this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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So anyone with a wood heater, advice on getting a roaring fire going because I am terrible at it and always have been.
Set up the kindling like a tee pee then just keep adding bigger pieces as you go.
I'll give it a shot next cold day. Thank you!
All good advice from the others. I’ll add that having some scrunched up paper under the kindling teepee helps to get things going. And depending on what kind of kindling you have, you may want to split it even further, long ways. Don’t do it neatly. The little bits of splinters sticking out will catch easier. Once it’s properly lit, add some smaller logs, cut side towards the fire. (Bark generally doesn’t light as easily) and then maintain the fire by adding more logs as needed to increase heat and not let it burn out as the initial logs get depleted.
Will cut mine down a bit more. Thanks!
@danwritesbooks @CEOofmyhouse56 my tip is: clothes dryer lint! Save it and you guarantee a fast start.
A mastodonian! Lemmy daily threads must look pretty funky from mastodon, right?
@Baku comments/replies just come through like regular posts in my feed, so yeah it's a bit janky but I like not having to look at different places, and if stuff comes up that I can comment on, it's quite easy to do =) I love social network interoperability, even if it is imperfect!
My tip is to roll newspaper lengthways then tie a knot in it as a fire lighter.
I saw a video using that method. Seems to work well. I'll try it next time. Thanks!
Dry wood, never freshly cut down, and stored out of the rain. Good kindling base, don't hesitate to use fire starters. Feed slowly, your goal is glowing hot coals. keep the flue open till you get close. Dont shut it all the way till its roaring.
Thank you!
On the firestarter thing, the natural ones work great. Avoid the foil encased ones, all sorts of bad going on there
Pine cones are great to start a fire with along with cardboard like toilet rolls, I use a bit of everything, newspaper, cardboard, small twigs and pine cones then bigger kindling and then when that’s going, really dry wood.
Airflow. I mean it.
Open the dampers (top and bottom) before you light the fire. Then when it's roaring, close the bottom damper 3/4 of the way and the top one 1/2 way. When the flames settle down a bit, close the top damper almost all the way and the bottom damper likewise. Then put on wood ONLY when there's a bed of coals gently glowing. When you do, open the bottom damper a bit to let in some oxygen and close it again after 10 mins when the new wood has caught.
The heater does not need to be roaring to heat the house. A bed of coals is much more efficient and cheaper in wood.
If you want chapter & verse on setting up the initial fire, just let me know. There's a hundred tricks to it depending on what wood you use and the set up of the heater. Or consult youtube.
Also clean all the old ash out including from the baffles, if it has a fan check that as well, may need to clean filters etc.