Why is my woodburner creating ash or dust in my room?

Is your wood-burning stove leaving ash or dust in your home?

While this might be mildly annoying, it is not necessarily a major problem. Remember, your stove is burning fuel and burning fuel creates ash. Therefore, it is inevitable that some of that ash will makes its way into the surrounding area. Unfortunately, that means your living room.

As such, it is fairly common for ash to settle on the body of your wood-burning stove and the area nearby.

How does ash from my woodburner get into the room?

Some ash and other by-products of your stove will seep into the room when you open the door of your stove to add more fuel. This is especially true when the fire is dying down. At this stage, the draw of the flue decreases because it is not hot enough to suck the smoke, soot and ash upwards when the door is open. In other words, the draw pulling the ash into the room is stronger than the draw pulling it up the flue at that stage.

What if my ash problem is more serious that that?

If you notice that ash is coating furniture throughout the room and perhaps even throughout the rest of the house then perhaps the problem is a little more serious than the usual issue of a small amount of ash seeping into the room.

In that case, you might need to take some action to reduce the amount of ash that gets into the room. Here are some tips on doing just that…

How to reduce the amount of ash that comes out of your woodburner

Taking any of these measures could help to stop quite so much ash settling on your furniture:

• Make sure any wood your burn is properly dry and seasoned. Test it with a moisture meter to ensure it is seasoned – don’t just assume that it is sufficiently dry.
• Always keep the door closed when the stove is in use other than when refuelling.
• Have the flue swept and cleaned to ensure that the draw is as strong as possible.
• Ensure there is sufficient ventilation in the room to encourage the draw of the flue.