How to light the perfect Fire, 5 simple steps – Wood burners and multi-fuel stoves.

Lighting a fire can sometimes be quite challenging, especially on cold wintery evenings when you want to heat the house or a room up quickly. nevertheless, here is a tried and tested process that puts the “art” into fire starting. This is the art of top-down burning.

Always use safety gloves and read appliances manuals before using. We also recommend you have your chimney swept and appliance serviced at least once a year to ensure the efficient and safe use of your wood burner / multi-fuel stove.

What you’ll need:

• 4-6 Firewood logs – ideally kiln-dried logs
• 6-12 pieces of kindling
• Firelighter
• Matches

1. Let it breathe – as well as being super important to us as human, the key with wood burners and multi-fuel stove fires is to ensure there is plenty of air flowing and the fire is able to breathe. So, clean the stove out of any leftover ash or debris. Ensure all air vents on your wood burner or multi-fuel stove appliance are open.

• Select 3-4 small to medium-sized logs. Low moisture content firewood is key here, all garden hub logs are kiln-dried therefore have an extremely low moisture level, ideal for burning. Place 2 of the small logs across a larger one.

• On top of the logs, place firelighter and two additional smaller logs on each side. Then with your kindling, approx. 6-10 sticks create a Jenga type stack with gaps for air about 3-4 levels high. With another firelighter on top of this stack.

• With the door slightly ajar, light the topmost firelighter. The door can be closed once the top pieces of kindling start to burn.

• And Enjoy! Add logs on little and often to keep the fire going.

Refer to the appliance manual regarding controlling the airflow of the fire.