Parts missing from stove in rented house

[Betula Pendula]

Hey all, greetings from Brandenburg

I recently moved to a rented house with a wood stove (joy!!) but I have encountered a number of things that feel wrong and I'm looking for some advice.
It's my first place with a stove, though I have used them before but never for heating like this.

1. Firstly the chamber walls were lined with extra fire bricks, I assume, from some research, to make it smaller, reducing the output. However, it would take so long for the outside to heat up, that I ended up taking them out (there are still the firebricks that are attached to the walls). Although the wood loads don't last as long, it gets hot real quick now and I need smaller loads to keep the temperature up. Was this the right thing to do?

2. While removing these bricks I found that I could look straight up threw the flume. I was confused by this, as I was looking at some diagrams and saw that some secondary burn happens because of the layout of the top of the stove. And on inspection of this stoves manual it has two stone plates that zigzag the air before going up. I can see two slots where they could fit and I could buy them (they are not the same as the ones I took out). Are these stones necessary? Would I be burning cleaner/ more efficiently if they were installed..?

3. It looks as though someone had a really hot fire in there, as the bricks are mostly broken and repaired and the grate at the bottom is completely warped (in other people's pictures it is flat), which might explain the missing parts. Should I also replace the grate? It works ok, just no longer turns for ash release.

4. I am only using birch bark for firelighters, soft wood for kindling and fire-logs with occasional kiln-dried beech or ash for the main burn, however almost everyday I have to wipe the door of the stove down due to soot buildup. I've seen some places that reckon I could be burning too low? I am mostly just putting one 3kg fire log in at each refuelling, and this keeps the room at a perfect temp..

5. A chimney sweep has been round already, even though it's still cold out so I'm still making fires daily - should I get another one round before next winter?

Any help with these topics would be most welcome!

Cheers

 

[stoveliker]

Hey all, greetings from Brandenburg

I recently moved to a rented house with a wood stove (joy!!) but I have encountered a number of things that feel wrong and I'm looking for some advice.
It's my first place with a stove, though I have used them before but never for heating like this.

1. Firstly the chamber walls were lined with extra fire bricks, I assume, from some research, to make it smaller, reducing the output. However, it would take so long for the outside to heat up, that I ended up taking them out (there are still the firebricks that are attached to the walls). Although the wood loads don't last as long, it gets hot real quick now and I need smaller loads to keep the temperature up. Was this the right thing to do?

While I suspect those second layer bricks were not in the design of the stove, it depends on how the stove was designed to work. What brand and model is this?

2. While removing these bricks I found that I could look straight up threw the flume. I was confused by this, as I was looking at some diagrams and saw that some secondary burn happens because of the layout of the top of the stove. And on inspection of this stoves manual it has two stone plates that zigzag the air before going up. I can see two slots where they could fit and I could buy them (they are not the same as the ones I took out). Are these stones necessary? Would I be burning cleaner/ more efficiently if they were installed..?

Yes, a baffle will make you burn far more efficiently, and cleanly (the latter is a safety issue too; dirty chimneys are the number 1 cause of home fires that started as chimney fires).

3. It looks as though someone had a really hot fire in there, as the bricks are mostly broken and repaired and the grate at the bottom is completely warped (in other people's pictures it is flat), which might explain the missing parts. Should I also replace the grate? It works ok, just no longer turns for ash release.

That is concerning. You can just let the ashes fill up the grate etc. and scoop out the ashes.
But if the stove has been overfired (e.g. by having the ash door open), more damage might exists, as in cracks, leaking seals, etc. This diminishes the control over the fire greatly - which can be dangerous (especially if no baffle is in place and flames go straight up the flue).

4. I am only using birch bark for firelighters, soft wood for kindling and fire-logs with occasional kiln-dried beech or ash for the main burn, however almost everyday I have to wipe the door of the stove down due to soot buildup. I've seen some places that reckon I could be burning too low? I am mostly just putting one 3kg fire log in at each refuelling, and this keeps the room at a perfect temp..

If your window gets dirty, you may be choking the fire too much. But this also depends a bit on the stove design (air wash over the door). See #1, brand/model.
Kiln dried wood may not at all be dry enough to burn - they put it in the kiln to kill bugs allowign them to transport the wood, not to get it below 20% moisture content. Not sure what fire logs you use, but it's best to use (pure) sawdust logs - without wax or chemicals.

5. A chimney sweep has been round already, even though it's still cold out so I'm still making fires daily - should I get another one round before next winter?

Yes, have the flue swept each year. I believe that is even mandatory in Germany.

Any help with these topics would be most welcome!

Cheers