Vlog 22: Grate Expectations
After a viewer request I hereby present a (rather long, sorry) video of how I set and light the Villager Puffin stove on my canal boat. I do two examples, one of lighting it from cold and the other of rekindling it from dying embers. Please leave any tips and tricks in the comments below; anyone saying “you’re doing it wrong” will be politely ignored :-)
Items mentioned in this video
Villager Puffin stove: https://geni.us/CtC_PuffinStove
Big box of Zip firelighters: https://geni.us/CtC_ZipFirelighters
Kindling: https://geni.us/CtC_Kindling
Matches: https://geni.us/CtC_Matches
Dustpan & brush: https://geni.us/CtC_DustpanBrush
Stove fan: https://geni.us/CtC_StoveFan
Quite agree – stacks of ways to light a fire, most of which are rubbish – except mine!!
Anyway, a couple of comments:
1. if you are going to mess about with coal/ash, buy yourself a pair of cheap rigger/gardening gloves – keeps your hands a bit cleaner.
2. take a good look at the inside of your stove door glass. Coal ash is allegedly too gritty for cleaning purposes and leaves minute scratches which, in turn, trap the soot = black glass – a vicious circle. Only use wood ash on your dampened cloth (or a proprietary spray cleaner).
Really? It can scratch the glass? Crikey, I’ll bear that in mind. I hav got some proper glass cleaner somewhere.
Crumpled newspaper works well for cleaning the glass.
Thanks for the tip.
Hi
What I would like to know is what you do with the ash . Is it ok to empty into the canal?
In the marina there are ash bins so that’s easy :-) Out on the canal I believe you can tip it into the bushes by the towpath as long as they’re cold and not going to start a fire. Not the canal itself, I don’t think. I must check that though, good point!
Excellent. Yes, it is an art. We buy Hotmax wood bits, good for getting it going in the morning. You do need to reach a good hot reactor temp before closing things down. We’ve kept ours going since 31st Oct apart from one day when I swept the chimney . Brilliant.