Lady Kitchener

Gidday

We have a lady kitchener fire. It is great but lately it does not seem to be as good as it used to be.

It appears that it is not breathing right. Like the air does not get in and flow down the inside of the glass and it burns like it has been turned down a bit instead of like it used to when opened right up.

Question, does anybody know where the air inlet is and how to check that it is clear. Or anything else I haven't figured yet.

I've got one too. Installed in August 2009. Used breifly last year and then has been on the go for the last month. It was not drawing well and when the vent was opened to open the door, smoke came into the room rather than up the chimney.
Chimney sweep came and cleaned out the almost completely blocked chimney and chipped off all the baked on (really, really baked on) gunk.

We're running it for a bit and seeing what happens. Maybe it needs cleaning more than other woodburners, or maybe something has gone wrong during installation.

Hi Jack,

have you lifted off the top plate lately to have a look underneath? It is a heavy iron thing and needs two people to lift it.

We lift it off once a year and use our vacuum cleaner to clean the copper spiral and the cavity that is underneath. A lot of black stuff accumulates there. Also the air inlet is on the right hand side with a wee dial type black thing attached. It needs to be put on 'open' for the fire to burn properly.

Have you had your chimney cleaned during the last two years or so? A lot of the gunk from the chimney will be in that cavity, too.

When we had the chimney on our woodburner cleaned - it was only a year old, but had started smoking into the room - the chimney man found it almost completely blocked. He said that it was because we were turning it down overnight, so it wasn't burning properly (ie hot enough) which meant the chemicals were building up in the chimney rather than being burned away. He also said that the wetback will contribute to this problem. Added to this the wood we were using was too "sappy" (lawsonia) and had more "gunk" in it than pine, which was gumming up the chimney.
We now make a point of running it hot every so often, and will be getting it swept every year.

Definitely start by getting the chimney swept - makes a huge difference.

While I don't have a Lady K, I had similar problems with my fire. The chimney got swept from the top, all clean.

However, when the sweep opened up the plate between the fireplace and the chimney there was a huge amount of crap in there - he was amazed I could get a fire going at all.

I have found it since then that if you don't get your fireplace swept yearly (by an official sweep) many house insurance policies can be made null and void if there's a house fire.

Cost me $50, money well spent I thought for peace of mind.

Gidday

I have got me own chimney sweeping stuff and this thing has only been in for a couple of years and I have swept it twice. I guess that is the next thing to do but it is the fact that it seems to be starving of air inlet rather than smoke up the chimney that has me puzzeled.

Mine too appeared to be getting no air. The fire was never very warm unless you sat on it, and some wood wasn't even getting hot enough to burn.

Have you had a look at your insurance policy?

I would check the metal plate inside this can be knocked when putting wood in it and then it won't draw properly. It may also have a thick layer of soot build up causing a blockage.

I rang our insurer about sweeping the chimney, as I was on the understanding we had to pay a professional to sweep the it. I was sick of paying somebody $80 when I was more than capable of getting up there and doing it. The insurance co said as long as it is sweept once a year then thats fine. So I now do ours and 3 of our neighbours.

skyline_glenn;316453 wrote: The insurance co said as long as it is sweept once a year then thats fine.

That's nice of them

I put that warning out there because most insurance companies are not as nice, and that information (about using a professional sweep once a year) came from the Insurance Council, after a spate of fires causes by chimney issues where the homeowners were not paid out.

Gidday

Well I bugger if I know. I have been up and swept the chimney, diidn't need it either, cleaned out above the register checked everytghing I can think of and still no better, possibly worse.

Xartep, what metal plate? Mine only has tiles where you put the wood in.

From memory my Kitchener had a metal plate inside the woodbox - like a ceiling, with a gap at the front that the smoke went up, then across the top of the plate and up the chimney - this is supposed to create a 2nd burn of any particulates (I think ) occasionally when adding wood to the fire I would dislodge the "ceiling" thereby reducing the draw capacity of the fireplace. When cleaning the chimney we would have to move this plate to clear all the dropped soot.
You have to wait for it to cool down before resetting.
Admittedly our Kitchener was #72 in the production line so they may not make them quite like that anymore.

Gidday

That is what I believe is called the register and in the modern ones it is made of ceramic tiles and I have checked and they are all in place.

LOL Technical talk... []

Jack;316494 wrote: Gidday

That is what I believe is called the register and in the modern ones it is made of ceramic tiles and I have checked and they are all in place.

we have a kent. we didnt have our chimney swept for quite a few years, and decided to get it done (mainly for insurance purposes), BUT we found when we did have it cleaned, thats when the problems started. like mentioned above, not breathing properly, and smoke coming out hugely when lighting the fire. it's not until it really gets going do we not get the smoke coming out.

never had a problem before we got it cleaned. so we are the other way.