fitting a used wood burner

[badabec]

I was all for getting a wood burning stove, started collecting wood, catalogues etc. At Christmas my wife goes overboard on the tea-lights. I think we had 24 lit each night. The heat from them was enough to convince me that any stove over 2kw would make the room sub-tropical at the least. The room is 12' x 16' x 8' ceiling with a larger dining room off it through always open double doors.

 

[armalites]

I was all for getting a wood burning stove, started collecting wood, catalogues etc. At Christmas my wife goes overboard on the tea-lights. I think we had 24 lit each night. The heat from them was enough to convince me that any stove over 2kw would make the room sub-tropical at the least. The room is 12' x 16' x 8' ceiling with a larger dining room off it through always open double doors.

People always want to go big and wood burners are one of those things where big isn't always better. In those situations a very controllable burner is essential.

 

[8ob]

People always want to go big and wood burners are one of those things where big isn't always better. In those situations a very controllable burner is essential.

Control is everything, without it there is little to no chance of keeping a fire in through the night. The one I bought from machine mart has excellent draught control, that can be loaded up at night and still be smouldering away in the morning.

Bob

 

[addjunkie]

We have a stanley with a back boiler in the house, when its on it heats the hole house. Toasty warm, 3.5 kw to the room, 13 to the system on wood, on brickettes etc its just too hot.

Fitted two contura stoves in the holiday lets, well impressed by their quality. Fitted external air to those to orevent any issues due to open plan layouts.

 

[Ali]

I’ve got a length of 5” matt vitreous (spelling?) flue pipe 35” length you can have for the postage left over from my installation.

I didn’t line it but I mostly burn coal, just put a log on now and again and sweep it myself. Make a good register plate unless you’re fitting a liner and insulating it or filling it anyway, it makes all the difference.

 

[Migmac]

Nothing to do with logs touching the glass. It’s moisture content in the wood and lack of air flow. Our logs don’t touch the glass and it soots up.

 

[Barking Mat]

Come in late here.

Yes being able to shut it down is crucial to effiency,

The weight of the unit, is important too.

A metal box will hear up quick, and cool down quick .

A cast iron rayburn/ aga will take 12 hours + to get up to temperature, and then the house is warm.

 

[Richiew]

I've got a dinky little stove. Charnwood C4. Wish I'd bought bigger to be honest. I have to keep filling it with little logs. I would prefer to put more wood in a bigger stove and fill it less often once it was up to temperature.

 

[Barking Mat]

A Rayburns 35 cm max. Length.

 

[Richiew]

On mine from memory it's 10" or 25cm. Also getting a relatively big lump of wood into a flamey small hot stove can be fun. Easier lobbing it through a bigger orifice.

 

[minimutly]

I fitted ours, got the council to cert it. Keep receipts, pics of the liner going in etc. Son and I pulled the liner up (well I pulled and he pushed). Made a big difference over the open fire we had before....

 

[dannyp]

well reading some of these replys i may go smaller than i was going to.

intresting sugestions about a back boiler it keeps going round in my mind, the house was built when oil was cheep, the fireplace was built as more of a feature, the central heating is oil fired and we dont use it much but as for the suggestions of a back boiler i would love to fit one if i chould id be buying a new wood burner now but getting the pipes to it is going to take some serious effort, it can be done i'm sure i can think of 3 diffrent routes and i like the look of none of them as the current boiler is in the garage and is pritty much the furthest possibel point from the fire place. it looks like a floors up or ceilings down job

lineing the chimny ect i'm quite confident to do, i did one at parents and helps a few mates do theres, its usally been a case of borrowing a big telihandler puttign man cage on it and ramming the pipe down the hole, then getting up above it with the mixer in the cage, plenty of cement and the hosepipe, and get mixing the vamiculite. if i can get building controll to sing that off thats ideal

 

[reb78]

If you do go for a back boiler, spec the log burner bigger/higher output. The back boilers can suck an amazing amount of heat from the room. The one in our lounge is like sitting next to the sun even shut right down so a back boiler will probably make the room a better temp and heat the house well too!

 

[dannyp]

yes they are amazing things parents house has a charnwood that was fitted 20+ years ago that heats the whole house happily on its own unless it really really cold.
i think i'd like to do the chimeny right for a monster of a fire with back boiler then fit something in the 5-8kw range for the moment.

think i'm going to have to use the barn workshop to settel my monster wood burnr urge post a bit of 150mm tube up through the roof and get a 20kw in the corner ( one day )

 

[Gareth J]

I fitted a 2nd hand Charnwood Country 4 last year, we pulled the liner up the chimney rather than wrestle with a giant metal snake up on the roof. It went up easily.
Be careful about buying something too old in case it’s rotten.

Could not understand why most guides suggested dropping a liner in when pulling up on a rope sounds so much easier and safer. It's what we did on mine. No dramas.

@armalites do you know what causes the black soot on the glass? We get it on ours around the edges and a bit in the centre that needs cleaning every few days.
Ours is a Burley Firecube I think.

We also have a pioneer 400. They are brilliant. Can echo everything armalites says about them.

Glass soots up because creosote/tar condenses onto it because it's cool. Minimise this by burning hotter, to keep the glass hotter. As said, the clear views have double glazed so the inner skin stays much hotter than usual. That's their secret rather than anything else imo.

We all like the idea of shutting the burner down overnight to relight straight away the next day but if you dump a new batch of logs on and shut it down before bed, you're asking for all the volatiles in them to gak up the glass.

Instead, try loading up an hour or so before bed and burning hot/hard until what's left is mostly glowing embers with very little flame. At this point there will be very little volatiles lift to gak your glass. Shut it right down then and see if it's better in the morning.

 

[gaz1]

Could not understand why most guides suggested dropping a liner in when pulling up on a rope sounds so much easier and safer. It's what we did on mine. Not drams..

thats because some people droped bricks down a chimney in aid to clear them out of soot and ash up the chimney not a ll chimneys are straight down they do go sideways at 30+ degrees

you would be surprised on how many bricks can hit you on a clean out of the chimney pulling one up

never mind break your hand

 

[Gareth J]

thats because some people droped bricks down a chimney in aid to clear them out of soot and ash up the chimney not a ll chimneys are straight down they do go sideways at 30+ degrees

you would be surprised on how many bricks can hit you on a clean out of the chimney pulling one up

never mind break your hand

Yes, ours had a dog leg to be navigated. An inconvenience in either direction I'd say?

Regarding stuff falling down, fair point but would that also not be an issue in either direction? Most guides suggest someone on the end of a rope guiding the end down if dropping in.

 

[gaz1]

not as much feeding the liner up the chimney the risk is at top the puller

you dont want to be tugging on a rope on a roof nothing worse than that rope giving or snapping off that liner

lose your balance your off the roof faster than you can think of even with a ladder stuck up the back of the chimney normal way of fitting the liner

most customers dont want to pay for scaffolding or for a telelift machine

throw the brick with the rope down the chimney and hope it hits the bottom
if not pull it back up and try again

ive had brick thrown down fail often and it takes breaking into chimney lower down just to get it around the bend on some chimneys

feeding down the puller can use his foot on the rope keeping his hands away from inside of the chimney

the risk is the length that your holding on the top once it starts feeding the liner its just balance the liner into it far easier

 

[julianf]

I remember helping a friend -

In fact, there were two if use there, and the home owner (my friend).

The liner would not come down, as there was a restriction in the chimney, about 2 foot above the mantel shelf.

So he had at the wall with the hammer drill.

His friend (the other helper) and I were both just standing back looking at one another, as lumps of plaster fell down onto the mantle shelf, next to the (still in place) wedding photos etc. Some of them bouncing off into his young daughters toy box.

In fairness, he got the job done!

 

[Wozzaaah]

Just to add a bit about output. Ours is rated at 4.8kw, we have an 1890s uninsulated end terrace house with a through lounge and open plan stairs. The kitchen door is always open, so are the upstairs ones.
Our CH is set low so the heat from the wood burner soon kicks the thermostat out. I’ve had to regulate the wood burner down as I’m sat here sweating.
Upstairs doesn’t get warm as such when the CH is off but the rising heat more than takes the chill off.
There are calculators online which help you choose the right size but I think I worked out I needed something like 7kw min!
We’re only burning scrap softwood too, and rarely fill the firebox more than half.