Firstly, it’s important to understand that your new Burley stove doesn’t have any mechanical parts that actively push smoke or air out. Instead, it relies on proper flue draught to draw the smoke and fumes upwards and out of the chimney. If you have a smoke issue we advise you to speak with your HETAS installer or retailer.
There are 2 reasons why chimneys draw, 1 is if there is a wind blowing across it creating a venturi effect, similar to when you blow across a drinking straw and the liquid comes up, the other is because the chimney is hot and the rising hot air pulls the air from the bottom up. If there is not enough heat in the flue the smoke will try and exit through the great big hole in the front of the stove rather than the little hole in the top.
You need to get the heat into the flue as quickly as possible so I always light the firelighter and build kindling up in a lattice (a few pieces across and then a few the other way) right up to perhaps halfway up the backboard, then put a small dry split log on the top. Then partially close the door with the airflow open.
Do weigh your wood and ensure that you are feeding the stove with enough wood to ensure proper combustion. In the case of the 9×04 this is 1.3kg per hour, 9×05 this is 1.6kg per hour, 9×08 is 2.3kg per hour, and 9112 is no more than 4kg per hour. Our message is less wood for more heat.
It may sound odd but burning more wood actually gives you less heat. This is because each of our stoves has a maximum weight of wood to be used per hour to achieve the designed output and this weight of wood should not be exceeded otherwise the stove is overfired and the glass damaged. It is not possible to achieve for example 4kW of heat from a 12kW stove. If you don’t load it correctly it will smoke as there is insufficient heat in the flue gasses.
