How I light our range

By next winter I will have forgotten the way I find works well to light the range. 

 

Hopefully, this will remind me.

I start with a layer of rolled up cardboard. I like to use that because we get lots of it.

Then the all important layer of kindling at right angles to the cardboard. 3 or 4 lengths is enough.

On top of the kindling I put two small to medium size dry logs.

That's it, I find that lights easily, most of the time.

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Esse Ironheart glass

The glass cracked in the door to the firebox on our Esse Ironheart range.

When I went to order the spare parts I noticed that the fixings for the glass were a completely different design to those in our door. Although I could not find any documentation about the change, as they were relatively low cost, I decided it was worth ordering the newer parts.

It was obvious where the new metalwork fitted. However, the stove rope supplied was a double bead with self adhesive on the back, completely different to the previous design. The existing looked like a strip of paper with a bead on one side to go in the groove on the door.

I watched a generic video on the Esse web site but I could not find any specific details of how to fit the supplied version of rope. I've therefore used my best guess.

A wire brush in a drill made quick work of cleaning up the door before fitting the new self adhesive rope.

It was as easy as stick one continuous length round the inner edge of the door and individual lengths along the removable metal strips. I deliberately overlapped beyond the ends on some of the sides.

The end result looks tidy and appears to seal nicely.

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Update: 8 Oct 2017
We've now had enough cold days and evenings to have tested this out several times. There is no sign of any smoke escaping.

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Wood Burning Range Cooker

At the end of last week the installation of our new stove was completed.

The work involved enlarging the alcove for the chimney, tiling, decorating, fitting a flue liner and moving the heavy stove.

It's an Esse Ironheart range and we have fitted the wood burning box which converts it from multi-fuel to just wood.  We already have an open fire in our living room so this is ideal for us.

Over the weekend it was like having a new toy.  We lit it Friday night and very quickly got far too hot.  This is good because in previous winters our kitchen in our old house has been consistently cold and drafty.

We had lots of cups of tea using the whistling kettle and by Sunday evening Shelley wanted to cook on it.  I had to get some idea of the temperature from  the Internet and someone had kindly sat and measured and marked up a gauge which was close enough for us.  I've done a Celsius version based on those measurements.  I've also ordered an oven thermometer.

Sunday dinner was cooked entirely using the range.  It was amazing how quickly the hobs heated pans of cold water.  We had vegetarian pie, boiled potatoes a selection of boiled vegetables, yorkshires and gravy.    A very tasty perfectly cooked meal.

All I did was bring the logs in and work out the temperatures, Shelley did all the cooking and stood in front of the very hot stove.

This winter is going to be much warmer in our kitchen.