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Lighting your fire


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I can't believe you people let the fire go out!

 

 

 

 

A whole turn you must get through some bags in a year.

 

Anyone being charged 20 quid for a bag of coal is being ripped off £13 is the most expensive I have seen and I didn't buy that!

 

I have been out on the cut for the last five months and there are more logs to be had than at any time since I came on. Why are people buying logs? Are you all rich boaters?

Some of us have bad backs or glass ones.

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I can't believe you people let the fire go out!

 

 

 

 

A whole turn you must get through some bags in a year.

 

Anyone being charged 20 quid for a bag of coal is being ripped off £13 is the most expensive I have seen and I didn't buy that!

 

I have been out on the cut for the last five months and there are more logs to be had than at any time since I came on. Why are people buying logs? Are you all rich boaters?

 

I cant believe you can't believe it.

I believe that's the point of these threads... building on the experience of others .

In my case I like the fire to stay on all night. On the few occasions that I have closed down further it just goes out.

 

Paul

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Some of us have bad backs or glass ones.

 

Yep we do and bad knees and bad hips and.......... so we get on with it.

 

I cant believe you can't believe it.

I believe that's the point of these threads... building on the experience of others .

In my case I like the fire to stay on all night. On the few occasions that I have closed down further it just goes out.

 

Paul

 

 

I can't believe you can't believe I can't believe it.

 

I may be cynical but the 'point of these threads' is that no one has to thinks for themself any more.

Edited by Maffi
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I can't believe you can't believe I can't believe it.

 

Ok maybe I can.....

 

I may be cynical but the 'point of these threads' is that no one has to thinks for themself any more.

 

Ah well as long as I know your point of view . For a moment I just thought you might join me in the grumpy old man corner.

 

Paul

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  • 11 months later...

I put a layer of coal down, crisscrossed kindling using about 8-9 and 2 small fire lighters in the coal. Wait till the kindling has got really going then put more coal on, and open up the bottom door to draw more air for a few minutes to really get it going then close it up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't read all the posts so this may have already been suggested.

 

Dry out your used tea bags on top of the stove, and keep them in diesel in a plastic tub.

 

Brilliant firelighters (3 or 4 at a time) and almost free.

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I haven't read all the posts so this may have already been suggested.

 

Dry out your used tea bags on top of the stove, and keep them in diesel in a plastic tub.

 

Brilliant firelighters (3 or 4 at a time) and almost free.

Or even better,keep them in a jar of white spirit,burns clean and bright.

 

2 litre bottle of spirit will last several years and it cannot get diesel bug!

 

 

CT

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I light my stove basically the same way as the OP.
from the bottom up:-
Bed of smokeless fuel (couldn't really call it coal)
Layer of thickish wood
Kindling
fire lighter on top. (This seems different to other posts) with a few bits of kindling around it.

This is often called an upside down fire. There are a few good video's on YouTube about it.

Why put the fire lighter on top? It's easier to light :) it still sets fire to the kindling.

Some people tend to put the kindling on the bottom with the larger stuff on top. As has been mentioned previously this tends not to work. As stated the kindling burns all the oxygen before the main fuel ignites but also what can also happen is the weight of the fuel on top tends to make it collapse onto the kindling as it burns and therefore smothers the fire.
Also when lighting a fire you want to get as much heat as quickly as possible to start with to raise the larger pieces to ignition temperature and also to heat the flue/stovepipe which will make the fire draw better.
Leave the main door ajar (not wide open) to increase the draw and close it once the fire is well established.

 

As for damping down the fire for the evening. Unfortunately there is no hard and fast rule for how many turns or part turns you will require. Every stove will have different characteristics as will each installation. Length of the stovepipe, diameter, angled, straight just to name a few. So, even two stoves of exactly the same make and model will have different requirements. It also depends on which type/brand of fuel is being used. The only thing that really works is just trying different settings.

 

Hope someone finds this helpful.

 

Alan.

  • Greenie 1
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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Not on a boat yet however did install a multi fuel stove in last home before the old Land Anchor and I split (ex wife) anyhow rarely used coal as had the good luck to have a tree surgeon move in next door 2 months after I installed the stove, and had a mate with a courier company that would send a few of the boys round with the scrap damaged pallets that used to clutter his yard.

 

(have you any idea how big a pile a Mercedes long wheel base high top can deliver, I do its huge ) :)

 

When setting the fire would be newspaper tappers, ok showing my age as used to make these with my grand father back in the 60's, simply a sheet of news paper tightly rolled corner to corner and tied in a knot, kind of like a pretzel

 

Bits of pallet wood, yep had chopped to slivers, layer of bigger pallet wood, add match and retire to safe distance. :)

 

once its off add more wood logs or the square bits of wood the are used in pallets they go really well.

 

have chucked in the odd candle stub if it was being a bit sluggish, old crayons go up as well, (we were child minders and had a constant supply of those) :)

 

Kitchen roll that's wiped out a prying pan goes up really well.

 

Had a utility room and would drain frying pans and roasting trays in to cardboard egg boxes and store till set, they went up very very well to the pleasure of captain pyro here.

 

on few occasions we used coal I used to add it on top once the pallet wood and or logs were well in, however suspect I will try the kindling on top of coal method once I get a boat.

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  • 4 months later...

I have a game of Jenga in my stove before i light the block of fire lighter placed in the middle under the jenga wood.

 

Then i leave the bottom door open/the top one shut too.

 

Once is gets roaring i flaten out the wood and pile on a good amount of coal.

 

Happy days.

Edited by Greylady2
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  • 8 months later...

This is very precise, technical.

I have had trouble lighting the log burner in our boat. Not quite sure which vents should be open and which closed when starting...

Theres a plate on top of the stove and a flap at the front on the bottom, which combination is best I wonder, assuming you need to draw air through the stove.  I do believe the wind conditions outside have an effect......

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2 minutes ago, Tom766 said:

This is very precise, technical.

I have had trouble lighting the log burner in our boat. Not quite sure which vents should be open and which closed when starting...

Theres a plate on top of the stove and a flap at the front on the bottom, which combination is best I wonder, assuming you need to draw air through the stove.  I do believe the wind conditions outside have an effect......

Depends on what your burning, to start top and bottom vents open, once a steady burn is established you need to favour the top vent for wood and bottom vent for coal.

The settings will depend on fuel, wind conditions and how hot you want the fire to be

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