A Woodstove DON'T DO list.

[Robbie]

I feel the season is near enough to start this thread about the things you should NEVER do with a wood stove.

I would like to start this list and suggest that if it turns out to be a good list that it be "edited" and located somewhere easily seen by new members "surfing" the forums.........maybe a "sticky"

This could be very helpful to them, as it will to me by reminding me to stay on my toes while using a wood stove.

I will start with a couple that I think is very important for anyone using a wood stove, anyone feel free to make suggestions..........anything you think we should not do for safety reasons while using a wood stove (serious stuff only please !) %-P


1. NEVER load a wood stove and leave it until you have it in complete control by way of dampering or other means.

2. Never use a wood stove unless you have proper fire and CO alarms in the approriate places around your home/stove.


Robbie

 

[wg_bent]

Serious stuff only? Your no fun :-S

How about:

- Never remove a burning log from the stove
- Never burn anything but wood such as garbage or petro chemicals or grocery wax fire logs
- RTFM - Read it once a year anyway.
- Clean your chimney yearly
- Keep children away and don't allow them to load the stove.
- Never hug your wood stove

 

[hardwood715]

Never dry wood by leaving it on the hearth, or top of stove, as in instant bon fire in living room, It just combusted sitting there on the hearth

 

[BrotherBart]

TO DO LIST:

Before the first fire of the season prepare your stove at least as well as you would prepare your car for a long trip. A six month trip.

1. Inspect the chimney for accumulation, blockages and condition.

2. Inspect your stove carefully for condition. Welds, joints, firebrick and pipe connections. Inspect cats and/or baffles for condition.

3. Inspect your hearth/fireplace for any deterioration/damage.

4. Inspect areas under hearth pads/heat shields etc. for condition and signs of heat damage.

5. Clean the stove paying more attention to air intakes and channels than to how much ash is between the bricks.

6. Shine up the glass and wipe down any dust on the stove. Burning dust on a first burn smells bad as does cooking cobwebs.

7. VERY IMPORTANT: Review the clearances to combustibles around the stove and flue. Things have a way of migrating toward the stove in the years after installation.

8. Go find those hearth tools, gloves, glass cleaner, fire extingishers and other supplies that you put away somewhere last spring because they didn't look good in the room in the spring/summer. The time to go hunting for them is not after the stove is cranking.

9. Don't wait for time changes to replace the batteries in smoke detectors and CO detectors. That is for people with heat pumps. Wood burners need to do it now.

In other words start each season just like the first one, aware of everything about and around your stove and treat the first fire of the season just like you did the first fire you ever started in the stove. You are the inspector every year after year one.

 

[Terence]

Oh, ive got one: don't overfire the stove!

 

[fbelec]

if you don't know where the parts are on your stove READ THE MANUAL.

if you don't understand the stove, parts and chimney call in a pro to check it for you.

if you don't have a thermometer of some kind on the stove buy one.

 

[MrGriz]

Never leave the door latch open while the stove is unattended.

Never pack the firebox with construction scraps.

That nice warm red glow is for your cheeks, not your stove.

 

[Greg123]

TO DO LIST:

8. Go find those hearth tools, gloves, glass cleaner, fire extingishers and other supplies that you put away somewhere last spring because they didn't look good in the room in the spring/summer. The time to go hunting for them is not after the stove is cranking.

This reminds me I need to get gloves this year, can you guys give me an Idea of what kind of gloves you use. Do Welding gloves work well?.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

TO DO LIST:

8. Go find those hearth tools, gloves, glass cleaner, fire extingishers and other supplies that you put away somewhere last spring because they didn't look good in the room in the spring/summer. The time to go hunting for them is not after the stove is cranking.

This reminds me I need to get gloves this year, can you guys give me an Idea of what kind of gloves you use. Do Welding gloves work well?.

Yes, I have a pair...

Rob

 

[Greg123]

TO DO LIST:

8. Go find those hearth tools, gloves, glass cleaner, fire extingishers and other supplies that you put away somewhere last spring because they didn't look good in the room in the spring/summer. The time to go hunting for them is not after the stove is cranking.

This reminds me I need to get gloves this year, can you guys give me an Idea of what kind of gloves you use. Do Welding gloves work well?.

Yes, I have a pair...

Rob

Thanks Rob - I needed a pair last year, I had a split that need some finagling so I grabbed the wife's oven mitts, boy was she pissed

 

[MrGriz]

[quote author="Greg123" date="1189112809
Thanks Rob - I needed a pair last year, I had a split that need some finagling so I grabbed the wife's oven mitts, boy was she pissed [/quote]

Looks like we have another DON'T to add to the list.

 

[Harley]

DON'T put fireworks in a wood stove.......




..... don't ask :ahhh:

 

[budman]

TO DO LIST:

Before the first fire of the season prepare your stove at least as well as you would prepare your car for a long trip. A six month trip.

1. Inspect the chimney for accumulation, blockages and condition.

2. Inspect your stove carefully for condition. Welds, joints, firebrick and pipe connections. Inspect cats and/or baffles for condition.

3. Inspect your hearth/fireplace for any deterioration/damage.

4. Inspect areas under hearth pads/heat shields etc. for condition and signs of heat damage.

5. Clean the stove paying more attention to air intakes and channels than to how much ash is between the bricks.

6. Shine up the glass and wipe down any dust on the stove. Burning dust on a first burn smells bad as does cooking cobwebs.

7. VERY IMPORTANT: Review the clearances to combustibles around the stove and flue. Things have a way of migrating toward the stove in the years after installation.

8. Go find those hearth tools, gloves, glass cleaner, fire extingishers and other supplies that you put away somewhere last spring because they didn't look good in the room in the spring/summer. The time to go hunting for them is not after the stove is cranking.

9. Don't wait for time changes to replace the batteries in smoke detectors and CO detectors. That is for people with heat pumps. Wood burners need to do it now.

In other words start each season just like the first one, aware of everything about and around your stove and treat the first fire of the season just like you did the first fire you ever started in the stove. You are the inspector every year after year one.

BB,Very well said and there where no jokes about it.BRAVO. >:-(

 

[stoveguy2esw]

CHECK YOUR GASKETS! go back over your "annual cleaning/service in your manual.

pelletheads please "dry run"to ensure your unit before you fire it for the first time , ensure that the mechanical systems are working properly , check the vent, cleanout trap , and if you are one of the many who direct vent and have blocked or covered it for the summer to keep wildlife out , make sure you remove the cover

 

[elkimmeg]

CAT stove owners no colored paper when kindling

 

[DavidV]

Donn't operate the stove without somesort of "disposable" rug in front of it. Embers from the stove that go on the new oriental rug cause marital strife.

 

[Robbie]

These are all great, keep them coming.

I remembered another one someone mentioned last week on here and forgot who said it..........???

Don't over fill your steam pot or it could boil over and cause real problems, paint, glass breakage etc. (possibly).

Was this said by Elk ???


Robbie

 

[jpl1nh]

Don't do what Senor Frog did!!

 

[bceureka]

Remember: Wood Stoves are the natural enemy of candles. Wax is very hard to remove from masonry. :lol:

 

[stoveguy2esw]

had a guy call me several years ago , seems he had mixed a drink.... (yeah here we go) and set it on his cold stove as he loaded it up and started it , phone rang (so he said) and he forgot his drink until the cup melted (plastic). apparantly the cup melted into the abraided finish and he had to wire wheel the top of the stove to get it out, he was calling for touch up paint.

moral, dont set anything not made to sit on a stove , on a stove when building a fire. it should be note as well that if you are remodeling and creating construction dust such as drywall etc, cover the stove with a trash bag or somthing to keep the dust off thestove , it stinks when the unit gets fired afterwards. ESPECIALLY WITH A GAS UNIT WITH LOGS IN IT the logs generally are open pore and they will absorb aerosols that later have to be cooked out , latex from paint is the worst.