You and Your Stove

Smokeless fuel needs an air supply underneath to burn efficiently and a stove with a grate is required, mainly referred to as multifuel.

These stoves are also able to burn wood. If you are burning mainly smokeless fuel you need to empty the ash pan and grate on a daily basis, however wood alone prefers to burn in its own ash and can be left to build up (a dedicated woodburner has no grate or ashpan). The wood being burnt should have a moisture content of no more than 20%. Moisture meters are available to test your wood.

If you burn wet or green wood you are reducing the efficiency of the stove and upping your chances of a chimney fire. A good quality hard wood like ash will always burn best, soft wood such as pine will burn very quickly and produce little heat.

The chimney should be swept on a regular bases once a year with smokeless fuel and sometimes twice with wood. For a stove that has started to look a little worn but still has plenty of life in it there is our Spares department for all your needs from glass, fire rope, bricks and even handy high temperature spray paint in an array of colours to renew the paint work and to keep the dust at bay there is now a special lint free cloth.