Wood burning stoves

[Chrissy]

Hi

We were here last winter and after the realisation that electric radiators and gas fires did not keep us warm we invested in a wood burning stove. We really wasn't prepared and didn't get the stove in until the January. My hubby was constantly out buying wood and chopping it up in the cold and wet. However, the stove was fabulous, it warmed the house and we were snug.

This year we want to be a bit more prepared, so we are already collecting wood and hubby is cutting it up and storing it, ready for use. Our only problems with the stove was keeping it burning through the night and we seemed to using a lot of wood, so I was wondering about coal.

Does anyone use coal as well as wood? If so, where can you buy it? We live in Gundogan, Bodrum.
Any tips on using wood burning stoves would be appreciated.
Best wishes Chris

 

[madturkishcow]

Hi Chrissie :lol:
I have a Soba which is a stove! I don't know if yours is only a wood burning one but mine (which is a lovely chocolate brown round one) burns anything :lol: :lol:
As an expert on how to get the damm thing lit and kept going......I use the bucket half filled with what we call coalite (brickettes shaped from coal and dust) which here is called Komur or Kömür. I fill the bottom of the stove bucket a third full with the coal then top it up with logs and kindling. To keep it going all night simply pack the bucket before you go to bed with two or three fat logs.

For the winter which will be the end of October to end of March I use 50x20kg bags of kömür and half a ton of logs. I do collect peices of wood and burn all my household rubbish on the stove once it is going. E.G Vegetable peelings,paper,plastic wrappings, anything really.

You can buy the coal,kindling and logs from a coal merchant. I have no idea about the area you live in, but I have three or four around here. When you are out and about keep your eyes peeled for somewhere with stacked logs and blue plastic bags. :lol:

Don't forget to buy some of the special oil soaked wood (it is natural oils) which is sold in little bundles to start the stove off.Good luck and get that chimney cleaned before installing your stove for the winter. There are a lot of deaths here through Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, where the stove flue gets blocked or the chimney. :37:

mkc

 

[Serdar]

Hi Chris,
As far as I know burning coal is not allowed in Bodrum. I havent seen it written anywwhere but that's what friends have told me.

We are also new to this but here is all what I have learned about it:

You can adjust the heat output of the stove by the aid of the air entrances on the top and bottom of the stove.

Some stoves are called "uykulu or uyuyan soba" (sleeping stove). There is something at the bottom that looks like a button that you can pull. It opens the air entrance. But if there is nothing like that on your stove the idea is the same.

After you start the stove, and after you get the temperature you want, you can close the entrance at the top. So the air flows from the bottom entrance to the chimney. And the stove slows down. When you want more temparature you can open the top entrance again (and you can stir the wood in the stove to make it faster).
You can find the ideal position for the air entrances by trial and error.

And at night, before we go to sleep, we put a large piece of wood in the stove and when it starts burning, we close both of the entrances. It burns slowly at night. And in the morning there is still some wood left in the stove and when you open both of the entrances it starts burining again. If you want more heat at night then you can find the ideal position for the air entrances by trial and error.

If the house is well-insulated and if you are using large pieces of wood after you get the temparature you want, it wont be much problem I think.

And the place where you buy the wood is also important. There is a place on the road to Icmeler opposite the Bodrum sport centre. You can find dry (and really large) wood there.

If there are any other suggestions from group members I also would like to hear them before the winter starts.

 

[immac]

You should get your wood delivered - here it is between 6 and 10 ytl a bag depending on type. To keep the fire in you must use the correct logs eg pine will burn fast, oak burks slow.
The kindling wood mentioned above only requires 3 or 4 very small sticks just to get the fire going, then don't use it - friend of mine had to call fire brigade when accidentally a whole log of that type of wood was put on the fire!
Using wood the chimney will soot-up quickly - my flue out of the back of the soba clogged completely within 7 weeks - that is a 4" tube completey blocked with carbon/soot.
Ian

 

[Gail]

Ian this question might sound a bit thick but how do you get the flue cleaned?

 

[immac]

I knew i had a problem, but not where it was blocked. The firm that brings my wood sent a chap with a sack full of rocks (I think) on a rope - he went up to the roof, found my chimney and dropped the sack down. Unfortunately, it was not my chimney, but that of my neighbour!
Tried again with more success, then did a smoke check with old newspaper and still smoke coming out into room. Dismantled the flue from the soba to the wall and found it to be solid - you could not have pushed a pencil through the gap (4" pipe). Took it outside and put the pipe-bottom in a bag and hammered the flue pipe with a stick to dislodge the soot which collected into the bag. Then reassembled the flue and all was well.
When, a month later, I dismantled the pipe when the weather improved, the pipe again had a 1" cake of soot.
I think I was using a combination of the 'wrong' wood and not burning the fire hot enough, resulting in a poor burn. More experiments this winter.
Soba gives a fantastic heat, but does probably increase the frequency of decorating in a room that is painted white top to bottom.
Ian

 

[Gail]

:lol: Thanks Ian, we are going to be getting one installed once we move over. So it's quite a bit of maintenance but I still reckon it's worth it. As you say I think it's trial and error until you get it right.

I bet your neighbours were very grateful having theirs cleaned for nothing :lol:

 

[Chrissy]

Hi

Thank you all for your replies, really helpful.

Our soba is a lovely chocolate brown colour, square shaped with rounded corners. It is sitting patiently in our depot waiting for its' coming out party, next to a drum of white emulsion which was left over from painting the walls when it went away.

We have never used kömür, but my hubby thinks he has seen it in bags, for sale at the side of the road. Great tip will try it this year. Keeping the flue clean is also very important and we have had experiences of this. Also the use of hard wood rather than pine is good information.

Thanks again for your help.
Best wishes
Chris

 

[immac]

No, the kömür sold in small bags in roadside shops is for BBQ not for the fire - it is charcoal and no use to fuel your fire.
The big bags I buy are 1 mtr high and almost too heavy to carry. I was advised is to have a mix of woods, so you start the fire with fast buning pine and then switch to coal and hardwood, like oak, once the soba is going.
I found that a couple of large oak logs kept the soba going all night into the next morning.

Ian

 

[GordonA]

I believe that some areas banned the sale of "cheap" coal last year. due to the increased air pollution caused. It was so bad here on the outskirts of Fethiye that some evenings visibility was reduced to about 200 metres. We had Oil-Fired central heating installed two & a half years ago, & find it absolutely fantastic, no fumes inside, no soot, & if no sunshine for solar panels, move the valves, & hey presto!! HOT WATER

 

[KKOB]

The best way, the Turkish way, is to take a live chicken up on the roof and stick it down the chimney. By the time it gets to the bottom it'll have done a great job of cleaning the flue ! :lol:

Just make sure you can catch it before it runs all over the house dropping soot and sh!t.


The best way to buy wood, is in bulk. If you can't handle a tractor load, get together with a couple of neighbours and buy a load. As an example, a bag of wood costs 10 YTL. You can get 300 kilos of bulk wood, which is the equivalent of about 20 bags for around 150 YTL. The more you buy, the cheaper it becomes per kilo.

If anyone in the Fethiye area wants to buy wood in bulk, PM me.

 

[madturkishcow]

Hi Gordon :lol:

The coal or kömür I purchase from a place in Patlangiç, along with my wooden logs and kindling is not cheap :kafa: I am not quite sure how much I paid last year for 40 x 20 kg but 120 lira springs to mind.

Immac I had a similar problem to yours....some really helpful turkish men, when my stove was first installed decided to see if they could get it going. When it wouldn't catch, one of them decided that a bottle of paint thinners would do the trick :crazy: Apart from having to have the chimney cleaned (same method as yours) I had to repaint two walls and half a ceiling.This was just one week after I had just finished the whole house! :27: Then the twa* I was living with decided not to bother to install the soba properly the next time round, which meant everything was covered with a thick black layer of sooty grime,every day. :der:
I solved the problem by taking control of the stove and kicking the twa* out. When I dismantled it in May found only a thin layer of carbon/soot. I cleaned it using the same method (banging with a stick) then hosed the flue and stove down, dried it in the sun and bob's your uncle (only he was my dad). The only problem I did have, was managing to drop the bloody flue whilst removing it for the summer. I know have a blue fitted hall carpet with a huge soot stain on, which nothing will shift...... :27:
Gail apart from ensuring that the chimney is cleaned and birdie free before you install the soba then there is very little maintenance, apart from emptying the soba bucket in the morning. I find any mess around or under the stove is cleaned up with a dustpan and brush. Just off to find a cardboard box to start hoarding my paper and cardboard waste......

mkc

 

[thurstan]

The best way, the Turkish way, is to take a live chicken up on the roof and stick it down the chimney. By the time it gets to the bottom it'll have done a great job of cleaning the flue ! :lol:

Just make sure you can catch it before it runs all over the house dropping soot and sh!t.

.

last year I was sitting in the front room and heard the chatter of the jackdaws on the chimney pot. It got louder and was accompanied by a wooshing sound. By the time i got to the fireplace a jackdaw had landed in the grate, closely followed by loads of soot that flew across the room and cobered everything.

I ran out and got an old fishing net, captured the offending bird and released it out of the front door.

ten minutes later I heard a scream from my wife. Sitting on the curtain rail was another jackdaw. It had seen the first one go down the chimney and not re-appear so had come down to find him/her. Double mess all over the room

So, laugh not

oh and the worst thing - insurance refused to pay out as we didnt have "accidental damage cover"

do I hear a fdlurry of papers as you rush to check you policy

Thurstan

by the way, the other downside of a real fire is that the house is a bit more dusty. But you cant beat it in the winter

 

[Reverend]

One of you said you had oil fired cetral heating. Please give some info on this. We are looking at staying here for winter and want some clean/cheap form of heating. We have a large open fireplace which seems to have a large metal sheet as a damper but the smoke from a fire just fills the room - no chimney is not blocked. If we leave the damper open the heat just dissapears up the very large chimney.

We thought about a soba - dos anyone know if any of them come with glass fronts as my partner wants to see the fire!!!! I want clean heat so would love some info on the oil fired radiators and hot water solution. By the way, we are in Kalkan.

 

[Kirpi]

We thought about a soba - dos anyone know if any of them come with glass fronts as my partner wants to see the fire!!!! .

I'm a great fan of the Turkish Soba, but ours was beginning to fall apart. We also wanted to see the fire and not have to empty the rather large bucket that sits inside the soba. We looked around for a Turkish glass fronted soba, but could not find one anywhere. Eventually we bought a Pritty and are very pleased with it. The psychological effect of seeing the flames just adds to the warmth These are made in Bulgaria and cost quite a lot more than a Turkish made soba. I don't know of a stockists in Kalkan. We bought ours in Fetihye. PM me if you would like the details of the stockist.

 

[Ian]

Hi

We were here last winter and after the realisation that electric radiators and gas fires did not keep us warm we invested in a wood burning stove. We really wasn't prepared and didn't get the stove in until the January. My hubby was constantly out buying wood and chopping it up in the cold and wet. However, the stove was fabulous, it warmed the house and we were snug.

This year we want to be a bit more prepared, so we are already collecting wood and hubby is cutting it up and storing it, ready for use. Our only problems with the stove was keeping it burning through the night and we seemed to using a lot of wood, so I was wondering about coal.

Does anyone use coal as well as wood? If so, where can you buy it? We live in Gundogan, Bodrum.
Any tips on using wood burning stoves would be appreciated.
Best wishes Chris

If it's a soba clean the pipes twice over winter, start first with wood then add coal, we use 2 migros size bags of coal a night in mid winter and it keeps us well warm, use decent coal not the cheap stuff.

 

[villabaris1]

The packets of soba cleaning tablets are good for keeping the pipes clean and soot free. We usually use one pack every two weeks, and can be bought at most supermarkets or anywhere selling sobas. They cost around 1TL and are branded Baca Acici.
Theres also a picture of a soba on the front with the words Kurumsuz Soba, Sorunsuz Soba (rough translation: No Soot Soba, No problem soba).
Simply wait to the soba is burning really hot and throw the pack into it. You'll hear lots of crackling as it shoots up the pipes but it does work.

 

[christella]

Ian this question might sound a bit thick but how do you get the flue cleaned?

you can use a cleaning log here is an example that is sold on Ebay


***The Chimney Cleaning Log*** on eBay (end time 15-Nov-10 23:10:10 GMT)

 

[kibris]

My old gran allways used to put tater peelings on the fire--she said it kept the chimney clear--i did quite a lot of research on heating when i first moved to turkey weighing up installation costs-service costs that sort of thing and although i have a very big stone fireplace in the kitchen diner i found that convector heaters with timers bought for about 50 lira apiece from koctas have worked the best--cheap to buy -no maintenance costs-- easily replaceable--move,em where you want,em and you can take,em with you when you move.

 

[Kirpi]

The packets of soba cleaning tablets are good for keeping the pipes clean and soot free. We usually use one pack every two weeks, and can be bought at most supermarkets or anywhere selling sobas. They cost around 1TL and are branded Baca Acici.
Theres also a picture of a soba on the front with the words Kurumsuz Soba, Sorunsuz Soba (rough translation: No Soot Soba, No problem soba).
Simply wait to the soba is burning really hot and throw the pack into it. You'll hear lots of crackling as it shoots up the pipes but it does work.

I have some of that, but am afraid of putting into my glass fronted fire after someone described it as a "bomb". Do you think I could try it (without any liability on your part).