New to log burning in need of some support!

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BenW25

New Member
Nov 26, 2013
8
King's Lynn, Norfolk
Hello everyone, my name is Ben, I live in King's Lynn Norfolk UK.
I have recently had a log burner installed in my home, I had a professional company install the burner costing me over £2000. I had a Charnwood Country 4MKII 4KW installed. It's a beautiful burner.

I have had the burner in for a week now and I'm terrified of everything, every noise, is it too hot? Too cold? Too smokey?

After looking through numerous forums this seems the most friendly and helpful.

I'm looking for some advice;
1; How should I have the air controls on my burner? I have had the primary control (bottom) fully closed and the secondary control full open up the log catches fire when I reload. Is this correct?

2; Sometimes I really struggle lighting my fire, does anyone has any tips? I've heard not to use newspaper as this can cause fires up the flue? I have been using small firelighters.

3; The glass on my burner seems to get very dirty in no time, I'm using wood that has been sat undercover for 2 years but I've only just got the wood splitter out and split it.

4; What are people's views on leaving the burner alight when I'm not home for a couple of hours? How should I leave the air controls? Should I load it with wood before I leave?

5; I am thinking of buying a flue thermometer and a DIY Chimney sweep, are any of these any use? Or am I wasting my time?

Thanks for you time, I would really appreciate any help! I look forward to hearing a few replies and enjoying my burner safely and efficiently!
 
BenW25 said:
Hello everyone, my name is Ben, I live in King's Lynn Norfolk UK.
I have recently had a log burner installed in my home, I had a professional company install the burner costing me over £2000. I had a Charnwood Country 4MKII 4KW installed. It's a beautiful burner.

I have had the burner in for a week now and I'm terrified of everything, every noise, is it too hot? Too cold? Too smokey?

After looking through numerous forums this seems the most friendly and helpful.

I'm looking for some advice;
1; How should I have the air controls on my burner? I have had the primary control (bottom) fully closed and the secondary control full open up the log catches fire when I reload. Is this correct?

2; Sometimes I really struggle lighting my fire, does anyone has any tips? I've heard not to use newspaper as this can cause fires up the flue? I have been using small firelighters.

3; The glass on my burner seems to get very dirty in no time, I'm using wood that has been sat undercover for 2 years but I've only just got the wood splitter out and split it.

4; What are people's views on leaving the burner alight when I'm not home for a couple of hours? How should I leave the air controls? Should I load it with wood before I leave?

5; I am thinking of buying a flue thermometer and a DIY Chimney sweep, are any of these any use? Or am I wasting my time?

Thanks for you time, I would really appreciate any help! I look forward to hearing a few replies and enjoying my burner safely and efficiently!
Click to expand...
Hi Ben,
Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new wood stove! There are a few other UK wood burners here that might know the best way to operate your stove. The single most important thing to satisfactory wood burning is dry wood. This generally means having the wood cut, split, stacked and top covered only with the wind blowing through the stacks for at least one year. Nothing wrong with starting a fire with newspaper and kindling either. I run my stove 24/7 with no problem and have done so for over 25 years and so do most other burners here. As long as your wood is dry and your stove installed correctly you should be fine. With time you'll gain confidence in your stove and know what it likes.

Good Luck!
Ray
 
If your wood wasn't split until now that could be a large part of the problem, even if it was cut to length sooner. Chances are it is not dry enough.
 
is your glass black? Black would most likely indicate wet wood. As far as the stove being to hot, I would get a cheap InfraRed temp gun and check the stove to see how hot it burns. I have a spring thermometer on my stove and it is off by 100F so I think they are poor indicators of temp.

On my stove (Avalon) I have to open the primary air until the new wood is burning real good and then turn that to low or off and the secondary air handles the rest of the burn cycle.
 
Wow, thanks for all the replies! I have been at work all day!

My glass gets black very quickly, so I presume it must be the wood! I'll have to look to get some nicely seasoned stuff in, or do you think it's ok to use the same wood just for this winter then next season will it be dry enough?

Once again thank you for all the quick replies! I guess I have to get used to my stove, but I suppose it's better to be too cautious than to not have a care in the world!
 
If you have the option - dry wood is always better. Keep what you currently have for next year. Black glass is a tell tale sign of wet wood and/or low burn temps. What are the temps of the stove while it is cruising?

Black glass also means that you are probably putting black stuff in your stove pipe. Please be vigilant with your stack maintenance. In the beginning - take a look at least once a month to make sure you are not gumming up the stack. Sweep (or have it swept) as needed.
 
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As far as I can tell, this is a pretty basic stove. Follow the directions on pages 4-5 of the manual and you should do ok.

http://www.charnwood.com/files/documents/instructions/co4mk2.pdf
This stove has been designated to burn wood. Only dry well seasoned
wood should be burnt on this appliance as burning wet unseasoned
wood will give rise to heavy tar deposits in the stove, on the glass and
within the chimney. For the same reason hard woods (such as Ash,
Beech and Oak) are better than soft woods (such as Pine and
Spruce). Burning wet unseasoned wood will also result in
considerably reduced outputs. The wood should be cut and split and
then left to season in a well ventilated dry place for at least one year
but preferably two years before use. Approximate suitable log sizes
are 255mm (10in) long and 75mm (3in) diameter.
 
Last edited:
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begreen said:
As far as I can tell, this is a pretty basic stove. Follow the directions on pages 4-5 of the manual and you should do ok.

http://www.charnwood.com/files/documents/instructions/co4mk2.pdf
This stove has been designated to burn wood. Only dry well seasoned
wood should be burnt on this appliance as burning wet unseasoned
wood will give rise to heavy tar deposits in the stove, on the glass and
within the chimney. For the same reason hard woods (such as Ash,
Beech and Oak) are better than soft woods (such as Pine and
Spruce). Burning wet unseasoned wood will also result in
considerably reduced outputs. The wood should be cut and split and
then left to season in a well ventilated dry place for at least one year
but preferably two years before use. Approximate suitable log sizes
are 255mm (10in) long and 75mm (3in) diameter.
Click to expand...
Good info but your link will not load here..

Ray
 
I am still waiting on the temperature gauge to turn up, should be here tomorrow so I'll let everyone know, I did read through the manual I was given but then thought I would ask on a forum to see other peoples views and experiences.

I will let you know how I'm getting on tomorrow, for now I will light her, crack open a nice cold beer and eat some fantastic food the misses is cooking!
 
thanks for catching that. There is a hidden character in the url. I will fix.

EDIT: Fixed now, try it again.
 
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that's a nice looking stove. also, a tell-tale sign is water boiling/steaming out of the wood while burning. I would not burn it, its a waste of potentially good fuel. when you get some good wood, burn some smaller fires to gain some confidence.
 
BenW25 said:
Jags; when you say 'stack maintenance' what do you mean?

Ben
Click to expand...
The exhaust pipe (or stack or flu - plenty of nomenclature for it.;)). If you are getting black glass - you are more than likely get black inside your pipe. This requires inspection and maintenance. Cleaning the pipe is referred to as "sweeping". The whole idea is to remove anything that has accumulated in the pipe reducing/removing potential fuel for a fire. It will also remove the normal accumulation of ash if there is any.
 
Hmm, works for me now. Try refreshing your browser and purging the cached page.
 
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Hi Ben and welcome to the best woodburning forum in the world.
Charnwood make great stoves so once you get the hang of it you will love it.
As others have said it sounds like your wood is not dry enough.
Have you tested a fresh split face with a moisture meter ? It should be 20% or less for ideal burning.
If buying wood most sellers store wood in the round and split it shortly before delivery, this is because to store large quantities of split wood takes up a lot of space. Also to season properly it should be split and stacked in single rows with top cover in a sunny/windy spot. This takes a lot of time.
So if buying your wood test it with a moisture meter before delivery.
For best results process your own wood, this does involve a lot of work and equipment.
I suggest you try some pressed wood briquettes to see if you get better results.
Also a common mistake is not putting enough wood into the stove, put at least 3 logs in, this gives more surface area and helps combustion.

Billy.
 
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Billybonfire said:
Hi Ben and welcome to the best woodburning forum in the world.
Charnwood make great stoves so once you get the hang of it you will love it.
As others have said it sounds like your wood is not dry enough.
Have you tested a fresh split face with a moisture meter ? It should be 20% or less for ideal burning.
If buying wood most sellers store wood in the round and split it shortly before delivery, this is because to store large quantities of split wood takes up a lot of space. Also to season properly it should be split and stacked in single rows with top cover in a sunny/windy spot. This takes a lot of time.
So if buying your wood test it with a moisture meter before delivery.
For best results process your own wood, this does involve a lot of work and equipment.
I suggest you try some pressed wood briquettes to see if you get better results.
Also a common mistake is not putting enough wood into the stove, put at least 3 logs in, this gives more surface area and helps combustion.

Billy.
Click to expand...
Good stuff Billy! You were the UK gentleman I was referring to in a previous post. As you and others have mentioned it appears that Ben is burning wet wood and mixing in some pressed wood might get Ben through his wet wood issue. How are things in the UK these days?

Ray
 
raybonz said:
Good stuff Billy! You were the UK gentleman I was referring to in a previous post. As you and others have mentioned it appears that Ben is burning wet wood and mixing in some pressed wood might get Ben through his wet wood issue. How are things in the UK these days?

Ray
Click to expand...

Hi Ray
Yes I suspect that is Ben's problem, in my opinion most new burners go through these issues.

Things ok over here, weather not turned really cold yet, just the odd day below freezing.
Stove burning nicely as we speak, may have to open a window :).

Bily.
 
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Thanks everyone, I'm learning new things all the time with my burner! So tonight I've had a play around with it just to how how it performs with different air.

I noticed the the wood will burn better with the secondary air half way and the primary air turned 1/4 out, will I or can I damage my log burner doing this?

I will look into buying a moisture metre that sounds like a good idea. I have split the wood myself, am I right in thinking that smaller wet logs will burn better than large ones? If so I may split my logs in half again and see if this helps?

Thanks agin guys!
 
Yep - splitting them smaller will help (more surface area). You can adjust the secondary air on that thing???
 
BenW25 said:
Thanks everyone, I'm learning new things all the time with my burner! So tonight I've had a play around with it just to how how it performs with different air.

I noticed the the wood will burn better with the secondary air half way and the primary air turned 1/4 out, will I or can I damage my log burner doing this?

I will look into buying a moisture metre that sounds like a good idea. I have split the wood myself, am I right in thinking that smaller wet logs will burn better than large ones? If so I may split my logs in half again and see if this helps?

Thanks agin guys!
Click to expand...
Just keep an eye on your stove temps Ben.. Adding more air will help with wet wood just lower it down as the burn gets hotter. Resplitting should help as well. If you see your wood sizzling that is the water being driven out.

Ray
 
Hi Ben,
Yes it will help but you need to get some properly seasoned dry wood for clean efficient burning.
You might also try buying some kiln dried wood and see if that is better, it is expensive tho and just because it says kiln dried does not mean it is any better than wood seasoned in usual way.
If I had to buy wood I would burn briquettes, at least you know they are dry and consistent quality.

Billy.
 
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BenW25 said:
Thanks everyone, I'm learning new things all the time with my burner! So tonight I've had a play around with it just to how how it performs with different air.

I noticed the the wood will burn better with the secondary air half way and the primary air turned 1/4 out, will I or can I damage my log burner doing this?

I will look into buying a moisture metre that sounds like a good idea. I have split the wood myself, am I right in thinking that smaller wet logs will burn better than large ones? If so I may split my logs in half again and see if this helps?

Thanks agin guys!
Click to expand...
Ben I was just looking at your stove manual and it mentions a smoke reducing kit. Does your stove has this feature as it sounds like a reburn system and a good feature to have and required in USA..

Ray
 
Ok I'll take it easy until I get my temp gauge tomorrow! I'm hesitant at burning to hot anyway, the room isn't very warm tonight, the burner is my only source of heat in my flat!

I don't really want to buy any wood I've got lots of the stuff I'm using and I've just paid a lot of money to have the burner installed but I would rather burn good wood and keep my burner safe!

I have no idea Ray I will look into it tomorrow and see what the manual says!

Sorry not the best picture I'm on my iPad, I will get one on my phone tomorrow!
 

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