Our Company Blog

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Wood-Burning Appliances

It’s the season of pumpkin-spice-lattes, corn mazes, and steaming cocoa by a crackling fire. Many homeowners use the fireplace as a home decor focal point, a backdrop for family photos and festivities, and supplemental heat. You may not have a fireplace yet and desperately want one. A properly-installed or well-constructed fireplace or fire appliance can bring up the value of your home, help decrease utility bills, and enhance the holiday spirit. The fan favorite is the wood-burning fireplace because of the natural ambiance it creates. Wood produces beautiful flames, crackling and hissing of the wood, and has high heat output. It isn’t all wonderful, however. There are drawbacks to choosing wood, but we can help. 

Benefits of Wood Fires

Accessibility of fuel – When you choose wood-burning appliances, you are able to use wood from your own land or personal supply. You simply have to cut, store, and haul wood yourself. If you don’t have a readily accessible wood supply, you can find a local supplier quite easily. Just make sure your wood is properly-seasoned and that you’re getting what you pay for.
High heat output – When you choose your wood type, you can even control how much heat your fire produces. Today’s wood-burning appliances are equipped with many new technologies that allow better control of temperature as well.
Eco-friendly – Today’s manufacturers have made strides to produce high-efficiency wood-burning appliances. Wood furnaces, stoves, inserts, and fireplaces can be highly-efficient and leave less of a “carbon footprint” than ever before.
Versatile designs and models – The wood-burning appliance used to lend itself to rustic decor only, but no more. Now you can choose a wood-burning appliance that compliments a sleek contemporary look, a traditional rustic one, or any variety in between.

Drawbacks to Burning Wood

Wood fires require more service appointments than gas or pellet appliances. This is not due to the performance of the appliance, but rather the material burned. Gas is the cleanest burning fuel, so it produces no creosote and very little soot. Pellets appliances burn at such high-efficiency that they also produce less waste. However, firewood, even properly-seasoned firewood, will produce soot and creosote no matter how well it burns. It also produces ash which can be a pain to remove and dispose of and the wood chips and dust can make a mess. When you’re burning wood, half the work is in cleaning up the mess. Fortunately, a lot of that work should be done by the professionals.

Chief Chimney Services Wood Appliances

If you have a wood-burning appliance and haven’t had it inspected or cleaned in the last 12 months, now is the time. Keeping the appliance well-maintained through professional services will keep it working safely and properly. Call us at 631-863-2460 and talk with a professional about economical wood-burning appliances today.

Correcting Draft Issues

A draft in a literal sense means to “draw” or to “pull”, which is why the selective service is called a draft. When your chimney is having a drafting issue, it means the chimney system is not able to properly and effectively pull air through the chimney and out of the house. The chimney should be working constantly when a fire is burning in the fireplace. That means there is constant airflow pulling the heat, smoke, and other gases out of the chimney and home. A smoky chimney is the first indication of a draft issue. Unfortunately, there are many reasons for a draft issue–some may be simple, quick fixes, and others may be more serious.

The Wrong Wood

The number one cause of simple draft problems is that you’re burning the wrong firewood. Good wood is properly seasoned, meaning it has been cut and stored to dry before it is burned. “Green” or wet wood has too much water inside and has to work harder to burn. It will be more difficult to light, will burn with less heat, require more wood to reach a desired temperature, burn incompletely, produce more ashes, and be smokier. A great way to check to see if this is the problem with your chimney is to build and light a fire with properly seasoned firewood.

A Competing Draft

Other large systems in the home, such as the central air and heating system, can interfere with your fireplace. Your home may also be so tight that it is impossible for the chimney to pull air from the house. In order for the chimney to pull air out of the house, more air must be pulled into the house to keep airflow going. Otherwise your home becomes a vacuum, and the air will not flow. This problem can be quickly checked and remedied by cracking a window in the house to allow air in.

A Dirty Chimney

When the chimney system is coated in soot and creosote, the efficiency drops because airflow slows down. If the air cannot travel up and out of the chimney, the result will be a smoky fireplace. You can solve this problem by scheduling a chimney sweep. Schedule now, and you can avoid the fall rush. You may also find that the smoky problems from last season aren’t present this year!

Chimney Sizing

Believe it or not, the size of the chimney matters–a lot. If the chimney is too tall or short, the smoke will not rise up and out. Instead, it will fall into the living room the next time you open your damper. If the flue isn’t sized correctly, if the smoke chamber isn’t the right size, or if the smoke shelf isn’t large enough, then you will have a smoke problem.

Chimney Damage

Damage to the liner can slow air flow and cause a draft issue. You should have annual chimney inspections to insure you that all the seen and unseen portions of the chimney system are in proper working order. This means that your smoky chimney does not have a complicated solution. If your chimney is in ship-shape, then the problem is simple and can likely be resolved through troubleshooting.

Still unsure what to do with your chimney? Call Chief Chimney Services at 631-863-2460.