How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

French Plumbing - 'how to', supplies & regulations; Heating - options & installation; Septic tanks - regulations & installation
Message
Author
exile
Posts: 1916
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:57 pm
Location: Auvergne Rhone Alpes

How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

#11 Post by exile »

And/Or wood that is not properly dried.

Ours gets cleaned a couple of times per year.

User avatar
Liz
Posts: 860
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2021 7:41 am
Location: SW France

How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

#12 Post by Liz »

To me a Woodie is a moggy Traveller!
I was quite perplexed when I started reading this thread :lol:
How do people live without at least one dog in the house?

User avatar
Hotrodder
Posts: 2230
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:31 pm
Location: Brittany 22

How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

#13 Post by Hotrodder »

I thought it might have been because we didn't have a flue liner in the chimney so as soon as we could afford it I put one in. No change. The glass is not worn. When I installed the liner I noticed the edge of the glass was broken. The break was hidden by the sooty deposit near the seal. I replaced the seal and installed a new glass. No change. The ash pan is emptied daily, or occasionally after two days. We start it with the draught wide open and as soon as its going it gets closed little by little to slow down the burn rate. The only difference after installing the liner is that it lights up and burns easier. The only other thing mentioned above is the wood being to wet. Last year we spent €1200 for the winter that was claimed to be two-year seasoned and ready to burn. The same quantity would have been over a hundred euros more for the three-year stuff. We only ever light it late afternoon on a cold day and don't feed it any more after about 10pm. It is never toasty warm because the house is poorly insulated. I can only envy people that can afford to step over to a thermostat and dial in 18 degrees when ever they fancy. I can't have gas bottle room heaters indoors. The fumes set off my asthma and we had to give up gas bottles for cooking because I can no longer manhandle the bottles when they run out. Aside from them costing up to €36 per refill locally. I will be keeping warm for the next few months by single-handedly lifting plasterboards to dry dry line the lounge adding polystyrene slabs behind. Not a lot more I can do. I was never cold while living on my boat. Moving ashore seems to have been a mistake.
Humanity landed on the moon over fifty years ago but it seems too much to ask for a reliable telephone/internet service in rural France.

User avatar
Bayleaf
Posts: 2598
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2021 7:22 am
Location: NE Dordogne

How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

#14 Post by Bayleaf »

Hotrodder, do you know what kind of wood it is (supposed to be)? Yes, it can be seasoned, but depending on how it is stored, can still be wet. Does it feel wet "inside"? If it's ash, for instance - that seems to be like a sponge and takes forever, even when stored right next to the woodburner itself.

Some wood types are better at kicking out heat than others - and if there's any dampness still there, maybe between bark and trunk, it wouldn't produce much heat. We try to keep all vents open, to get a good base fire going to begin with, and some fire-guru years ago said it could take 10 minutes to heat up the chimney/flue properly to really help a good draw. Damp wood would also fog up the glass really quickly. If you listen to the wood when first put on, is there any hissing? That would also imply dampness.

Sorry, it sounds like teaching granny to suck eggs - and if it's none of the above, I don't know. Unless you've been sold duff wood. :cry:

User avatar
Hotrodder
Posts: 2230
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:31 pm
Location: Brittany 22

How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

#15 Post by Hotrodder »

Your input is welcome, as always. Two things. I understand that damp wood is not only inefficient but can have a more corrosive effect on liners, etc. but I can only take the seller's word for it when he says it is dry enough and ready to burn. If I had some sort of moisture meter I could test it on arrival, and then face his wrath on refusing the delivery. I also have to take his word for the quantity I get that after I stack it looks nothing like the amount I pay for. For this reason I am changing suppliers for next winter's order. The second problem is, the high humidity here in Brittany is such that even during a long period of no rain things take ages to dry out. Firewood usually arrives wet because it is always stored outside in the rain. I built a proper wood storage area up against the wall of the house near the back door. The logs get stacked on secondhand pallets to let air circulate underneath. I gave it a slated roof and windbreak plastic screened on two sides to protect against any sideways driving rain. I can generally tell resinous pine from a hardwood by its weight. Oak I can identify very easily. I have had a lot of chestnut here over the years and although it is not considered very good to burn in UK it is good stuff here. But I don't see much of it these days. I have a small quantity of teak, iroko, and mahogany I brought over from UK when I finished my boat building. I fear that precious commodity will get used for firewood at some point instead of some nice projects I had been looking forward to.
Humanity landed on the moon over fifty years ago but it seems too much to ask for a reliable telephone/internet service in rural France.

User avatar
Blaze
Posts: 4176
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:06 pm
Location: Ille et Villaine (35)

How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

#16 Post by Blaze »

Another thing that can make the glass tar up is letting a fire die down slowly but that does depend on the draughting in your wood burner. It may be that that is causing the problem.
We try to buy our wood in the autumn while the weather is still fine - we get a mixture of oak and chestnut. It may be that our department isn't quite as humid as yours though one year our delivery of wood was a bit damp. But rain damp usually dries off pretty quickly - it's the seasoning of the logs that's important - minimum 2 years is ideal and you have to trust the seller .... It would be worth asking around locally to see where others (French) buy their wood.

DominicBest
Posts: 684
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:09 am

How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

#17 Post by DominicBest »

I find that the best way to run my woodburner is to get it hot quickly then keep it hot. At high temperatures the wood burns quite slowly, a log put on at 9 o’clock might burn for an hour and a half. I was at a friends house recently and once his woodburner gets going he stocks it with wood and turns the air input right down. The glass in that one is always black.
8DF30E50-4FDE-4E5E-8DF5-0E7BDD4F8267.png
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

L Austin France
Posts: 1807
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2021 1:47 pm
Location: sw 29

How often do you clean your woodie's glass?

#18 Post by L Austin France »

DominicBest wrote: Fri Apr 01, 2022 5:37 pm I find that the best way to run my woodburner is to get it hot quickly then keep it hot. At high temperatures the wood burns quite slowly, a log put on at 9 o’clock might burn for an hour and a half. I was at a friends house recently and once his woodburner gets going he stocks it with wood and turns the air input right down. The glass in that one is always black. 8DF3
+1 to that.
I light ours with two dry chestnut 1/4 logs on the bottom with a kitchen paper soaked in petrol in between 'em. & about 5 thin bits of kindling laid on top. (see my original photo). I leave the door a bit open to get the glass hot & the fire going well before shutting it. I find this gets things hot very quickly with little smoke & when the two 1/4 logs are well alight & woodie hot I put another decent size log on to continue for the evening.
Last thing at night, before bobo's, I open up the air fully & let her rip to burn off any remaining wood so it doesn't smokey smoulder all night.
Every 10 fires, or so, I throw a measure of Poudre de Ramonage on the hot cinders & collect, from the cap at the bottom of the liner, about half a bucket full of the 'stuff' which falls down over the season. Doing this makes the chimney very easy to sweep & only needed once a year.
I've got one of these super dooper wizzy chimney sweeping sets to try this year so that'll be fun. :D

Post Reply