ne wood burning fire

[callofduty123]

hi peeps,
iv just spent the day installing a wood burning fire in my house it looks great and goes well with the house being a cornish converted barn but
i cant get that roaring flame i desire. Im using fire liters, paper, kindling and logs. The fire has a vent at the bottom and two at the top and it has a sealed door, so can anyone school me on when these should be open and closed to get a nice flame going.
Thank you

[ladybirder]

You need them open to let the air in and get the flames going. But don't leave them open all the time or you'll be using up all your logs.

[Barmaid]

Light the burner, shut the doors and open the vents. If it still won't draw, open the doors a blow on it (under it, if you can - a pair of bellows is even better).

I found the best things to use on my log burner were "hot logs" to get the heat up and then a proper log to "pretty it up".

[callofduty123]

cheers guys ill give it a whirl

[buildersmate]

A roaring flame indicates a high proportion of the heat going up the flue (as Ladybirder mentions). A decent log burner is designed to maximise heat output to the room, and this may be why you can't get the effect you wanted. Is the room getting warm enough? - that's surely the key output.

[Fitzer]

As per ladybirder and buildersmate, most of the time you don't want 'roaring flames' as it's a waste but you do need them to get it going. Once well alight you should partially close the vents to maintain a steady burn and this is completely dependent upon individual stove, quality/dryness of fuel and available draught. Every time you add more fuel you should re-open the vents to ensure the combustion doesn't get damped down too much and then reclose. Not great for 'restful' evenings in front of the fire but thems the brokes :-)

[coccinelle]

I find when lighting a fire in a cold grate it does take longer than when I've had a fire on the night before.

[Frank97]

Have you fitted a flu into the old chimney? If your old chimney is too wide that can effect the draw of the fire.