Log Burners

[John63]

Now that we’re back in uk and the weather is beginning to cool, Mrs John has decided she wants a log burner. After over 20 years of trying to stay cool, we don’t know much about them.

I’m assuming that there are a wide range of brands / qualities and that to some extent you get what you pay for.

Any tips of things to look for, recommended brands or brands to avoid etc

Thanks in advance


Cheers

[Paulo]

Perhaps it is just a language / terminology issue but would a multi fuel stove not be better than a log burner?

[wibble32]

I bought and fitted a Clarke Carlton from Machinemart and fitted it myself. It burns wood or coal and is superb.
I am now a confirmed but warm wood pikey

Rgds

[sean0801]

They are heavy and last forever, brand unimportant, KW is important, more KW you buy the bigger the stove is and hotter it gets. use heat logs, hard wood heat logs preferably. They are good, I love mine as much as my shearwater 👍

[Jay_Benson]

Check the smokeless zone rules where you live. They are starting to realise that whilst wood burners whilst carbon neutral in effect (typically the wood burnt is less than 30 years old) they do emit particulates so it may be a problem in a conurbation.

Get a carbon monoxide alarm - your house insurance may demand that.

Old pallets make good kindling and you can beg them off businesses quite often. You will want to buy a chainsaw - don’t buy a cheap crap one, get something like a Husqvarna or a Stihl - cheaper in the long run as they are reliable and you can get spares easily. For your chainsaw buy a Chinese made electric saw sharpener - it makes it so easy to sharpe the chain it is ridiculous. Where appropriate clothing for the chainsaw work - they will cut through jeans without a seconds thought - and ideally get trained.

We have a Woodwarm 9kW and at full blast it makes a decent sized room too hot so we tend to run it just on one side to save fuel and provide a comfortable heat - when it is too hot we throw the doors to the rest of the house open.

[Barrygoss]

Perhaps it is just a language / terminology issue but would a multi fuel stove not be better than a log burner?

Multi fuel stoves, is complicated in the U.K. now

Wood burners: Most polluting fuels to be banned in the home https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51581817

So while they started banning multi fuel stoves the gov U turned 🤷☺♀️ again and it’s targeting the fuels. So your self cut wood would be a no no here

B

[Paulo]

Multi fuel stoves, is complicated in the U.K. now

Wood burners: Most polluting fuels to be banned in the home https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51581817

So while they started banning multi fuel stoves the gov U turned ��☺♀️ again and it’s targeting the fuels. So your self cut wood would be a no no here

B

The irony is that my self cut timber is probably drier than the commercial stuff as I am not under commercial pressure to use it. I have stuff drying 2, 3 even 4 years

[steelemonkey]

I opened up a fire place a couple of years ago and am currently looking at the Clarkes range at machine Mart. I get big bags of dried logs delivered. I have been stockpiling bags of coal as they may get difficult to obtain soon.

[notdeadyet]

The irony is that my self cut timber is probably drier than the commercial stuff as I am not under commercial pressure to use it. I have stuff drying 2, 3 even 4 years

You can still burn whatever you like here, you just can't sell it. Which is probably a good thing because a lot of what gets sold was shit.

But like everything, the Tories even managed to fuck that up as well. You can still sell wet wood in "bulk" (2 builders bags so not exactly a huge amount) as long as you stick a leaflet it in it about how to season it. So there's still plenty of places selling shitty softwood that was cut yesterday that burns like a smoke grenade. But it's cheap and there's tax to collect so never mind.

I buy mine from a saw mill that has its own hardwood plantation. A lot of cheaper places it's birch from eastern Europe and the Baltic. How the "green" credentials of logs that have travelled 1200 miles stacks up against other fuels, not sure about that.

The pisser was banning house coal. Smokeless is shit. It's a pain to get going, takes ages to get up to heat and costs a fortune. I could just stick a hot air gun in a pile of coal for a couple of minutes and it was off and blazing. My house is in the arse end of nowhere, no gas main, so my stove is my main heating in winter. Coal was fantastic. It was cheap, burnt all day and the only things breathing my emissions were the deer and the people next door. But they're scousers so I couldn't care less.

[cazyoung]

We have a Jotul F3, in our previous cottage which was very prone to power outages we had the same model which we often used as a primary heat source. We also have a Caframo eco fan on top of the stove. https://ecofan.caframobrands.com/

[Woz]

I've had 2 stoves from here. They're very good, and remarkably cheap.

https://www.stoveworlduk.co.uk/

[sean0801]

We have a Jotul F3, in our previous cottage which was very prone to power outages we had the same model which we often used as a primary heat source. We also have a Caframo eco fan on top of the stove. https://ecofan.caframobrands.com/

Ditto what she said about the little fan, really circulates the heat. I can feel the heat at the top of the stairsb with the fan ryunning nad there's less of a hot spot in the living room

[notdeadyet]

Ditto what she said about the little fan, really circulates the heat. I can feel the heat at the top of the stairsb with the fan ryunning nad there's less of a hot spot in the living room

Last chimney sweep I used lowered the soffit boards round the flue in the chimney breast for some reason and now I can't fit a fan under it. Noticeably different without it. You can also judge when you need to add wood by the speed of the fan.

I'd also add try to cut air movement down as well. I put a curtain across the top of the stairs and another across where the living room was extended out the back and it really makes it a lot warmer in winter.

[Noggin the Nog]

I strongly support what Jay said about chainsaw training (although our erstwhile friend would disagree, where is he these days?).
If someone asks me to 'show them how to use it' , I politely decline.
The electric chainsaw sharpeners are great, although they make it really easy to 'burn' the cutting heads if you go at the sharpening too enthusiastically..
The one thing they won't do is reset the depth gauges (the little shark fin shaped links in front of each cutter). This needs to be done too, otherwise the chain will start to slide over the wood and not cut.

[WFO]

We've got a Dunsley Yorkshire, great thing.

Don't cheap out on the stove, the shit ones go like a rocket engine burning everything in minutes with all the heat going up the pipe. A quality one the fire will even burn overnight if you stoke it up on hardwood/coal and shut the air down low.