How to prepare your wood-burning stove for winter

The nights are drawing in and the cold weather is beginning to set in for winter. It’s time to make sure that your wood-burning stove is ready for action.

It’s time to put it through its paces. Much like an athlete in pre-season training, now is the time to do all the preparatory work to make sure that your stove is in peak condition and doesn’t let you down when you need it most.

Here are a few measures you can take to make sure you’ll be snug all winter.

1. Call a chimney sweep
Before you start using your stove regularly again, it’s advisable to call a chimney sweep in to remove any remnants of last season’s burning. Even clean, efficient modern stoves can leave deposits of flammable creosote in your chimney (especially if the wood you were burning wasn’t seasoned).

Getting your chimney swept removes this creosote, reduces the chances of a chimney fire and gets rid of any other blockages that might have caused smoke to seep into your home.

2. Perform a visual check
Give your stove an inspection to spot for anything that’s gone slightly awry. You’re looking for any rust on the panels, which you can nip in the bud by rubbing the rust away and repainting with stove paint.

You should also look for any indication that the panels of your stove are still firmly together. Any gaps could cause smoke and gases to escape into your living room. If the panels do have a gap between them, you can fill it with fire cement.

The final part of your visual check is to inspect that glass for any cracks. If you find any, it’s better to replace it immediately rather than wait for it to develop into a more serious problem.

3. Test the firerope
The firerope forms the seal around the glass and around the door of your stove. You can tag an inspection of it onto your visual check to make sure that no breaks have appeared in the rope.

Then, make sure it’s still doing its job correctly by trapping a piece of paper in the door. If the paper can be easily removed when the door is closed you need to replace the rope.

4. Remove the baffle
That’s the plate you’ll find between the stove and the flue pipe. Ash can gather there, so it’s worth taking the time to clean it to ensure that your stove draws properly. Your manual should provide instructions on the best way of doing this.

If you stove is in need of a clean too, check out our cleaning instructions.