Control the air to your stove correctly for the best results!

Once the fire has got going and the door has been closed, the air vents on the wood stove should be used to control the airflow to the fire.

If the air vents on the stove are closed or not open enough, the fire can be starved of oxygen and can be a reason why the fire keeps going out.

The air vents should never be closed unless you intend to put the fire out.

Wide-open vents will provide maximum airflow to the fire and cause the wood to burn faster. The primary/bottom vents can usually be closed after the fire has got going well enough without putting the fire out.

The secondary/top vents can then be used to help control the flow of oxygen to the fire. These vents can be slowly closed down as the fire progresses to help provide maximum heat output, while also minimizing the amount of wood used to sustain the fire.

Closing down the air vents too soon into the fire can cause the fire to go out.

As with having completely closed air vents, the fire can be starved of oxygen if too little airflow is provided early into the fire.

Once your fire has going, you can feel the heat radiating from the stove and see the hot coals, you can manually adjust the air vents to control the supply of air to the fire.

Depending on your model of stove, you can usually close the bottom vents and use the top vents to the control the rate at which the wood burns.

Again, closing these vents too quickly into a fire can cause it to go out. Each wood burning stove is different and so it will take time to understand how to use the vents effectively.

Can we help?

If you are thinking of installing a wood burning stove please contact us and one of our fully qualified (HETAS Registered) advisers will be happy to assist.