Stove Maintenance Checklist
1. If it is a multifuel stove, check the grate is in good condition and that it riddles easily. If the grate is cracked or distorted ,replace it as soon as you can. As this can sometimes cause distortion and it can cause it to jam the riddling mechanism or jam the stove.
2.Check the firebricks if it has them. If a brick is damaged or cracked so that a small piece could fall out, than change it immediately. A missing piece of brink can cause a cast iron stove to crack or a steel stove to distort. This may mean buying a new stove depending on the damage that has been caused though the heat.
3. Check the stove ashpan for holes. Hot ash leaking from an ashpan can do damage to the house. i.e. carpet if you are carrying the ashpan to empty it.
4.Check the fire rope seals around the doors and the glass of the stove. Replace badly frayed or missing rope. A good way to check the door seal is by closing the door over a thin piece of paper. It should be difficult to pull the piece of paper out again. If there is getting though the doors there is going to be more air getting in to your stove. Therefore this means the wood that you are burning is going to burn harder and quicker. You will be burning alot more wood than you need to.
5. On a cast iron stove ,check the seals between the side and top plates. If there are gaps reseal with cement.
6.Check the finish on the stove. Particularly on a cast iron stove, excessive rusting can cause problems. Rum down with a wire brush or steel wool and re-spray with heat resistant paint or you can re-polish with black grate polish. This will help the look of your stove look new again and keep it in better condition. If you were to leave it, the rust will get worse and in time you may not be able to use your stove.
7.Cheack the glass for cracks and clean of black tar deposits with glass cleaner.
8. During the summer always leave a vent or door open to stop condensation building up in side the stove of the chimney.
Stove maintenance is very important and it doesn’t take much time to maintain you stove properly. Checking your stove regularly will save you money in the future.
How to restore you stove
Keeping your stove clean and giving it a paint when it needs it, can help to keep your stove looking new. Also keeping the glass clean will help as well. Restoring your stove may take some time depending on what you would like to do to it. Cast iron stoves and steel stoves are vey different in how you handle them and what you can do with them.
A typical restoration is described below.
- Break stove apart and reassemble.
- Weld breaks, cracks, damaged areas and broken parts.
- Fabricate missing or broken parts.
- Sandblast and clean surfaces.
- Paint stove with a temperature resistant paint. Seal stove for an airtight burn.
- Replace hinges and pins.
- Reset doors for close tight fit.
- Check latches for a tight close.
- Replace grates.
- Line with firebrick.
- Replace mica, or glass
- Add new ash pan and lid lifter.
- Enamel stoves receive a thorough cleaning and touch up of porcelain.
People may think that lighting your stove is easy and when you know how to it is. Using the right kindling and using the right seasoned wood can also help light your stove and keep it burning for longer.
Before we get down to lighting the fire, it is helpful to understand some differences between ordinary fires and wood burning stoves:
1. The wood burning stove is in an enclosed metal box. It therefore takes a lot of heat energy to get it hot (particularly if it is made of cast iron )
2. Air intake is controlled by one or more valves
3. The design means you can preheat the air so the stove burns much hotter than a conventional wood fire
4. The wood stove is therefore much more efficient in terms of converting fuel to heat energy than an ordinary fire
Preparing your fire
With most fires you are able to light it with newspaper or you can use firelighters depending on what you wish to use
With a wood stove it is good to light the new fire on a bed of ash so don't remove all the old ash when preparing the fire. Open the stove door and add several sheets of scrunched up paper to the top of the ash. Some people prefer to roll the paper into a cylinder then twist the ends together.
Next add small bits of Kindling, on top of your paper or firelighter, Kindling is any easy burning material but typically a soft wood like pine chopped into small pieces with a hand axe. Firelighters are typically made of paraffin wax. Some manufacturers add small amounts of kerosene or other light fuel to the wax in order to make them burn better.
Have larger pieces of dry, seasoned wood ready to add as the fire catches hold.
Your wood burning stove may typically have both a primary and secondary air input controls or valves When lighting the stove these should both be open in order to get as much oxygen to the fire as possible.
The Primary Air Input Valve, brings cold air from the room under the burning wood. The Secondary Air Input Valve takes air which has circulated around the stove and over the front viewing glass (helping to remove soot and keep it clear).
This means the secondary air is already very hot when it meets with the hot gases from the burning wood. The gases therefore ignite in the upper part of the stove making the stove much hotter and releasing more heat energy from the wood than with a conventional, open fire.
Making sure your wood is seasoned
Having seasoned wood helps to keep your fire in better condition if its too wet the stove will not burn as well and it may also cause problems with the chimney causing it to clog up with tar.Seasoning typically takes about a year for newly felled wood. To dry out
Different logs that you can use.
What is a leaf log?
A leaf log is made up of fallen leaves and is helping make the world a cleaner place. It will burn for up to 3 hours and it can be used in wood burners multifule stove etc.
In order to reduce our own carbon emissions. Leaf logs have been made to do just this, to help save money and to help the gases we are putting into the air Seasoned wood can be soft or hard wood depending on what you are looking for and what time of year it is.
. This will make the air cleaner. Here at Rangemoors we use leaf logs on our stoves in the showroom.
Rangemoors has the largest showroom in the south west and a very wide range of stoves and having the biggest show room in the south west we have many on show and many that are lit so you are able to see them for your self’s. The list below is some of the stoves that we have on diplay and are able to order in for you. We have a very large warehouse and this enables us to keep many of the stoves here on site.
