Very comprehensive and informative as usual the videos and reviews really help me know what I'm doing wrong or right and how to correct it. I shall be watching the stove rope installation video soon as the tortoise rope kit will be going on at the end of this season. Thanks Guys 🔥
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
@MakMak-yu2xm4 ай бұрын
Nice job Gabriel 👍
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
Thanks, I’m hoping it will be helpful for particularly those new to things this Autumn 🤞😄
@MakMak-yu2xm4 ай бұрын
@@TheTortoise Yeah, i actually have an heavy stonestove with a slightly different functioning but... Always good to remind the standard instructions👍
@siamakgaАй бұрын
You doing a great job explaining everything, may our Lord bless you.
@TheTortoiseАй бұрын
Thanks 👍
@markgolledge1234 ай бұрын
Brilliant video -thank you for sharing. I wonder if there might be a follow up FAQ video - with us submitting some questions?!? Obviously each woodburner is unique and I expect some of this is experimenting but some additional questions I have: 1. How much impact do fans have - is it better to have 2 rather than 1 if there's the space? 2. What is the easiest way to raise the temperature of a woodburner (e.g. simply more fuel?) 3. What is the best way of using the vents (e.g. our woodburner has two - one to do with circulation the other to do with allowing more/less air in)? 4. Is it ok to stack a woodstove for burning overnight - and how do we get the longest burn e.g. closed vent, coal (if multifuel)? 5. Does the size of the recess have an impact on the amount of heat going into a room (we have a large recess and wonder if this is impacting on our ability to heat the room?). A few questions for consideration - but thanks again for the video!
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
Thanks for the suggestions, I will certainly stick them on my list!
@tommieblomqvist48224 ай бұрын
Great information from you Gabriel. I am so happy with our Jötul F500, a cast iron power-house.
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
Sounds awesome!
@loojishtc98994 күн бұрын
Some TV channel somewhere is missing a presenter! Anyway, I've tried the top down method and it's slower, a lot slower, to get up to temp, but I have to admit it is a lot cleaner. Everyday's a school day. And I have a lovely thump sized mark on the front of my stove from touching it while it was curing. 😢
@TheTortoise3 күн бұрын
Shame about the thumb print, nightmare!
@annscullamus4 ай бұрын
Brilliant video ! My stove was fitted a month ago and now SO enjoying the bone warming heat and comfort throughout the house. I have been an open fir/stove woman almost my whole adult life, but I still learnt much from your clear and sensible advice. I suspect I always refuel too soon ! Uses much more wood too. At the moment here in the north east it is more tricky to source kiln dried hardwood, so I am, for the moment, using kiln dried soft…….I will find some eventually ! Many thanks for this ! 👏👏 PS The advice for storing….was that for drying your own wood, or for bought and already kiln dried ? I store my bought in wood in a log store not in the outside ? Is that correct ?
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
Yes. What I was saying is about seasoning your fuel. With your ready dried stuff it is certainly best in-doors or in your covered log store.
@davidj85474 ай бұрын
Wow! Bit harsh on the smokeless. So, my 5kw Dunsley burns 70kg of Red smokeless per week, on 24/7, costs £40. Clean as a whistle and burns beautiful. The same stove would burn a 40 litre net of kiln dried birch in about 12 hours, cost £8, so £16 a day or £110 a week 24/7 approx. Each to their own, but I'd hardly call smokeless rubbish. Your videos are great though, and have been very helpful with anything wood related. Keep up the good work. 👍
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
You’re right I have become a little one sided 😬. There are a few reasons though. I wouldn’t recommend buying kiln dried logs in nets, I do (because of what I do) but they are costly and not ideal environmentally either. Local wood dried yourself is incredibly cheap (often free if you put some work in, due to ash dieback), and very ecologically sound too. Smokeless fuel by comparison will struggle a bit more on the “green” side of things, is costly when compared to those sources of fuel, and is also unbelievably corrosive. I’m not knocking what you do, because it definitely sounds like it’s working, but that system will unfortunately increase breakdown and failure in your chimney or liner, and in a lot less time. So not only are the fuel costs potentially higher, the installation and maintenance costs tend to be several times the cost, as repair and replacement will typically be required significantly more regularly. Interestingly old school coal did not have the issues with corrosion, and if you bought it locally it was (not clean enough for todays standards) from a world stage point of view, pretty green too! Welsh Steam coal can still be used, and is relatively local to me. That stuff is amazingly good, but the renewable, and carbon neutral nature of wood, has very much captured my loyalty.
@LRDefender19684 ай бұрын
Fantastic video guys, this will really help people that are new to the joys of a log burner!! Everything I now know is down to this channel, I even picked my stove based on your recommendation and I am absolutely in love with it, what a fantastic winter I had, only put the central heating on 3 times, absolutely love my burner and the interaction I have with it. The one element I still don’t really understand is the overnight burn. For example, I go to bed about 11 ish, I load the stove up so it’s quite full, I turn the stove down to its lowest but obviously not shut, when I wake up at 6am what should I expect to see, all I have found is coals once I give them a rake over and open the vent, is that correct???? Thank you for what you do. Kind regards Tony
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
There are so many variables, and I get different results on every occasion with every stove. Sometimes I will move the ash with a log, push the charcoal to the middle and stack logs on top. Other times I will open the vent and the whole bed will immediately glow into life. But in either case I will often find that my fan is still turning and most importantly the house is warm and the glass is clear.
@robelliott80614 ай бұрын
When storing logs,if it’s not covered surely snow and rain will keep the wood damp.I store mine With plenty of air but have a covering when it rains.
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
The book Norwegian Wood by Lara Mytting is really helpful on this subject. You can go further with drying, but the vast majority is done by raising the wood above the ground, stacking it with gaps and outside in the wind and weather. I immediately thought this was madness because the rain would surely render your efforts irrelevant, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.
@waynebrown58524 ай бұрын
That was a fantastic video, after about 20 years you can still learn something with stove, I am on my second multi fuel a stovax view, T5 about 6 years old, I have it swept every 12 mouths and last year had the glass changed because of crazing patches and after about 3 months it's doing it again, when I spoke to chimney sweep he said it's the smokeless coal so I stopped using it an😢d just using dry kilm wood but it seems to getting bigger. Have you any thoughts on it? Glass was expensive 😢
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
Thanks. With regard to your glass, this is caused by moisture mixing with the gases from wood and mainly smokeless fuel. The most common cause of moisture is the condensation build up on the inside of the glass during lighting. If you use dry fuel, leave the door ajar during lighting and periods of disuse, then you should minimise any occurrences of moisture mixing with burning gases that can combine and cause acid damage to the glass.
@waynebrown58524 ай бұрын
Thanks I will try that
@macraghnaill35534 ай бұрын
50 Kilo sacks of coal are only £27 in my area, far cheaper than logs I use 4 50 kilo sacks every 40 days, 5kw stove is lit all day, when very cold it's lit all night
I know 😢! Sounds like it’s doing a good job though!
@philipjacobsen655015 күн бұрын
is the stove you have behind you most of the time comparable in size to the jotul f 400?
@TheTortoise14 күн бұрын
It’s certainly a bit smaller. The width of this is around 560mm and the Jotul is 670. The Jotul is also taller and significantly deeper. Output wise, the Jotul is perhaps capable to close to double the output, but generally the Huntingdon in the video is a 4-5kw and the Jotul F400 is a 9kw
@ryanprice90674 ай бұрын
Mate if you want to review something completely different to anything else you should try get a Pyroclassic stove in. They are made here in NZ but sold in the UK now. Would make a great review. Check them out. Cheers
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
There isn’t a lot of information about them in the UK, but they do look very interesting! I wonder whether they’d be up for it?
@EddRandomCrap4 ай бұрын
🔥👍👍
@wobdeehomestead3 ай бұрын
What flue temps do you shoot for before turning a stove down for a low efficient burn? Do you shut it down in stages or just shut it straight away?
@TheTortoise3 ай бұрын
I’d typically get a stove up to 400°F and then if I was wanting to run whilst I was there (on a low and slow) I’d rein it down to 300. If I was wanting to leave it then I’d want to get the stove hot, and have all the wood blackened and on fire. Then I would shut it down to the point that (through trial and error) I had worked out would stay clean on the glass right through to the fire going out. If it goes black at all, then I’ve shut it too far. FYI the reason I trust the glass is because this will be the coolest part (on the inside of a stove), so it is always the first thing to reveal a problem.
@wobdeehomestead3 ай бұрын
Ok so you look more at stove top temps and glass than flue temps when adjusting down the fire? I’ve been going by flue temps because it’s a little quicker than stove temps and I don’t want to send too much heat up the flue while waiting on the stove temps to come up. Usually start adjusting down when my internal flue temps reach 400f and try and keep them between 400-600 for most of the burn. I thought about trying a higher flue temp then bring it straight down to low instead of stages. Like you said trial and error.
@colonelflashman9723 ай бұрын
HI, what would you say is the best value for money woodburner and muti fuel stove? any size...many thanks
@chrischristofis8501Ай бұрын
Hamlet series 5
@colonelflashman972Ай бұрын
@@chrischristofis8501 thanks I will check it out
@adrianellis44974 ай бұрын
If your burning wood properly, then softwood split needs 6 months minimum under cover but with full air circulation, hardwood 9 to 12 months same. Stacked outside with end grain to weather pointless, endgrain absorbs moisture easiest so will always be damp unless in sunny weather. Tarpaulin are a waste of time as are open sided B&Q wood stores and the like. You need a Yorkshire boarded shed/store that has raised floor. Now once you've done all that you have to find a cheap supply of suitable firewood. Not all wood burns equally. If you have the space a 25 ton lorry load direct from the forest is best. If not maybe share one with a few freinds. If not then the price rises because your not cross cutting or splitting. Its not for the lazy in fact its bloody hard graft, but it also keeps you fit. Happy wood burning😊
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
It’s a common misconception that wood cannot dry out in the open. The moisture content of the wood is relative to the ambient moisture whether it is covered or not. Water on end grain will go into the wood and then dry out very quickly, but this won’t affect the seasoning of the wood.
@adrianellis44974 ай бұрын
@@TheTortoise It's not a misconception at all, equilibrium moisture content is only part of the story of how wood uncovered to the elements will not dry properly. In our northern climate the best outside moisture content of any stacked wood generally would be around 25% mc. This is a absolute best case scenario and very rarely achieved other than in a hot dry summer. Every time it rains uncovered wood absorbs water at different rates depending on its mc, the dryer the wood the more it will absorb. It's simply a cycle you cannot change other than giving some protection from the rain, wind is OK it creates surface friction that helps dry out the wood. I've been drying firewood for 40 years on a dependency basis as a fuel source and tried all ways to achieve acceptable results no outdoor system has produced acceptable results for me. If you live in Spain you would of course have different results. Everybody is welcome of course to find out the hardway if they want It's no skin of my nose and not learn from others trials and tribulations.
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
It may be useful to read Norwegian Wood by Lara Mytting.
@adrianellis44974 ай бұрын
@@TheTortoise I don't live in Norway, I Don't need to read anything based on Norwegian climate, I've lived it and learnt by experience, and rely on my knowledge gained through experience as a user of wood being a single source of heating. Clearly you haven't. No doubt having read a Norwegian book by a author sharing experiences of Norway you consider yourself an expert. What other books have you read that also makes you an expert on the subject, please tell?
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
Cool 👌
@naishy1474 ай бұрын
I can give you some free advice you should never use that size brush head and drain rods on a log burner that has most probably got a 5 or 6 inch liner down it. Always use a qualified sweep 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@TheTortoise4 ай бұрын
Yea. 😆 I probably should have clarified that 😬. They were some old rods and brushes for open fires, that I nicked out of my brothers van.