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SOLID FUEL – the wrong way to burn it.

You may not intend to misuse and abuse your stove, but you can do so unwittingly – and the cost can be high. Soaring fuel bills and a constant need to replace grate bars and deflector plate are just some of the ills that will plague you.

Three things have gone badly wrong in the above scenario;-

• Household ("bituminous") coal is being burned. It produces a great deal of soot and in a closed stove there simply is not enough air passing through the fire-box to carry the soot up the chimney, so that the flueways get clogged and frequent chimney fires can be expected.
• So much air is being admitted that the effect is of an open fire being burned in a closed box. You can see the result. When you fuel a stove with household coal and admit large volumes of air you get exceptionally long flames. The deflector plate and flue collar are both red hot and will burn out rapidly. Meanwhile most of the heat is disappearing up the chimney and the in-rush of cold air is chilling the base of the stove and causing uneven expansion in the metalwork. Running your stove in this manner will cause doors and panels to warp and shorten the life of the appliance.
• Ash has built up in the ash-pan. As a result the grate bars are trapped in a bed of red hot ash close to the temperature at which they were cast in the iron foundry. Naturally they will distort and burn out rapidly under these conditions.

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