Carabo Fire

[Sarah and Ian]

Hello All

 

As we're getting colder nights approaching I have been experimenting with my Carabo Fire. I was wondering what people opinions are for the best way to light it and maintain it.

 

I get paranoid that its going out and getting the thing going confuses me somewhat. I have tried opening up the air intake at the front fully and opening the Chimey up full as well. I have used Paper. Firelighters kindling wood. then placed two or three pieces of coal on but It never seems to take very well and I feel I am constantly going back and playing with it to keep it going. I am using Taybright and I have also so logs that were brought from our local Chandlery at the Marina.

 

Any one got any tips or have experinece with this fires or any tips for a successful lighting. We went out Satnight and it staid lit all night but again I felt I was having to encourage it to kick in again once we got back in.

 

Thanks in advance we are very much new to all this.

 

Thanks Ian

 

of Ian and Sarah

Edited September 7, 2009 by Sarah and Ian

[Tim Doran]

Every stove is different, I have a squirrel stove so I can only advice on what I do.

 

1. Get pallet wood and chop in to 20cmx1.5cmx1.5cm

2. Roll 4 sheets of newspaper into rolls and tie into a knot

3. Place 4 paper knots in the fire

4. Place 4 bits of kindling across the paper

5. Lay another layer in the oposite direction

6. build 4/5 layers high

7. Place about 10 lumps of coal on top of the tower of wood

8. light the paper at 3 different places.

9. shut the top door and open the bottom

10. Ensure that the bottom vent and door (if possible) are open.

11. Shut the bottom door when the coal is going like a steam train boiler

 

Hopefully when the wood burns down there will be a nice bed of coals nicely glowing. I use Taybright and like it, however it does not burn with a flame. You will just have to work out how much it is burning by the glow. I find it really tempting to poke the fire but it works best if you dont, ensure that the wood is alight and then have a cup of tea, obvously dont leave the fire unattended for too long with the door open.

 

Good luck, burning black stones is really quite and art but worth it.

 

Tim

Edited September 7, 2009 by Tim Doran

[Lampyrichard]

Ian,

 

For what it's worth, here are our experiences with the Carabo we inherited on Zulu (now replaced with a Squirrel...)

 

Our first problem was with the flue damper, specifically the problem it gave me trying to clean the flue. Our previous boat had a Boatman stove, which was much easier to clean - I'd been used to being able to get the flue brush right down inside the firebox to clear all the accumulated cr*p but with the Carabo I eventually had to resort to a big screwdriver up the flue from the bottom to break up some of the larger lumps which were jammed on top of the damper.

 

Once we'd got the flue clear, it fired up much better with a generous pile of kindling & a couple of firelighters. I would open up the door vent and flue damper fully to light, wait until the kindling was 'roaring' then add a couple of shovels of smokeless nuts. Unfortunately I don't know what we were using as it was what the local merchant generically delivered as 'smokeless nuts'... Once the first lot of coal was glowing nicely I'd fill up the firebox for the night.

 

We found that once it was running the Carabo would run well on smokeless nuts with the flue damper turned down, using the door vent to control the output, but we never really mastered the art of 'low tickover', so our unattended burn time always seemed to be disappointingly low, even compared to the slightly smaller Boatman we'd had before, but this may well have been due to the very ashy fuel we were using.

 

We only had access to a relatively small amount of logs to burn that Winter, but when we did burn wood I found we needed to keep the flue damper much more open to keep the fire going - logs seemed to be much more of an 'all or nothing' proposition, but I suspect that a lot of that was my lack of experience with the stove.

 

Eventually, SWMBO got her own way & we upgraded to a Squirrel, with its larger firebox & more sophisticated grate & air management (& 40 hour burn time when I get it right...)

 

My main tip for keeping the Carabo going is not to be too parsimonious with the coal once you've got the kindling going - I found that a good hot bed of kindling would fire up a healthy shovel full of coals, but adding fresh coal to just a small amount of running coals tended to snuff it out.

 

Hope this helps a bit, good luck with the encroaching cold weather,

 

Richard

[Sarah and Ian]

Ian,

 

For what it's worth, here are our experiences with the Carabo we inherited on Zulu (now replaced with a Squirrel...)

 

Our first problem was with the flue damper, specifically the problem it gave me trying to clean the flue. Our previous boat had a Boatman stove, which was much easier to clean - I'd been used to being able to get the flue brush right down inside the firebox to clear all the accumulated cr*p but with the Carabo I eventually had to resort to a big screwdriver up the flue from the bottom to break up some of the larger lumps which were jammed on top of the damper.

 

Once we'd got the flue clear, it fired up much better with a generous pile of kindling & a couple of firelighters. I would open up the door vent and flue damper fully to light, wait until the kindling was 'roaring' then add a couple of shovels of smokeless nuts. Unfortunately I don't know what we were using as it was what the local merchant generically delivered as 'smokeless nuts'... Once the first lot of coal was glowing nicely I'd fill up the firebox for the night.

 

We found that once it was running the Carabo would run well on smokeless nuts with the flue damper turned down, using the door vent to control the output, but we never really mastered the art of 'low tickover', so our unattended burn time always seemed to be disappointingly low, even compared to the slightly smaller Boatman we'd had before, but this may well have been due to the very ashy fuel we were using.

 

We only had access to a relatively small amount of logs to burn that Winter, but when we did burn wood I found we needed to keep the flue damper much more open to keep the fire going - logs seemed to be much more of an 'all or nothing' proposition, but I suspect that a lot of that was my lack of experience with the stove.

 

Eventually, SWMBO got her own way & we upgraded to a Squirrel, with its larger firebox & more sophisticated grate & air management (& 40 hour burn time when I get it right...)

 

My main tip for keeping the Carabo going is not to be too parsimonious with the coal once you've got the kindling going - I found that a good hot bed of kindling would fire up a healthy shovel full of coals, but adding fresh coal to just a small amount of running coals tended to snuff it out.

 

Hope this helps a bit, good luck with the encroaching cold weather,

 

Richard

 

Many thanks for the replies. I will try that at the weekend. I think its a combination of not enough kindling ie 5 pieces or so and to little coal!

 

Might have to change from Taybrite as I like seeing the flames.

 

Ian and Sarah

[Mac of Cygnet]

Cygnet has a Carabo. Although it has a grate, I burn only wood. To do this I had to add a strip of stove rope to the opening side of the door, using special stove rope adhesive, otherwise it couldn't be shut down enough to stay in overnight. The flue damper is never used, except to give it an occasional wiggle to make sure it's not obstructed. I do sweep the flue about every couple of weeks when in use.

 

Lighting involves paper, plenty of kindling and slightly thicker wood, and the door left slightly ajar (BUT DON'T GO AWAY!). When blazing, door is closed and the front air intake left open until stove is hot, then ALMOST closed after adding more wood. It's closed down completely at night and usually stays in, although I sometimes add wood if I wake up (i.e. go for a p**) during the night.

 

Stove lit for the first time this autumn (!) on a miserable day of wind and rain moored at Great Heck on the wide and wild Aire & Calder, buffeted by barges.

 

Mac