Log burner
- Thread starter koi
- Start date
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
mandryka
pfm Member
Well if you have any suggestions about the downdraft I'd be very interested to know. I had two chimney companies working for me at one time, one was Milborrow, who are the sweeps for The Queen and The Prince of Wales. The other was Sascha Meding, who I think is (or was) president of the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps. We tried an anti downdraft cowl, to no avail. We raised the stack by 1m, to no avail. And then we lined and insulated the chimney, which as I said, helps. But when it's cold and wet outside, and there has not been a fire in the grate for a while, there is sometimes a downdraft which causes a smell -- which I can control by shutting the door of the Stovax, but it's not ideal.
The cause of the downfdraft is a mystery. There's a huge plane tree in front of the house but the problem didn't start until five years ago. I can honestly say that dealing with it was one of the hardest property related things I've ever done -- and I own many properties as a landlord in London and Manchester. It was a real nightmare.
It is certainly true that when the Stovax was installed I tried to burn logs and the fire was too hard to control, -- and later on we found that the seals round the door were badly fitting. I don't know if I tried with logs after that. I may just buy some logs today and see what happens. I'll be very pleased if it works.
The problem I have with wood is that it's quick to go out if I don't feed it. Coal is more forgiving. I live in a house of small rooms, and there may often be noone on the room with the stove for a couple of hours. With coal it stays in, with logs it goes out.
Stovax is a make with a good rep., but it has been problematic. Not only the seals on the new stove badly fitting, but I also had problems with the door lock which needed an engineer to call and make adjustments. For a piece of kit which costs over 1K it's pretty poor.
Tigerjones
Bagpuss
Use a Charnwood stove, had it for two and a half years. Really well made and great customer service.
Ponty
pfm Member
mandryka- I know you’ve said you’ve tried an anti downdraft cowl, but they do vary. Do you know which type you tried? I have 4 wood burners and live quite high up where wind can cause problems. I use Vedette cowls and they work brilliantly. I can light a fire in very windy conditions and no downdraft, just pulls like a train.
mandryka
pfm Member
The down draft isn't caused by wind, it's caused by cold wet air falling down the chimney because it's heavier than the warm air in the room. The moisture in the air reacts with the soot in the flue and causes a slight sulphur smell. It never is a problem to light a fire (unless there's a block of cold air of course! I have a very good tool for dealing with that. )
One thing you guys may want to try, it entertains kids, is attatch a piece of tissue paper at the bottom of the flue so that it the drafts move it. You'll see that sometimes it's still, sometimes it moves upwards towards the chimney (up draft, from room up the chimney) and sometimes downwards from the chimney out into the room (down draft, from the rooftop, down the chimney, into the room.) All chimneys do this, it has something to do with the fluid mechanics of long tubes, they do it even when there's no wind. The drafts can be surprisingly powerful.
I tried two cowls, a revolving one and one with aerodynamic vents, I forget the names of the product.
One thing you guys may want to try, it entertains kids, is attatch a piece of tissue paper at the bottom of the flue so that it the drafts move it. You'll see that sometimes it's still, sometimes it moves upwards towards the chimney (up draft, from room up the chimney) and sometimes downwards from the chimney out into the room (down draft, from the rooftop, down the chimney, into the room.) All chimneys do this, it has something to do with the fluid mechanics of long tubes, they do it even when there's no wind. The drafts can be surprisingly powerful.
I tried two cowls, a revolving one and one with aerodynamic vents, I forget the names of the product.
Ponty
pfm Member
Hmm. I think you need to stop burning coal, it’s filthy stuff. Find a decent source of quality firewood (less than 20% moisture content) or better still, season it yourself. I have a similar house layout with multiple rooms, it’s really not difficult to chuck a few logs in every couple of hours.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
mandryka
pfm Member
No, the doors are closed.
Every couple of hours, no. Every hour, it will go out with me.
I burn smoakless. Is it filthier than logs?
mandryka
pfm Member
Of course.
Flues are funny things. My parents' old house had a conventional fire that drew like hell, no escape ever. It was great. Then the fireback needed replacing so we put in a back boiler. The geometry appeared identical, but would it draw? Would it hell. We had to reduce the throat size on the fireplace to get it to draw. I have never understood why the change was so dramatic.
calorgas
Generic middle-aged man
We use a multifuel burner into a lined chimney and get ours swept once a year. The sweep usually reports very little build up of soot, but we keep to this routine. We use a mixture of smokeless coal and logs.
I'm convinced that the aspect and position of a house in the landscape can also have a strong impact on how well a stove will operate.
I'm convinced that the aspect and position of a house in the landscape can also have a strong impact on how well a stove will operate.
mandryka
pfm Member
HETAS advice on sweeping seems very odd to me:
"HETAS encourage having your chimney swept at least twice a year when burning wood or bituminous housed coal and at least once a year when burning smokeless fuels"
But how can that be right -- it must depend on how many fires have been made, not elapsed time. So are HETAS really saying that you should sweep it every 365 fires if you burn smokeless? For me that would be once every 10 years maybe.
£89 a chimney?
When you say "smoke test" do you mean he sets fire to a bit of newspaper and says "yes, it's going up"?
When you speak to veteran sweeps about sweeping chimneys, it's a real eye opener. They love it! They say that assuming you use a manual method, you can feel every twist and turn of the flue with your hand at the end of the brush -- for the old guys I met it was a source of great pride and craftsmanship. (It always reminds me of my endodontist!)
They all hated "power brushing" and had horror stories of people bringing down the chimney lining with the brush, that sort of thing.
"HETAS encourage having your chimney swept at least twice a year when burning wood or bituminous housed coal and at least once a year when burning smokeless fuels"
But how can that be right -- it must depend on how many fires have been made, not elapsed time. So are HETAS really saying that you should sweep it every 365 fires if you burn smokeless? For me that would be once every 10 years maybe.
£89 a chimney?
When you say "smoke test" do you mean he sets fire to a bit of newspaper and says "yes, it's going up"?
When you speak to veteran sweeps about sweeping chimneys, it's a real eye opener. They love it! They say that assuming you use a manual method, you can feel every twist and turn of the flue with your hand at the end of the brush -- for the old guys I met it was a source of great pride and craftsmanship. (It always reminds me of my endodontist!)
They all hated "power brushing" and had horror stories of people bringing down the chimney lining with the brush, that sort of thing.
mandryka
pfm Member
It's a good idea to leave the door ajar all the time if there's no fire in it, if you've had it lined, otherwise damp can get in the flue and damage the liner, it may even invalidate the guarantee. A blowtorch will certainly do the job!
mandryka
pfm Member
Summer's three months, plenty of people would heat the room in Spring and Autumn if they didn't have central hearting. You see the problem with HETAS advice.
Anyway for smokeless shall we say once every 200 fires? I make about 30 fires a year max in my stove.
calorgas
Generic middle-aged man
Not really
. We have a 'boiler stove' that runs all our radiators i.e. the central heating plus feeds into the immersion heater so also provides most of our hot water (just runs off electric the rest of the year). We only start lighting the stove in Autumn when we feel we have to and we stop lighting it as early in Spring as we feel we can. I don't think we've exceeded 6 months continual use in any of the 5 years in which we've had this system.Anyway, ~£50 a year doesn't seem expensive for peace of mind, not to me anyway.