Many homeowners love the look of a beautiful wood burning stove. It's a great way to heat your home, as well as provide a nice bit of ambience. However, if you're not very experienced with operating wood burning stoves, then you might not end up with the warm house that you expected. The fire might be a bit dull, or maybe the fire is fine, but you're simply not getting the heat you should be getting from the unit. This article will cover three issues that are common problems that owners of wood burning stoves will encounter when they first start using the unit. So, before you give up on the stove, look into these three solutions.
The Wood Is Too Soft or To Green
If you're buying wood from an unscrupulous supplier, they might be selling you softwood (pine, for instance). That is not the type of wood you want to use in a wood burning stove. It's going to flame out fast, and not provide you with long lasting heat. You should make sure you are dealing with a company that sells maple, oak, or ash. These are hardwoods that burn longer than softwood. If you're not adept at identifying wood by grain or bark, you could ask a neighbor who also burns wood to recommend a supplier.
The other problem with your wood might be that it is too "green". This means that it has too much water in it; it wasn't left to age properly. When a log is cut, it needs to dry out a bit before being burned. So, you should inspect your logs when they are delivered and see if they look freshly cut. If they are, you know to change suppliers. What you can do is let that wood age for a season and by the next winter it will be properly aged and ready to burn.
If you don't see "green", the watch to see if the logs bubble or spit when they are placed into the fire. A properly aged log will not have the moisture, so it won't hiss.
You Are Overstuffing The Fire Box
If you're fire never seems to get beyond a smoldering, smoky mess, then you might be over filling the firebox. The logs need room to breathe. You should not cram a whole bunch inside, stuff some newspaper under them, and expect a roaring fire. Instead, you will need to get smaller pieces of wood to start the fire (you can use a log slitter to split large logs down into smaller chunks to get these small pieces) and build up the initial fire. Then you can place one or two logs onto the fire. Never put in so many logs that it smothers the fire.
The Heating System Is Malfunctioning
If you're using good wood, and building a proper fire, and still not seeing the results you expect, then you need to bring in a home heating repair tech to examine the stove and chimney. It might be a case where the flue is stuck (which would limit the air flow, and cause the fire to not get enough oxygen) or it could be that the chimney pipe is clogged with creosote. You won't know what the issue is in these cases unless you bring in an expert who can address the situation. Don't attempt to try messing around with the interior of the stove as you might damage the flue liner, the catalytic convertor, or the pipe connections (which could result in smoke flooding into your home).
Share7 April 2017
Hello, my name is Kendall Nolan and you've arrived at my blog that will tell you all about appliances and appliance services. When I built a new home, I had to purchase new appliances for the house. I wanted to make sure that I chose the best appliances for my money, so I did months of research before I bought them. I looked at online reviews, spoke with friends and family, and even talked to several appliance technicians to find out which appliances were the best. I also checked out appliance services in my area to ensure they performed appliance maintenance. If you need to know anything about appliances or appliance services, you'll learn what you need to know in my blog. After learning all the answers to my questions, I was able to choose the appliances that worked the best for me.