Lots of people are now getting wood-burning stoves installed into their homes. Whether placed in your living room or the kitchen, these stoves are very stylish right now, and can also be very efficient at heating a home. But that’s only if you know exactly how to use it.
Completely new to the world of wood-burning stoves? To make sure you can use yours as efficiently as possible, you need to read on to get some of the best sizzling tips.
Get The Chimney Cleaned Regularly
You can’t simply install a wood-burning stove and then use it without any maintenance. And the main form of maintenance you need for your stove is a regular clean. Ideally, you should get a chimney sweep to clean out the stove and chimney every six months. This ensures that there are blockages up in the chimney that could cause smoke to get blown out of the stove and into your home. Plus, it greatly reduces the risk of a chimney fire.
Don’t Forget About Tuck Pointing
As well as getting your chimney cleaned, you should get it checked out to see if it the bricks in it need any tuck pointing. You can find out more about this specific kind of pointing on fredericroofing.com and other trade sites. Getting this done will fix any potential issues with the mortar in the brickwork and it can also prevent excessive water getting into the chimney and down into your wood-burning stove.
Only Burn Seasoned Wood
When it comes to burning things in your stove, the clue is in its name. You can’t burn coal; you should always stick to wood. However, you can’t simply throw in any piece of wood that you find. It’s important that you only try and burn seasoned wood.
This is wood that has had the chance to dry out. If wood isn’t seasoned then it will release a lot of sap and water when it is burning, and this can damage your stove. You can buy seasoned wood from most household stores, or you can buy some green wood and dry it out yourself by using all the tips on motherearthnews.com.
Clean The Grate Every Day
When you burn something, all the ash will collect in the grate at the bottom of your stove. At the end of a day, you will find that there can be quite a bit of ash in the grate. So, it’s necessary to clean out this every day. Ideally, you should do this before you light the fire in the morning.
If you let all the ash clog up, it will be much harder to light the fire as there won’t be a draft blowing through the stove, which is necessary for the fire to get started and keep going. Not only that, though, but excess ash in the grate will create a lot of dust in your room.
Hopefully, all of these tips will be a great help to you when you install a new wood-burning stove!
