Check Your Stove Week: Bottom Grate

It’s Check Your Stove Week at Gr8Fires. All this week we will be giving you short tests and visual checks to perform to make sure your woodburner is ready for winter.

Day 4: Check Your Bottom Grate

olympus_grate_4

Are you throwing unspent fuel out with your ashes?

If your bottom grate is warped then you probably are. That’s why today’s Check Your Stove Week tip is to take a close look at your grate.

If your bottom grate has become damaged in the time you’ve had it, you could be losing fuel through the misshaped gaps. And that means wasted money.

Why would my bottom grate be split or bent?

The cast iron grate of your stove is built to withstand high temperatures. But it’s still possible for it to get too hot. This is called overfiring and it is caused by loading too much fuel or allowing too much air into the stove, causing an intense burn that damages your grate.

Another major cause of problems with a grate is the use of pet coke (often because it’s been mixed in with other fuels without you realising).

If that’s happened to your grate, you can replace it with one that won’t waste your fuel.

Buy a replacement bottom grate for your stove.

Check Your Stove Week: Stove Rope

It’s Check Your Stove Week at Gr8Fires. All this week we will be giving you short tests and visual checks to perform to make sure your woodburner is ready for winter.

Day 3: Check Your Stove Rope

8tbr_1_1_1_1

Do you need to replace the door seals on your stove?

As Check Your Stove Week continues, it is time to make sure your stove is sealing correctly and is ready for action once again this winter.

As you will be aware, the inside of a stove can take a fair bit of punishment. One of the first things that can suffer as a result is the rope that seals your door.

Buy replacement rope for your stove

A simple test to see if you need new rope

There is an easy way to check if you need to replace the rope on your stove. Simply trap a sheet of A4 paper in the door. If you can easily remove the paper without opening the door then there is a problem with the seal.

You can also do a quick visual check to see if you can see the rope is broken, squashed or frayed.

If it is, then the extra air that’s getting in will cause your fuel to burn faster and cost you money unnecessarily. You can stop that happening by buying some replacement rope.

Go here to choose the rope you need for your stove.

Check Your Stove Week: Glass

It’s Check Your Stove Week at Gr8Fires. All this week we will be giving you short tests and visual checks to perform to make sure your woodburner is ready for winter.

Day 2: Check Your Glass

afs1075

Spotted a hole in your stove glass?

There are few things in life quite as annoying as a stone flying up and cracking your car windscreen. The only thing you can do is get it repaired, because there is no chance of it getting better and every chance of it getting much worse.

Now imagine your cracked windscreen was being subjected to intense heat at temperatures of around 100°C every day.

That’s effectively the situation with your stove glass. If it’s chipped or cracked, it’s better to replace because the problem isn’t going to get any better.

The money-saving benefits of new glass

A hole or crack in your glass allows an extra air supply into your stove. This ruins everything else you’re doing to run your stove as efficiently as possible.

The small investment in a new sheet of glass is well worth it for the money it will save you in fuel.

Click here to choose the right glass for your stove.

Check Your Stove Week: Baffle

It’s Check Your Stove Week at Gr8Fires. All this week we will be giving you short tests and visual checks to perform to make sure your woodburner is ready for winter.

Day 1: Check Your Baffle

rocky_baffle_1_1

Is heat disappearing up your chimney?

A hole in the baffle plate is about as bad as a hole in your pocket. The baffle sits at the top of your stove to stop flammable gases having an easy escape route up the flue.

Even in a relatively new stove, holes can appear in the baffle plate if hot soot has been allowed to sit on top of it over a sustained period.

And, if there is a hole, the fuel that should be heating your home is going straight up the chimney. Buy a replacement baffle plate to stop that happening.

How to check your baffle

At the start of Check Your Stove Week, we’re going to examine your baffle plate to make sure it is fit for action this winter.

To do that, simply look inside your stove and you should see the baffle plate resting an a notch or ledge just below the flue outlet. It will easily lift out of place.

If soot has built up on the plate, take care not to distribute this around your room while removing it.

Help! There’s a hole in my baffle

If you do find a hole then the best course of action is to buy a new baffle plate. As I’ve already mentioned, using a baffle plate with a hole in it just means that you end up using more fuel and spending more money.

Click here to choose the baffle for your stove.