin doors get really black and we are using good wood, so if it is just a case of replacing the glass with some kind of glass that keeps itself clean then I'm definitely interested.  Or it is something to do with air-flows instead?  Does anyone know where I might buy (if it exists!) self-cleaning glass, please?

[pachapapa]

"good wood" not sure what you mean but any wood if not dry (minimum 2 years drying) will leave a varnishy residue on the glass; if the wood is properly dry the glass will have a sooty residue if the combustion is poor.

The design of the wood burner is more important and unfortunately in the last 5 years due to demand some real trash has been manufactured.

A good wood burner should have a body made from SG cast steel (not fonte too brittle fractures esaily); fire bricks inside to retain heat during the combustion cycle avoids the hot to cold sequence with poorly designed wood burners; bottom ventilation ; top ventilation with air stream entering over total width of top of glass; a device for moving the grate usually circular and oscilating with a lever. A well designed wood burner will take a fair time to heat up due to its weight, as it heats up and logs replace initial kindling the bottom air is reduced and the top air increased; eventually most of the air is from the top and courses down the face of the glass, keeping the glass clean, the air then spreads over the total volume of the burning material ensuring optimum combustion efficiency.

[BIG MAC]

We have a similar stove / cooker which has a small firebox. It is a Rossieres make and absolutely brilliant. Ours is kaput as its about twenty or thirty years old and has been abused (Fire box split, damper linkage snapped you name it) it still works extremely well! Once our new flue liner is in and our new Register plate we will be on the hunt for a new or good second hand unit...