To build a fire- A Fireplace/Wood stove thread.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

It's that time of year again and I had some random wood stove thoughts.

One- every time I light a fire, I try to use only one match. I pretend it's the end of the world, and if the fire doesn't light, I will die like the character in Jack London's book.

Two- I still haven't owned a house with a good fireplace yet, but I have had two houses with decent wood stoves. What they lack in romanticism, they make up for in practicality. My current wood stove is in the basement, and I rerouted the HVAC intakes to suck air directly from that room, so all the hot air circulates evenly through the house just using the HVAC fan. As I was playing Jack London downstairs tonight, and it is dropping past 20 degrees outside, my wife informed me she had turned the heater off and it hadn't kicked in all season, so this little wood stove with three or four logs is pretty much heating the whole house!

Three- I'm fortunate to have a lot of dead locust on the property, which is dense with a lot of BTU's and generally thin enough, that it doesn't need splitting.

So as the temps drop tonight, I am posting in deep thoughts of nice warm fires! (Although I can't see it because it's in a stove!) How about you guys, what are your setups?

[afterburn 549]

If you want a real challenge light it without a match.
You might wish for the end of the world. LOL

[LEAKYSEALS951]

^I've got one of those magnesium flint shaving thingees around here for lighting fires somewhere. I need to find it!

[pete3799]

Currently 5 degrees out.... 73* inside. Just the wood furnace going.

[ckelly78z]

After 22 years of cutting/splitting/stacking/burning about 5 cords of firewood every year, I generally use a long lighter to get it going along with some newspaper under some lifted logs.

This time of year, the woodburner never goes out, and will pick right back up with a pull of the air control and opening the pipe damper......within a minute, on new logs on that bed of coals, you have a firey inferno threatening to cause a chimney fire unless dampened back down. We have heated our 2000 sq ft house exclusively with wood for the last 10 years, with only an inefficient propane boiler to supplement the wood stove before it finally died about 10 years ago.

[Brian 162]

I have a regular fireplace. Looks pretty but in-efficient as hell. It will warm up the room that I'm in.
I put some newspaper on the bottom, a couple of firestarters, kindling, and a couple of logs. Like you I only use one match.
I'm letting it die down as I type.
The good is I'm splitting wood. That's my only source of exercise these days. Yes, I'm a lazy lump.
I'll take a pic of my fireplace when I get back from NYC.

[Alan A]

Regular box fireplace with metal flue. Not particularly efficient but it'll raise the heat in the family room 10 degrees. Use paper and a 1/4 cup of canola oil as an accelerant. I can afford matches but usually use one. If the wood is dry just paper will work, but my stuff is stacked uncovered.

[fastfredracing]

Also heat with a wood stove. Unfortunately, it is all the way at one end of the house, ( single story ranch), and while it heats the living area pretty well, the bedrooms can get chilly at night .
We also have an oil furnace, but that rarely kicks on till it gets really cold
I love everything about burning wood. Dropping trees, cutting, hauling, splitting and stacking, and there is nothing like coming home from a long cold day in the shop and parking right smack in front of the wood burner to heat up my body .

[Tishabet]

I do supplemental heating with my wood stoves, typically go through 2 cords per winter. I do the one match thing (I think I picked it up in boy scouts) and I too have a basement setup where I can make the hvac pick up air from this room and heat the rest of the house, works great.

I'm constantly trying out new hardwoods, this year its black locust, last year was madrona and year before was maple. Very interesting to observe the different characteristics of each. I generally have cedar hanging around too because its practically free around here.

[varmint]

I cheat. A couple ready match lite charcoal briquettes get things started without having to revert to my boyscout days.

[mjohnson]

Two matches.

One to light the pile of paper atop the wood to start the crappy-at-best draw that we're stuck with. Second to light the fire.

We're blessed with a very pretty and "historic" southwestern US/New Mexican fire place. Think little arched hole in a big lump taking up an entire corner of the room. If this is historic I have no idea how they made it this far...

(or maybe a propane torch's been used for this)

[Evans, Marv]

I light our fireplace at times during the winter evenings when temps get down into the low 30's & 20's to heat the place. It heats the front half of the house pretty well but doesn't do much for the back half with the bedrooms. We normally turn off our heating at nights and use it in the mornings to reheat the place. The fireplace kicks out a decent amount of heat. When it gets warmed up enough, a blower sucks fresh air from outside and passes around the fireplace and blows it out as heated air.

[Joe Bob]

I spent two winters in N Nevada after my divorce licking my wounds. Wood was my primary heat source. I used a propane torch. My buddy thought I was nutz, then he started thinking how many of those crappy pencil thingies he went thru and how cheap and easy my ideas was, and I never misplaced it....like I did with my car keys.

[DanielDudley]

Yes, I use a propane torch and minimal kindling, no paper. One tank of propane at a couple of bucks lasts me several seasons, even if I relight daily.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Wow- an ashtray type setup would be really nice.

Now I've got a wood stove question. In the garage I have a second woodstove which the previous house owner has set up into a garage chimney. I tried it several times, and it was great for working out with the car, but smoke would leak from the top cooking covers.

I assumed it just needed some fiberglass rope, but there doesn't appear to be any groove for it. Also, the door leaks too much air and could benefit from a tighter seal to control air intake.

The woodstove is an Atlanta stoves works from long ago.

I was thinking stove gasket cement for the burner plates, but I was wondering if there was a "better" option. There is not a lot of info on this brand on the internet regarding any gaskets/etc.

Thanks,
Ron

[dan79brooklyn]

I love wood stoves.
Luckily I also enjoy cutting, chopping and stacking firewood.

This is my favorite program to watch in the winter.

Scan 10

[pete3799]

If your stove pipe is in good shape ( clean) you should not get smoke out the plates. It's almost impossible to make an old stove air tight.
If there's a damper on the stove pipe leave it all the way open till you get the fire going good then see if you can choke it down a little without it smoking. .

[LEAKYSEALS951]

^You called it! Once again PPOT braintrust comes through. The damper lever was broken and the damper was stuck in a mostly closed position!

[ckelly78z]

The best money I ever spent was on my Metalbestus 6" stinless double wall chimney. The woodstove has a blackpipe coming out the top and makes a bend about 7' off the floor, where it goes into a section of stainless 2 wall, through the outside wall using an isolator. The stainless chimney continues outside of the house and goes up 23' to about 5' above the roof where a stainless cap is placed. I need to clean the sticky stuff off of the cap about twice a year, and run my 6" chimney brush with the fiberglass rods up through the cleanout while standing flat on the ground. I usually get about an inch or so in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket of black ash/cresote from over 25' of chimney......that's running pretty efficient

[mreid]

Gas is cheap in Texas. All four fireplaces have a gas feed as a fire starter. Load the wood, turn on the gas, spark it with a torch flint, give it a minute, and turn off the gas.

Completely inefficient, 10% heating and 90% ambiance, but it makes the wife VERY happy.