Top 10 ways to improve the efficiency of your wood-burning stove

Top 10 ways to improve the efficiency of your wood-burning stove

Once you’ve got your wood-burning stove installed, there’s the obvious temptation to throw on lots of wood and just enjoy not having to use the central heating.

At Gr8Fires, we thoroughly understand that sentiment. But once the euphoria has partially subsided and you’ve got your thinking cap back on, we would suggest you follow these tips to make sure you’re stove is costing as little as possible and heating as much as possible.

1.Use dry kindling to light your stove
Lighting your fire with fast-burning kindling heats the firebox quickly. You’re essentially getting your stove heated up so your logs have less work to do. Continue reading

Airwash: what is it and what does it mean for your wood-burning stove?

Airwash

Airwash might sound like a cutting edge piece of technology that Dyson have created to revolutionise cleaning your car, but it’s actually a lot more straightforward that.

It does involve air and it does involve cleaning, but cars and cyclone technology are omitted in favour of some basic physics and your trusty wood-burning stove.

It is one of those inventions that once you see how simple and effective it is, you wonder how it wasn’t used far earlier.

Airwash technology brings a flow of air into the firebox of your wood burner from a vent above the glass panel. The air is immediately forced directly downwards over the inside of the door. This creates a layer air which ‘washes’ over the glass at all times.

Flames and gases are both kept at bay by this constant flow of air, which prevents tar building up and causing the glass to blacken.

So, as we mentioned, airwash is not fancy in terms of the design or the technology involved, but it is very effective.

Since being able to see the real flames is one of the best parts of having a wood-burning stove, and since having a piece of grubby glass sitting in your living room doesn’t look particularly nice, airwash saves you a lot of hard work trying to get your glass clean.

The various methods people use in an attempt to keep their glass clean probably merit a blog post of their own, but suffice it to say that it’s not a chore that you would want to become a part of your life unnecessarily.

Buying a stove with an airwash system means you can:

  • Prevent the build-up of tar on the glass panel of your stove
  • Avoid cleaning your glass because the stove will keep itself clean
  • Always have the pleasant, homely view of the wood burning inside your stove