Wood burning stoves and wood burning cookers are on top of the heating food chain. It’s important to understand that while wood burners offer the sophisticated atmosphere of class and tradition, they also require pre-industrial era levels of service and care. And while maintaining wood burning stoves and woodcookers is a very manageable chore, it’s still good to know what awaits you.

If the world of stoves and cookers was a sea, wood burners would be like sharks, preying upon schools of helpless electric stoves, barely acknowledging gas stoves and only sometimesgrudgingly making way for more impressive specimens of the multifuel breed. Wood burning stoves and wood burning cookers can make any room look classy, drastically cut the heating bill, provide endless fire-gazing entertainment even for those with attention deficit, are carbon-neutral and can even involve bonding with nature. Not to mention that wood-chopping, fire gazing, or just listening to the crackling of firewood as it burns can count as psychotherapeutic activities.

Can central heating or gas stoves offer as much? No. What they can offer, however, is ease or even absence of maintenance, which, for some, can make all the benefits of wood burning stoves and wood burning cookers pale. It’s important to understand that while wood burners offer the sophisticated atmosphere of class and tradition, they also require pre-industrial era levels of service and care. And while maintaining wood burning stoves and wood burning cookers is a very manageable chore, it’s still good to know what awaits you.

Rule #1: Know what goes into your wood burning cooker

Don’t treat the stove as a magical trash bin. Your wood burner is called that way for a reason, and the reason is it is intended for wood and wood only. Some wood burning stoves can burn coal, peat or pellets, but most will be much more effective if you stick to wood logs. Still others can get damaged from inappropriate fuel. And some wrong fuels, such as trash containing plastic, will emit harmful gases or start a chimney fire. The best fuel for your wood burner is seasoned wood. It provides maximum heat and minimum creosote buildup. Unseasoned wood can have a lot of moisture which will have to be evaporated before the wood can start burning properly, and burning treated wood, driftwood or artificial logs can damage your catalytic combustor.

Rule #2: Clean your wood burning stove regularly

A stove or a cooker will require regular cleaning. Some of it will only take a minute, some can take a few hours, but if you neglect the cleaning procedures, you risk fire or damaging the stove. The most frequent type of cleaning involves cleaning out the ash. This should ideally be done daily or after each use – whichever is less frequent. If you allow the buildup of ash, the heat generated by it can cause distortion of the stove. You must also remember to clean the stove throat or baffle plate. This should be done each 6-8 days. Finally, every few months the off take pipe and chimney flue should be swept off.

Rule #3: Don’t close the stove door when not in use

If you’re leaving for a vacation or don’t plan on using the stove for a protracted period of time, clean out the firebox and leave the fire door open. This will prevent corrosion of your stove.
If this kind of maintenance didn’t deter you, consider getting a wood burning stove http://www.stovebase.co.uk/stoves/wood-burning-stoves.html or a wood burning cooker http://www.stovebase.co.uk/range-cookers/wood-burning.html for an efficient and classy way to heat your home.