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Operating Your Wood Heater
Fuel
Your wood heater is designed to burn dry hardwood only.; it is not designed to burn,
Soft wood
Paper or cardboard, other than small amounts used to light stove.
Treated or painted wood
Synthetic fuel or logs that are not approved for solid fuel stoves
Household rubbish
Liquid fuels
Plastics
Burning these or other products for which the wood heater was not designed may damage
the wood heater and cause a fire hazard or release toxic fumes.
Fuel should be stored in a dry place; wood should be dried for at least 1 year and have a
moisture content of no more than 20%. Wet wood may cause serious creosote, which may
damage your flue system and even your wood heater. Therefore the use of wet wood is
strongly discouraged.
First operation of stove
You should begin using your wood heater by lighting small fires which get progressively
larger. We recommend lighting approximately 5 small fires before you put the wood heater
into full service. Allow the wood heater to fully cool between each of these fires. There may
be some smell and a small amount of smoke from the wood heater during the initial
operations. This is perfectly normal and is merely the curing of the wood heater paint.
Opening a window or door to provide additional ventilation will help alleviate this.
Air controls
Your wood heater needs air to burn the fuel. This air is supplied through a primary air slide
at the right side of the front of your wood heater above the door. On the SCWB200,
SCWB200ST and SCWB300 secondary air is drawn into the top rear of the firebox which is
not adjustable.
Primary air, as the name suggests, is used for the initial burning of the fuel and is also used
to keep the stove glass clean. Secondary air is used for secondary combustion, which makes
the stove more efficient and reduces emissions.
The settings of the primary air control very much depends on draught and local conditions
and after a few fires, you should have a good idea of the best settings for your wood heater.
The air slide control should be fully opened when lighting the fire. Once the fire is
established, the air slide control may be adjusted as required. Reducing the air intake will
cause the wood heater to burn slower. This may cause some blackening of the stove glass,
but this should burn off once the wood heater is burning brightly again.
