Why You Should Preheat Your Chimney Flue

When it gets really cold outside, your chimney fills with cold outside air, especially if your chimney is on an outside wall of your house. When the fireplace and chimney are working properly, your fire draws in the cooler air from your home to fuel the fire. As the fire gets hotter, the hot air rises up the chimney, taking smoke along with it. But when cold outside air (heavier and denser than warm air) fills the chimney - at the same time you're first lighting a fire - smoke can't rise out of the firebox, causing smoke to draft improperly into your house.

What follows are a few quick and easy steps you can take to preheat the flue and ensure that your fire doesn't back draft into your cozy home.

First, take a look: open the damper and take its pulse. Do you feel cold air coming down the chimney? If yes, don't light the fire yet! If you light the fire, the new hot air will meet the cold air trapped inside and force that smoke back downwards. What we're aiming for here is creating a tall column of WARM air in the chimney. So first, we need to prime the flue.

There are two really easy methods to get that cold air out of the chimney and make way for your new fire. ONE: tightly roll up four to five newspapers into “torches” and light one end (lighting both ends would clearly be problematic;). Hold the burning torch way up in the damper opening. In a minute or so, you will feel the draft reverse, as the warm flue gasses start to move up the flue.

TWO: another simple way to prime the flue is using a blow dryer. As long as the blow dryer air is warmer than the freezing outside air, this will do the trick. Simply aim the dryer up the opening for a few moments to move that cold air out, and voila! You've primed your flue and should be ready to light the fire and enjoy.

If you have continued smoke problems, give us a call and let us help you troubleshoot your situation. It may be a simple fix or some kind of obstruction in your chimney that needs tending.

Stay warm, and get those fires burning! ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

Good morning! Did you stay warm overnight? We are often asked about how to burn wood overnight in your home for safety and optimal heating value. The truth is, very few wood stoves can burn longer than two to three hours on one wood load.

The old way of closing the air supply so that the coals will smoulder overnight is a source of pollution and creates the risk of a chimney fire. In addition, the heat benefit is poor as the gases are not combusted and the energy is not utilized.

The last wood load in the evening should be some bigger hardwood logs that burn as normal with the air vents open. This way, even if the fire dies out, the insulation in the house will keep the heat in. The stove and chimney will still be warm in the morning and it is no problem to get the fire going again.

And remember, you should always put two or three logs on the fire at a time – one log on its own will often die out. The reason is that the burning of a log happens in three stages, and one single log is not able to keep its own process going. More logs have a bigger surface, creates more turbulence and keeps the burning process going.

So stay warm, keep the home fires stoked, and enjoy this beautiful winter day.

Any questions about burning wood? Don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to help!

Source: Jøtul ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

Burning wood has been a part of our "human nature" since the dawn of time. And since that time, humans have known one simple fact about burning wood: dry wood burns better.

However, freshly cut wood can contain as much as 50% - 80% moisture by weight. And if you've ever seen wood "spitting" and steaming when thrown into the fire, that's an indication that the wood is still wet.

In fact, when wood is wet (>35% moisture content), over 1/2 the energy content of the wood is lost boiling the water out of the wood itself. This means that you have to burn twice as much wood as necessary to generate the desired heat. In addition, burning wet wood results in a COLD draft in the chimney since the energy lost in boiling the water out of the wood is not available to heat the draft. This results in stoves that are difficult to light, back "puff" into the home, and substantial creosote being generated in the chimney.

Buying Cord Wood to Burn

Whenever you see hardwood or cord wood advertised for sale, it always states that it is "Seasoned". Unfortunately, that's frequently not true. Since seasoning cord wood takes approximately 9-18 months, the amount of physical space required to store 500+ cords of wood (typical for a good scale wood sales operation) is simply not economically feasible for most people selling hard wood to access. Simply put, companies selling "seasoned" wood don't always have the physical space necessary to truly season the wood.

So make sure to ask whether the wood you're buying is seasoned, and then, this coming spring, deploy the following method to make sure your cord wood is seasoned - by doing it yourself!

IN THE SPRING

Call in the Spring (when no-one is calling) and ask for green-split wood. Ask for the best price, since you don't expect it to be seasoned. Then stack it and let it season for around 18 months:

Cut to length (16" typically - longer for larger stoves)

Split lengthwise

Stack off the ground in the open air, with the top (but not sides) covered with plywood or a tarp

Let sit for 12+ months before burning

From a practical sense, this means that if you burn 2 cords of wood each season, you need to have space to store 4 cords - 2 to burn this season, and 2 that are seasoning for next season.

In the market for a wood stove? We carry a wide range of options for you from Vermont Castings, Jotul, Osburne, Avalon, and Regency, to name a few.

Come see us and let us help you warm up your winter with style, efficiency, and quality! ... See MoreSee Less

Call Now

2 weeks ago