Before winter, dust off to clean your wood heater and prepare your wood stacks. Getting your fireplace serviced before you use it for the season will enable it to operate optimally and ensure nothing is hiding in your wood heater’s flue!

Here are the vital tips that will help you to operate your wood heater efficiently and safely and help save you valuable time and money:

Refrain From Overloading Your Wood Heater

When you overfill your wood fireplace, it will limit the amount of air inside the firebox, leaving less space to ignite a real fire. Overloading the wood will suffocate the fire and produce an ineffective burn, wasting time and money. Pile the wood with a restrained amount of kindling with some paper to ensure your fireplace burns clean, eventually letting the flame get bigger. Now use your logs to produce your perfect flame.

Split Your Wood

You can split the wood into small sizes to make it more manageable and help your fireplace burn cleaner and more efficiently. It will also shield you from calling an emergency fireplace service in the middle of winter. Splitting the wood also facilitates you to remain responsible for the quantity of wood you use in your fireplace; decreasing your burn times and quantity means saving time and money.

Allow It To Burn Out

Allowing your fire to burn overnight is healthy for your fireplace because it decreases the quantity of wood you’re burning and curtails the quantity of wood smoke pollution, thus, saving your money and the environment. A simple way to allow your fire to burn out is to close your air dampers at the end of the night, which will cut off the air intake of the fireplace.

Use the Damper Prudently

Air intake dampers let you control the airflow in your wood fireplace. Shutting the dampers halfway will help reduce the air intake by up to 50%, eventually slowing the wood burn and helping you save money.

Storing Wood Outside

It is vital to heap your wood in the right way. Heap your wood outside with a cover on top and without restrictions to the sides of the stack. It facilitates the wood to ventilate and remain dry in the middle, so you get the ideal wood for a clean and efficient burn. Wood fireplaces produce a wonderful comfy ambience and provide excellent natural wood heat. 

Refrain From Putting These Items In Your Wood Heater

Be careful and never put the below-listed items in your wood heater:

• Plywood
• Particle board
• Treated or painted wood
• Plastics
• Synthetic fabrics or rags
• Glossy newsprint or magazines
• Metallic or foil-coated gift wrap
• Household waste such as plastic bags, diapers, etc.

These items add to air pollution and emit toxic chemicals when they come into contact with fire. So you must be careful, refrain from putting these items in your wood heater, and keep your family and environment safe.

The Bottom Line

 Use these simple tips and tricks to ensure your fireplace operates clean and efficiently, saving you money and time. Fireplace Masters supply an extensive range of premium quality wood fireplaces; check them out if you want to buy one!