Having Problems?

Tar is dripping onto/ inside my logburner

Tar is extremely difficult to remove from your chimney, liner or stove. It can ruin your installation and the damage it causes be costly to repair.  It's looks like a black liquid when wet and dries solid and brittle and can block your flue leading to smoke build-up and carbon monoxide poisoning.

The best ways to keep tar away are; 
1) Make sure your wood/ log burner is fitted properly, by a HETAS engineer preferably.
2) Burn the correct fuel in the correct temperature range, too low a temperature creates creosote.
3) Fit a solid fuel cowling. These stop rain from cooling your chimney when in use and mixing with soot. They also keep birds from nesting in the chimney flue.

Flames are hard to control/ Smokey

This can be for a number of reasons but the biggest cause is using the wrong fuel. Log burners are designed to use seasoned wood in order to achieve their advertised efficency and clean burning ratings.

Smokeless coal can also be efficently burned but it is not usually as efficent. Logburners are not designed to burn household rubbish and indeed this can damage both it and your liner which can be an expensive lesson to learn.

Seasoned wood means that the tree has been left to dry out for around 2 years and has a moisture content under 20%. It is sometimes referred to as 'green' or 'wet' which is different from wood that has been left out in the rain.  Freshly cut branches from your apple tree are classed as unseasoned wood should not be burned until fully seasoned.

Look for the ready to burn logo when buying fuel to make sure it is of good quality.

Flames are out of control

If you decide to burn kiln dried wood you may find that your stove is burning through it really quickly. Make sure that you turn the air down on your stove and add some less seasoned wood to balance out the flames.

Also, ask your chimney sweep to check the seals on the door and the glass in case extra air is able to enter and feed the fire.

Overburning your stove / burning it too hot can be very damaging to your liner ( often forgotten about once installed ) and stove. It can damage your firebricks and warp inner parts such as the baffle which can be costly to replace.

This is why we always give our customers a free stove pipe thermometer when we install a wood burner or multifuel stove for them. It's a simple device that is really helpful and lets you see visually when your stove is burning too hot ( and too cold )

Damage to your liner

Leaving soot in your liner over the warmer months of the year is well known as the cause of acidic corrosion of the stainless steel. 

Smokeless coal is the worst culprit. You might think that stainless steel liners can't corrode, that's why it's called stainless, but it's not true because they’re only corrosion-resistant under the right conditions — not corrosion-proof. You might also think that your chimney can't corrode but it can.

The acids in soot can combine with damp in the flue and create Sulfuric Acid (H₂SO₄) , Sulfurous Acid (H₂SO₃) , Nitric Acid (HNO₃), Carbonic Acid (H₂CO₃), 

Fire does not burn through the night

The practice of keeping your fire going through the night is not encouraged these days. Modern stoves are easy to light and are not usually designed for constant use ( unlike AGA range cookers ). 

Burning your fire too low, or slumbering as it's commonly known, is when you fill your stove with a lot of fuel and then close off all the air in the hope that it will burn slowly through the night. It's impossible in modern stoves and logburners as the air can never feel fully shut down.

It not only damages your appliance as it creates more soot and tar or creosote and is a large contributor to air pollution, it also wastes fuel and may lead to you needing to replace your steel liner.

There's also the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning if the stove should start to leak in the night due to air pressure differences.

Poor draw in the chimney flue

Draw is the flow of air through your chimney caused by pressure create by different temperatures inside and outside. Symptoms of poor draw are smoke coming back into the room via the air control vents, low burning rates with fully seasoned wood, hard to get the fire going with dry kindling / fire lighters. No sign of a lazy flame that indicates an efficient and clean burning fire.

If you have poor draw, you might find that an anti-downdraft cowl will help increase the pull of air upwards or you may need to extend the chimney to give it more pressure differential. If you don't already have a flexible liner fitted to your logburner or multifuel stove, then you will find that this will improve the draw of your stove and also it's efficiency.

Without air your fire would not burn, without air you could not breathe. Don't buy a stove that is too big for your room or property as the fire will be fighting you for oxygen and you may not win. Use our stove size calulator to make sure.