How to Start A Wood Stove Fire

This how to will walk you through starting a fire in your wood stove.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Newspaper
• Kindling
• Cordwood
• Matches
• Wood Stove

1. Before starting a fire in your wood stove, verify that your chimney has recently been cleaned by a professional. Creosote buildup can lead to chimney fires.

2. Verify that you have all of the necessary articles to start a fire in your wood stove. Those should include, newspaper, kindling wood, cordwood, and matches.

3. Crumple some of the newspaper and lay it inside the firebox. You may also try using wax sticks, which are a wax and woodchip compressed block. Next stack some kindling on top of the newspaper or wax sticks, followed by one or two small pieces of cordwood.

4. Open the stove's air vent all the way and light the fire. Once the cordwood has begun to catch, add on a larger piece of cordwood. Now adjust the air vent to achieve the desired temperature based on the stove's heat output.

Tips & Warnings

• Be extremely careful around fire.
• Don't forget to turn back your air vent on the wood stove once the fire has taken
• Have your chimney cleaned by a professional before starting the fire.

[kimarkent]

on 1/5/2009 Excellent!! we heat our house with a woodstove, so i understand about the creosote buildup.. but point #3, was something we never tried. Wax Sticks! great info! 5*

[SimplyCuttings]

on 1/4/2009 We have a wood stove and you are absolutely right on how to get it going, although it took me quite a while to figure it out...lol.