Lighting a coal stove

[Moisha]

We've just moved onto our boat and every time we have to relight the stove, we smoke ourselves out and have to ari out the place for 30 min! Are there any pro tips on how this is done (how much kindling wood is necessary? How much coal to load and when? etc). Please throw some advice my way or else my husband who claims to be an open air fire lighting pro will lose the last of his self esteem.

 

moisha

[blackrose]

We've just moved onto our boat and every time we have to relight the stove, we smoke ourselves out and have to ari out the place for 30 min! Are there any pro tips on how this is done (how much kindling wood is necessary? How much coal to load and when? etc). Please throw some advice my way or else my husband who claims to be an open air fire lighting pro will lose the last of his self esteem.

 

moisha

 

What sort of stove is it?

 

Where is the smoke coming from?

 

Are you using firelighters? (not that you have to)

 

Are you closing the doors after you light it?

 

I think what you might be doing wrong is adding too much coal before you've got your kindling glowing red.

 

What I do (and others may differ), is to have a thin bed of coal (1 nut thick) on the grate. I then put a couple of firelighters on top, some small peices of wood or larger ones on top of that and then I use a gas stove lighter (long thin lighter) to reach into the firelighters to light them. Close the doors (or leave them open half an inch), with all the vents open to their maximum.

 

Let that lot burn down for 10 mins until it is just red embers then chuck more coal on top (this is when I get smoke in the boat because invariably my coal is wet so you're not alone). Close the doors as quickly as possible, close the top air vent of the stove if you have one, leaving the bottom vents fully open. In about 10 -20 mins you'll have a good fire that you can control using the bottom vents which you should close down a bit.

 

If you're buring logs you leave the top vent open a bit.

 

(* By top vent I DO NOT mean any butterfly valve that may be in the flue).

Edited March 5, 2007 by blackrose

[stuart]

Small thin pieces of wood/kindling are best to get the fire going. I've found that 4mm ply off cuts are great !

[RichardH]

I agree with Blackrose. Only improvement I'd offer and obviously every stove is different, is that on our Morso Squirrel we keep the top door closed with the twirly vent closed and the bottom door wide open for max draw and boy does it go.

 

Also I gave up with newspaper long ago and use firelighters and nice dry kindling.

[charles123]

sounds to me like its not an issue to do with lighting it, more to do with the draw, is the flue clear all the way up?. As well as a visual check I would open the door and with a piece of lighted paper observe how strongly the smoke is drawn up the chimney

 

If thats all ok is the seal round the door good?, it does not have to be perfect but it might help having a good seal, some stoves however dont have a good seal and dont smoke

 

I think this topic has been dealt with already, suggest you do a search

 

Charles

[nickelodeus]

Yep....defo depends on what sorta stove you have. However the method I was taught by an experienced liveaboard is:

 

Make sure grate is completely clear and ash-pan empty (gotta have proper air flow)

Roll up 5-6 balls newspaper and arrange in grate to make a vaguely flat surface

Use kindling to make a criss-cross stack on top of the paper

Put 3 or 4 nuggets of coal on top (smokless is obviously best!)

Light back bottom edges of paper first then front paper

Open all vents as wide as they can go. You can always close the top vent if you get bad blowback after ligthing.

Once it starts to draw with good flames, chuck on either some smaller bits of your wood stash or another handful of kindling then leave it to get red hot burning embers with some flames too and add more coal with the tongs - strategically placed.

Once you've got a few nice red-hot coals - you can add more depending on how much of a beast you want.

 

Hope this helps

Nic

[Moisha]

Hi all-very useful tips. We have this old French stove called Le Salamandre (appr 1940s) that looks like this

http://www.leboiscleyet.com/La%20Salamandre%20Tritonia.htm

 

We have a 1-m tall chimney stack on top to help with the draw, but it seems you are right. The problem is that when we are lighting there is a lot of blowback and we smoke up the boat even if we close the front door very quickly. Also some smoke tends to billow out of the top feed for the coal. We have now sealed it with silicone, but it is still seeping a little. The front door seal is not perfect, but almost, so maybe a little seeps out of there too. Once the stove gets really going, which takes about 20 minutes, it draws well, but in the meantime all the seeping fumes have made our heads ache.

 

I am pretty sure the flue is clear, but how can we make sure that it is--the stove is sealed in place? Braghhhh.

 

moisha

[charles123]

I have a french stove similar to a Godin, to light it what I do is load the stove as has been described, fire lighters kindling etc. Then close the door. Here is the different bit. Pull out the ash pan, place a fire lighter on the ash pan and light it, half close the ash pan door, you can keep adding pieces of newspaper to the pan if you wish, just keep pushing them in. The stove lights no problem and since you dont open the door you dont get the smoke coming out

 

Charles

[DHutch]

We've got a squiral, but there all roughly simualur ish.

- Theres always some coal left, so lay you screwed up newspaper on that (5 or so pages of tabloid)

- Then on with the sticks, properbly about 6-8ish, about 6inch in lenght, 1-3/4 inch thick ish or there abouts

- Then an optional squirt of whitesprit/paraffin, open the ashpan door, and open the vents a little.

- Then light it (or just chuck a match in if you went for the squirt), and quick sharp chuck some coal on, and shut door.

- Sit back and relax, and after 2mins or so, shut ashpan door, and check centralheating pipes for warmth (make sure its ciculating)

 

We do basicaly EXACTLY the same for lighting the boiler, only triple quantitys or more, more wood ontop of that, and the whitespirit isnt optional...

 

 

Daniel

[Trelawney]

.....it draws well, but in the meantime all the seeping fumes have made our heads ache.

 

Can't help with the technique but based on this my first thought was that a Carbon Monoxide detector might be a good idea.

[blackrose]

We have a 1-m tall chimney stack on top to help with the draw, but it seems you are right. The problem is that when we are lighting there is a lot of blowback and we smoke up the boat even if we close the front door very quickly.

 

A chimney cowl might help if you don't already have one.

 

I've found this type very good

http://www.hotline-chimneys.co.uk/cowls_vedette_info.htm

Edited March 5, 2007 by blackrose

[nbtafelberg]

Flu flu flu,

 

I'm sure you're stove has a blocked flu. You can get a long brush from most boatplaces.

 

ALso some stoves have a "plate" to stop the rain putting the fire out, when the stove is cold have a look to see if you're plate has got lots of soot on it - you need to clear that. It sits under the base of the flu above the fire.

 

Lastly check your door has a good seal. (arh arh arh)

Edited March 5, 2007 by clevett

[blackrose]

Flu flu flu,

 

I'm sure you're stove has a blocked flu. You can get a long brush from most boatplaces.

 

ALso some stoves have a "plate" to stop the rain putting the fire out, when the stove is cold have a look to see if you're plate has got lots of soot on it - you need to clear that. It sits under the base of the flu above the fire.

 

Lastly check your door has a good seal. (arh arh arh)

 

Yes, worth getting hold of a flue brush but I thought these two were fitting out a sailaway and assumed this was a brand new flue?

 

Goes to prove the old motto "Never Assume!"

Edited March 5, 2007 by blackrose

[NB Alnwick]

What sort of stove is it?

 

Where is the smoke coming from?

 

Are you using firelighters? (not that you have to)

 

Are you closing the doors after you light it?

 

I think what you might be doing wrong is adding too much coal before you've got your kindling glowing red.

 

What I do (and others may differ), is to have a thin bed of coal (1 nut thick) on the grate. I then put a couple of firelighters on top, some small peices of wood or larger ones on top of that and then I use a gas stove lighter (long thin lighter) to reach into the firelighters to light them. Close the doors (or leave them open half an inch), with all the vents open to their maximum.

 

Let that lot burn down for 10 mins until it is just red embers then chuck more coal on top (this is when I get smoke in the boat because invariably my coal is wet so you're not alone). Close the doors as quickly as possible, close the top air vent of the stove if you have one, leaving the bottom vents fully open. In about 10 -20 mins you'll have a good fire that you can control using the bottom vents which you should close down a bit.

 

If you're buring logs you leave the top vent open a bit.

 

(* By top vent I DO NOT mean any butterfly valve that may be in the flue).

 

Blackrose has got it right. The secret is to allow oxygen to feed the fire and the mistake often made is to put coal on top of the kindling so that the coal warms up and starts to burn but gets insufficient oxygen and the incomplete combustion equals smoke. With plenty of dry kinding on top - the bed of coal underneath will eventually become very hot and with a good supply of oxygen from below it will burn with very little smoke. For best results, avoid the manufactured 'ovoids' and use pure welsh anthracite.

[Moisha]

Thank you all--and especially Charles. Last night we got almost no smoke! We put in some firelighters, a good layer of kindling and a couple of coal nuggets. When all that got going we chucked in a bunch of coal and the boat was steaming. The key was to follow Charles's technique of lighting a firelighter in the dust pan so that we did not have to have the door open at all while the smokey stuff got through.

 

We do have a new flu and it isn't clogged as we are indeed fitting out. So that is not the problem. We are indeed considering a cowl. I suppose it would help with the blowback.

 

Cheers--and thanks for all the advice.

 

ps: we do have a carb monoxide detector--one of the first things we got.

 

Moisha

[Liam]

At the moorings where me and my parents keep our boats, you can only get in at either end of the moorings at the bridges which are a about a mile apart.

 

I get dropped off in the car at one bridge, let myself in with the key and then walk to the boat and open up. I have a bit of a routine...

 

Electric on, then lights on. The firelighters and bits of kindling was left next to the fire last weekend so it'd make it easier for when we first arrive. I light one firelighter which I then throw in the bottom, and then get the kindling and throw this over the firelighter, leaving the bottom door open. In the mean time I forget I've left the collar covered so run out with the chimney and get this in place. I then go back inside the boat, and throw a shuvel full of coal on top.

 

I leave the boat with the bottom door of the fire open whilst I send the "pontoon" across the cut to pick up my parents and their gear. The pontoon is basically a floating raft which you punt across to the other side with a scaffolding pole.

 

Once we've got the stuff back over and on the boat we get stuff packed away and around 20 mins after the fire was first lit I shuvel about 4 lots of coal on, leaving the bottom door open for another minute or so. Just before leaving the bottom door is shut and the fire is damped down.

 

It's still nicely in when we get back from the pub. More coal is shuvelled on and it stays in all night with no probs.

 

We did have a problem a couple of months which I mentioned on here I think. The fire wasn't drawing at all and was really smokey and went out twice! After a good cleanout of the fire and the plate above, we relit and had no problems at all.

[Mike Sainsbury]

I have a small stove in the boatmans cabin and I used to smoke out the whole area despite have a good open flue etc....

 

Because its quite a small burning area i found firelighters seems to send out fumes that choked the fire and so there was no real heat. Plus I put the coal on too early which did nothing more than choke teh fire more....

 

So I have learnt to light balls of newspaper (perhaps with a sprinkle of crushed fire lighter (but only a little), then put in plenty of kindling.... let the kindling burn down and only once it has died down and is hot... throw in a thin layer of coal... then gradually keep adding coal .... eventually its away.

[fender]

I am pretty sure the flue is clear, but how can we make sure that it is--the stove is sealed in place? Braghhhh.

 

moisha

 

Hi I always had a problem clearing my stove chimney because it has a bit of a angle in it. problem solved easily - I drop a lump of taybrite into the top of the chimney, sometimes twice weekly - result - no filthy cleaning job involved, cleaning done in 5 secs and a good airway is ensured. Just a couple of times a year a chimney brush is used (in much the same way the chimney sweep used to come round the house once or twice a year)

 

Just remember to keep the stove door closed and the valve shut when you do this - you want the soot to fall onto the grate/fire, not into the boat itself!

 

Taybrite is best because it is round and an optimal size and heavy enough to slip down the chimney effectively - dont use anything bigger, no homefire or similar, no ordinary coal either

[bjornunda]

Have you tried Mike's method? It is worth taking the time to heat up the flue before setting the "coals" of whatever description. I have found that four or five lightly crumpled sheets of newspaper burned one after the other will heat up the flue enough to prevent smoking when a fire is subsequently laid a la blackrose.

[sharma]

Although not on a boat yet we do have two woodburners.

Just a handy tip i find useful is to save all the little stubs of candles you get (if you use them that is...we buy em by the bucket load from ikea) and throw them on a fire thats a little slow starting!

Works a treat