A New Way To Light Your Wood Burner

They happen to know a great deal about wood burning, in fact you could say - they are the real experts.

On a recent trip to Denmark, the company behind one of the most popular stoves the Heta Inspire 40, showed us how they light a fire in Scandinavia,

In this video Pete demonstrates 'Top Down Lighting' and how it can make the lighting of a stove much easier.

Many people experience problems lighting their stoves from scratch and also have to overcome many have problems getting them working after cold conditions.

This is the easy way..

[philipatkinson]

I had a lump in my throat watching this, not because of the stove but the staffy sat in front of the stove in the background because my old staffy used to do that in front of my old parkray fire years ago and she was the double of your dog. Thanks for the tip and give your dog a treat from me.

[ruadhagainagaidheal]

I bought a house in the summer that has a modern multi fuel burner. The previous owner apologised for the fact that it smokes badly. The first time of lighting, I used your ‘Top down ‘ method. No smoke in the room at all and 9 fire started very quickly. Good as gold - many thanks.

[jameskrug]

I use "top down" AND "bottom up" simultaneously to start my home-made wood burner. I ignite the top only, to allow the chimney to heat up and as the embers fall through the stack of kindling then the bottom ignites. This method gives me a completely smoke free fire very quickly, with the door closed. Of course the fire starter stack, I call it, is surrounded by large dry logs that will burn for at least 90 minutes or more before adding more fuel.

[tormodosen]

There really is no doubt this is the best way in a modern, clean-burning stove. Sintef, the Norwegian Institute of material and building science, has done research on wood stove heating for 25 years and this is what they recommend. Link is in Norwegian, sadly

[ayladakora]

Wish our wood and kindling was all neat and perfect cut like that. We use hand chopped wood and the sticks for kindling.

[ianmackay]

I have always burned top down since moving to Austria six years ago. My fire lighter is on top of the kindling and it all burns top down, it’s counter intuitive, when I was in the UK was firlighter, kindling, logs. But it really works and the flue gets warmed very quickly! Clear video, good news the word is spreading!

[frankcouper]

That's the method I was shown by my stove installer back in 2014.

If its cold outside, scrunch up a ball of newspaper and light it. A quick burst of heat will shift any cold air in the flue. This should be the first thing you do before attempting to light kindling etc.

[Michael-xznk]

Been doing this for years. Keeping the door ajar works great!!

[CS-zq]

Thank you, love this new idea, I have had stoves most of my life this is absolutely the best way, just lit my stove the way you recommended and it was incredibly simple and effective. Just goes to show one is never too old to learn, today I am officially a pensioner and today has been a school day, thank you . Brilliant so impressed.🙂

[cory]

Works good thanks. If your wood is dry enough you could use far less kindling. What also helps is adding some airflow underneath the wood on the bottom by propping up some or all of the base layer wood with some kindling or a fire brick or whatever.

[BreakfastAtNoon]

I love that in the instructions of my stove it says only to have the fuel so high, this guy is like "bruh go to the roof"

[ateleskier]

I'm always impressed by someone who's willing to admit they have learned a better way of doing things.

I live in northern Scotland, and it gets cold here. My smaller stove has a straight-up chimney and, in the frost, is basically a rod of cold heavy air; that's what sinks down and pushes the smoke into the room. The old-school method I use is a few sheets of _dry_ (60 seconds in the microwave) newspaper rolled up and poked through the baffle plate gap into the base of the chimney pipe. I light that and let the heat push the column of cold air out. I only need to do this when it's really chilly, -5C and below; the rest of the time it's fine.

Top-down lighting really does work though, including for outdoor camping fires. Basically, the Scandinavians know all there is to know about burning wood so there's always more to learn from them.

P.S. If you split your own wood and want a good maul, the Gransfors Bruks version is truly phenomenal. You'll never want to own anything else once you've had one of those.

Happy burning - stay toasty!

[JaredHempfield]

I just put two sticks under two logs and have the fire roaring in a minute with a blow torch, don't have time to build a fort lol

[JackAcid]

Great tips!! Thank you. Stopped the smoke in my living room. Let's hear it for the Scandinavian method!

[dkerlee]

I've heard of top down before, but this is a good demo. I'll give it a spin!

[richardsprojects]

Enough kindling to light 3 fires, get a grip man

[aubreystyles]

Tried this over the Christmas in our stove down the country and it worked really well. Usually when the stove hasn't been lit for a few weeks it takes a long time to get going and smokes out the room. Great tip - thanks

[frenchys_prospecting]

I don’t see the difference between burning kindling then adding a log or adding a log with kindling on top. If you know how to start a fire a “cold air plug” or whatever made of term you used isn’t going to matter.

[davidradtke]

I'm a German stove builder. I'd lay the logs with the bark away of the fire, because the bark is the natural protection from fire for trees.
As igniter I use only woodwool drenched in wax and small dry conifer wood pieces.
Ignite the wool on the logs and then put the small wood pieces on the igniter. Full airflow and ajar stove door until it burns well.

[andrewwyborn]

Just tried and O M G the heat is incredible and it's the hottest it's ever been. Also due to no smoke it appears that we won't have to keep cleaning the glass which we have had to do in the past.