Smokin - or not!

After a few weeks of mild weather post-stove installation we're now well into winter and it's freezing outside. Now that I've had a few weeks playing with the stove I can safely say I've got it sussed.

Initially I was a bit dissapointed with the 'airwash' that is supposed to keep the glass clean so that you can enjoy watching the flames gently washing over the wood. After the first couple of weeks use we (or rather C!) had to clean the glass to remove soot etc. Not what I'd hoped for. I put this down to wood that hasn't been well seasoned and hoped it would sort itself out in time. Heat output wasn't as great as I'd hoped (didn't feel anywhere near the rated 5 kW) either.

Over the last two weeks things have improved, and it seems it's all down to how you control the fire. Initially I was putting smaller logs on and feeding 'a little and often' as it says in the stove manual. This seems to result in the stove never getting up to really high temperature and therefore optimum efficiency and 'clean' burn. However, I've discovered by trial and error that if you build up a decent bed of hot embers you can then put huge logs onto the stove - this not only means that it only needs attention every hour or so, but it also burns very hot and efficiently. So much so the airwash is now working fabulously and is removing soot that had previously built up on the glass.

What is also really satisfying is seeing how efficient the stove is in 'reburning' the smoke that a conventional open fire chucks out to atmosphere - only a wisp of smoke comes out from the chimney when the stove is running flat out so it looks more like the vapour you see coming out of a boiler flue than a wood fire.

All in all a great result and it's keeping the house lovely and warm - C has even muttered about it being too hot at times!