How to light a Russian stove. How to light a Russian stove

Brick hearth in wooden country house- not only a source of heat that warms during the cold season, but also a symbol of comfort, an interior item. And in order for the device to be as comfortable as possible and bring only positive emotions, you need to understand how to properly light a stove.

Create a cozy atmosphere in your home

Loading and lighting the stove correctly is not just a sign of the homeowner's skill with the fireplace. In case of efficient kindling, the efficiency of the stove will be maximum.

Before lighting wood or charcoal, factors to consider include:

  • furnace structure;
  • its location;
  • what and how much fuel is used for kindling;
  • experience in handling the firebox.

How to light a stove with wood:

The first thing you need to do is clean the cast-iron grate (grate), designed for free access of air under the fuel, and also remove all the ash from the ash pan. This is required to ensure that air flows equally evenly to all fuel. If you plan to heat the stove with wood, then they must be dry, of the same size, 8-10 cm in diameter.

The best firewood is birch and oak. With their help you can quickly heat a room. It is necessary to fill the internal cavity of the stove with firewood, taking into account that between top part There should be a distance of at least 20 cm between the firewood and the ceiling of the firebox. It is necessary to lay all the firewood at one time, so as not to constantly open the firebox, adding fuel and thereby cooling the fireplace.

In order for the firewood to ignite, you need to set fire to a splinter, paper or birch bark, placing it all under the fuel. The use of gasoline or similar flammable substances is strictly prohibited, so as not to deform the firebox.

Fuel types

For kindling, the type of fuel for which the stove is intended is recommended. When choosing or independently building a fireplace, you need to take this factor into account. It is better to make a device that can be melted in different ways.

The most high-calorie type of fuel is anthracite coal. When it burns, 7200 Kcal is released. For comparison, hard coal - up to 7000, brown coal - 4000−4500. Firewood produces the smallest amount of heat, only 3000 Kcal/kg. But they are absolutely environmentally friendly. It is worth considering that well-dried firewood produces more heat - up to 4500 Kcal/kg, raw firewood - half as much.

How to light the stove:

When lighting with coal, you need to take into account that coal powder burns as long as large pieces coal Therefore, you need to add it gradually, 1-2 packets at a time.

As already noted, firewood remains the most environmentally friendly fuel, despite the development modern technologies production of fuel for furnaces. The demand for wood-burning hearths continues to this day. Therefore, information about how to properly heat a stove with wood is still relevant.

Ignition of the furnace

For combustion to occur, oxygen must be provided to the firebox. Its regulation is ensured through the blower and the view, which must be open at the beginning of the kindling. When the wood is hot enough, the ash pit is left ajar. The view is completely closed when the blue flame disappears: this indicates that there is no carbon monoxide hazardous to health.

In the ovens classic device Three components of ignition are important: the space of the firebox itself, the ash pan and the chimney. It is necessary to clean the ash pan and the firebox so that nothing interferes with the free access of air to the fuel.

Before lighting the stove, the firewood must be prepared in advance, calculating the volume needed for the entire burning period. The most important thing is the quality of the firewood. The primary load should be 3⁄4 of the possible load weight. The further combustion process depends on how correctly the first load is calculated.

You will also need flammable materials: birch bark, splinters, paper. To prevent the combustion process from being interrupted, you should put logs along with thin splinters during the first kindling.

The operation of the chimney and blower is invisible. However, these devices should not be ignored, as they contribute to the final efficiency of the entire system. Must go into the oven required quantity air. It is also necessary to completely remove flue gases, including carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

You can determine how efficiently the system works by the brightness of the flame. If it is white, the channel is open too wide, and in this case the valve must be closed. A bright yellow flame indicates that everything is normal, access to a sufficient amount of oxygen is ensured.

Combustion process

The first ignition took place. Now you need to start the second batch of already prepared firewood. When the hearth is heated, you can burn with whole logs. However, there is no need to lay too large logs, as the fire may not be able to cope with them.

In addition, they form long-smoldering coals, which is inefficient in terms of fuel use. Most of the heat will be carried away into the chimney by air, which significantly reduces efficiency. You need to carefully remove the wood that is too large, postponing its use for a while. It is also important to turn over those logs that burn weakly in time and try to maintain an even distribution of fire inside the firebox.

The longer the combustion process lasts, the more you need to ensure that the flame inside the firebox burns evenly. Need to get maximum heat from coals to heat the house. This can be achieved by turning the coals. It also promotes a greater flow of oxygen. The chimney channel must be closed when the burning flame turns from blue to white.

There are specifics for lighting stoves depending on the material from which they are made. Fireplaces made of stone, concrete and brick require a lot of effort when lighting them. It takes at least an hour to ignite. The fireplace takes the most time. Lighting up a fireplace with open flame, you must always be nearby for safety reasons.

How to light a stove with coal:

It is often difficult to light the stove after a long break, for example at the beginning summer season. After a long period of inactivity, it is damp and cold. In this case, you need to know that such a stove needs to be melted slowly and gradually, otherwise cracks in the material are guaranteed. Moreover, they can not be detected immediately, but after a couple of years.

Correct ignition looks like this:

  1. It is necessary to ensure a normal flow of oxygen, as well as smoke output. It is necessary to warm up the smoke channels of the stove and the chimney just to prevent the accumulation of cold air, as it prevents smoke from escaping, which moves in the opposite direction and fills the house.
  2. To eliminate this undesirable option, start kindling with small portions of dry firewood. A medium-intensity flame should burn quietly, and smoke should be produced to a minimum. Afterwards you can increase the intensity.
  3. A common problem is that at the beginning of the kindling the flame goes out. Before lighting the stove, you need to check the stove's smoke duct and chimney to ensure everything is clean and free of obstructions. Do not under any circumstances speed up the process by adding flammable substances. You just need to close the vent and wait for the chimney to clear, starting the kindling with thin, dry wood.

If the chimney becomes clogged, do not immediately try to disassemble the stove. It's not that simple. Sometimes it is easier to build a new one than to correct the flaws in the old one. In any case, the help of a specialist is required. A simple way to solve the problem is to flood the stove slowly, checking the air outlet system. If everything is normal here, then the cause may be fuel. It is better to prepare firewood in advance.

Finally, a few secrets for stacking firewood. Thin splinters or paper should be located below the firewood itself. Firewood must be dry, laid so that there is a small distance between them. This is done to ensure an even flow of air to the firewood and smoke exit through the chimney. Fill no more than half of the total volume of the firebox. And one more tip: practice more often. Along with experience will come knowledge of how to properly light a stove in the house.

In the cold Russian winters, both the poor and the rich warmed themselves the same way - they lit a large Russian stove, which usually stood in the middle of the hut. A Russian stove, properly heated, could heat a large wooden house even in the most severe cold.

In addition, it was in the Russian oven that it was possible to prepare not only tasty and aromatic shanezhki, but also a full meal for a large family.

Even today, Russian stoves are frequent guests in private houses and cottages. Therefore, according to the website www.laser-m.ru, you must know how to properly and quickly light a Russian stove in a matter of minutes.

1) Firstly, the firewood for lighting a Russian stove must be dry. Because wet and damp firewood will take a very long time to melt and smoke heavily.

2) Ideally, dry and even birch logs are considered firewood for a Russian stove. They burn well and give large number heat.

3) In order for firewood to be used quickly, it is necessary to stack it correctly. The most the best way Laying a birch stack of firewood is considered stacking in a well. It provides good airflow to the wood fresh air and excellent traction during combustion.

4) In order to light a Russian stove, you will still need kindling. There are two options for kindling - finely chopped splinters or birch bark.

To chop a splinter, it is better to choose a hatchet that is small and sharp, and the log is smooth and without knots.

It's called birch bark top layer birch bark. Remove it using sharp knife from split wood. Birch bark can also be harvested in the forest, removing it from fallen birch trees.

5) In order for the draft to be better when lighting the stove, it is necessary to slightly open the special damper installed on top near the chimney - the view.

6) Birch bark is placed in the center of a stacked wood well and set on fire from several sides.

7) When the Russian stove is hot enough and near the entrance to it, you can place cast iron pots with the dinner being prepared. The food will cook perfectly without standing on “direct” heat due to the high temperature.

8) After the firewood has burned out, the smoldering coals are usually placed in the inner part of the Russian stove (the second stove in the stove), and by adding dry firewood they are heated as usual. This saves heat and increases the heating of the house.

9) In a well-seasoned Russian oven, at the same time, you can bake a large number of different delicacies, from pies and shanezheki, to closed pies and, of course, fragrant and satisfying homemade bread.

10) When the coals stop flashing with lights, but are covered with ash and are only slightly smoldering, you need to cover the view to save the heat leaving the hut. Subsequently, the view will need to be closed completely.

Russian stove has several purposes, in particular, it can heat a room, you can cook food in it, and it can also be used for drying and thermal processing of herbs and fruits. No matter how you use it, it is very important to know how to properly heat a Russian stove.

The main advantage of such stoves is that during combustion, not only the cooking chamber is heated, but also bottom part ovens. The furnace consists of several main elements, which include a cooking chamber or furnace, a heating chamber and an additional chamber. All these elements provide the furnace with high efficiency indicators.

If you use the stove regularly, then there will be no problems with its lighting, but if it is not used regularly, the stove may smoke when lit. This process occurs due to the formation of reverse draft. In order to avoid smoke, you need to warm up the pipe by burning paper, birch bark or splinter. It is also important to consider the air temperature outside and in the room where it is located.

The thickness of the walls of a Russian stove ranges from 12 centimeters to 24 centimeters, so it will take some time to warm them up. Maximum heat transfer occurs no earlier than after 5-6 hours of heating. For whatever gets overheated internal masonry, the stove must be heated gradually and evenly.


Before lighting the stove all contents must be removed cooking oven, clean the ashpit, clear the firebox of ash, and also open the valve. The stove must be heated once or twice a day in one of two ways.

The most economical heating method The stove consists of burning wood in it, which must be stacked tightly to each other. The first stack of firewood should be maximum, all subsequent ones are reduced by one and a half to two times. Firewood must be loaded when the first batch has turned into smoldering coals. You cannot light a stove with the fire door open.

Light up the stove There are also two ways, they are usually called upper and lower. Last method is the most common and consists in the fact that the kindling occurs under the laying of firewood, while with the upper method of ignition the kindling is installed on top of the firewood. Regardless of the ignition method, the ash door must be opened 5-10 centimeters. It is necessary to ensure that the firewood is dry, and that it, coals and ash do not fall into the side holes of the hearth.

After finishing the fire, the coals must be moved into the firebox using a poker, and all valves must also be closed. Regardless of the chosen method, it is necessary to heat a Russian stove for no more than 2.5 hours.


The Russian stove is multifunctional and suggests different ways of using it. So, for cooking and baking bread there is a special cooking chamber, or as it is also called a crucible. After finishing the fire, you can cook for 6 hours. In order to bake bread, it is necessary for the oven to cool down a little, and you also need to close all the valves.

While cooking It is important to determine the temperature in the brewing compartment. So, if the paper placed under it turns black, this means that the temperature is above 300 degrees, which means it’s too early to bake the bread.

In order to cook delicious food in the oven, you need to cover all containers with lids. Also, to make cooking take less time, you can add a little boiling water to all dishes. It is necessary to use utensils without plastic parts, as they may melt.


In order for the Russian stove to serve for a long time, efficiently and functionally, it is worth knowing what cannot be used, namely:

  • Gasoline and other similar means for kindling the stove;
  • Do not burn in the oven various kinds waste, including construction and household waste;
  • Use damp firewood, since the evaporation of moisture consumes a significant amount of heat;
  • You cannot light the stove with the fire door open;
  • Burn color and glossy printed publications in the oven;
  • You cannot heat the stove with woodworking waste;
  • Cover the top of the oven with combustible materials, this may lead to a fire;
  • Seal the space between the stove and the wall with combustible materials;
  • Drying is ineffective in a confined space without air movement;
  • Overheating stoves; it is better to fire the stove more often than usual than to use a forced firebox;
  • Lighting a stove in an unfinished house.

Oven cleaning also requires special attention., since the efficiency and long-term performance of its work depends on this. Every year, before the start heating season, V mandatory The stove must be cleaned with a poker. For this purpose there are special openings closed with doors. It is necessary to carefully scrape the inner walls of the stove with a poker or broom; this will help remove soot and ash.

It is worth noting that with proper combustion, practically no soot is formed, and the stove becomes clogged only with ash, which can be eliminated quite simply.

It is known that a properly designed and built Russian stove will work efficiently for more than a dozen years. This is why it is necessary to entrust such painstaking and responsible work to professionals with many years of experience. , has established itself as a reliable, stable and experienced contractor and will be happy to help you in all matters related to the stove, bathhouse, sauna or swimming pool. Our work is not limited to practical advice, design and construction, we find comprehensive solutions, which take into account your wishes and fantasies.

One way or another, you must remember that proper operation of the stove will save your time and money.

Despite the widespread use of liquid and gaseous fuel stoves, the operation of solid fuel stoves is no less common today. Not every user thinks about the fact that the firebox is wrong wood stove leads to an increase in fuel consumption by an average of 15-20%, as well as inefficiency of the heating process, violation of the safety of operation of the fireplace or stove with a reduction in its service life. The question of how to properly heat a stove with wood depends on its design and involves different approaches.

A wood stove should undergo preventative maintenance two or three times a year to clean the chimney of soot and soot, including repairs if necessary. Immediately before starting the kindling, it is necessary to prepare the stove. To do this, all combustion products are removed from the ash pan (ash, soot). If the internal walls of the stove are covered with soot or ash, it will warm up weakly and for a long time, burning a large amount of wood. The grate must also be cleaned, since if the grate gaps are clogged, there will not be sufficient air circulation to support intense combustion of the fuel.

The right choice of firewood

Firewood must be well dried. If you heat the stove with raw wood, their combustion will produce a large amount of soot that clogs the chimney, as well as condensate, the accumulation of which on the walls will lead to rapid destruction of the stove structure. In order to dry well, after splitting the firewood must lie in a dry woodshed or under a street shed for at least a year. Correct styling Firewood is considered to be a criss-cross method.


Firewood supply

Depending on the type of wood, a certain amount of heat is released during combustion. The best firewood for a stove is considered to be solid fuel. hardwood tree. These are birch, aspen, oak, linden. Birch firewood produces more heat than aspen or pine, produces an even, high flame and does not spark. When choosing oak logs, it is necessary to use a medium-aged tree. To clean the chimney from soot, it is better to use alder logs. Aspen firewood burns quickly, leaving no coals. It is not advisable to use linden, fruit and coniferous firewood to light a home stove or fireplace, but they emit life-giving and healthy vapors into the air, so it is better to use them to fire a bathhouse.

For maximum efficient heating, it is necessary that the logs be of the same thickness (on average, 8-10 cm).

Stacking firewood

To ensure good process combustion, it is necessary to take a responsible approach to the preparation of the primary kindling mass of solid fuel. As a rule, the volume of the primary kindling mass for ignition is at least ¾ of the loading capacity of the firebox. The ignition box should contain flammable materials - paper, birch bark, thin dry branches, dry shavings. It may happen that, after the combustion of the ignition mass, the combustion process of the main stack of firewood does not begin. To avoid this, you need to use logs with thin splinters. Thus, the primary stack should contain firewood of various sizes.

When ignition has taken place, you can lay the main part of the firewood, consisting of whole logs, preferably of the same diameter. At the same time, you should not put large logs into a small firebox; they should first be split into two parts. During the burning process, large logs should be turned over to ensure even burning.


Beautiful stove

To know how to properly heat a Russian stove, you need to keep in mind that in the process of kindling, the stove valve, or view, as well as the ash pan blower door, located under the combustion chamber (firebox), are important. The valve regulates the draft force, and the blower door regulates the amount of air supplied. If the fireboxes are kept open during the process, the combustion temperature will decrease as excess air will carry most of the heat out through the chimney. If the valve and door are closed, a sufficient amount of air will not form in the combustion chamber and the wood will not burn completely. Therefore, in order to properly light a Russian stove, after adding the kindling mass, it is necessary to open the valve and close the ash pan.

After the kindling begins to burn, the main part of the fuel is added. To properly heat a Russian stove with wood, they can be laid in horizontal rows close together or with a gap of 1 cm. As a rule, the firebox of a Russian stove small size, so firewood is loaded in several portions. In addition, a Russian stove usually has a stove, and it has a so-called summer and winter operation. If heating of the heating panel is not needed, then the summer valve opens.

After the wood in the firebox ignites, you need to open the ash door and close the firebox door. Then the blower door is closed, but not completely, and the combustion draft is adjusted using a viewer. To know how to properly heat a Russian stove with wood, you need to monitor the fuel combustion process:

  • If the flame has a golden-straw color, this is a sign of normal combustion.
  • A bright flame and a humming sound indicate an excess of air. This can be corrected by closing the blower door.
  • If the flame is smoky, the combustion process is sluggish and with a lot of smoke, you need to add air to the firebox. To do this, a view is opened to increase traction.

When the firewood of the first stack has burned down to the state of large coals, you can re-stack it, the unburned firewood being raked to the center of the firebox. When all the wood burns out, even the bluish flame disappears, and a coating of ash appears on the coals, after ten minutes you can close the ash door and the viewer.

How to heat a Russian stove with wood: precautions


To make the kindling process as efficient and safe as possible, some points should be taken into account:

  • A Russian stove takes no more than 2.5 hours to heat. A longer combustion process can lead to damage to the stove and overheating.
  • It is not allowed to enter the combustion chamber with products made of plastic, painted wood, bitumen, or to use gasoline, kerosene, or similar flammable mixtures for ignition.
  • You cannot close the view before the blue flame above the firewood disappears. This may lead to poisoning carbon monoxide.
  • If the oven long time has not been used, before lighting it is necessary to check its draft and open the cleaning door.

Rules for lighting a metal stove

Metal stoves are common both in homes and in bathhouses. The difference between a sauna heater is that its design contains a direct-flow outlet for increased safety. In order to properly heat a sauna heater, you should take into account the rapid combustion of the primary filling due to the abundant air flow. In this case, it is important to quickly turn over the burning fuel so that large unburned coals do not form.

Metal stoves installed in residential buildings, have a curved smoke exhaust system for long-term heat retention. The rules for igniting wood in such stoves concern the ban on the use of liquid flammable mixtures. Otherwise, you should follow the recommendations as when lighting conventional stoves.

A few words should be said about the features of lighting brick fireplaces and stoves long burning. In the first case, more firewood will be required for the initial and main ignition, as well as time for kindling. In the second case, the features of the combustion chamber require a longer combustion process than in conventional fireboxes, so firewood should be added at intervals of not every 2.5 hours, but every 4 hours.

If the Sun is a source of light, warmth and life for everyone on Earth, then a Russian stove in a house is a source of warmth and prosperity for all residents. But it is always necessary to remember that fire can also become a source of catastrophic events in the house, for example, cause fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. Therefore, to enjoy the warmth for many years without much worry hearth and home, you need to know how to light a Russian stove.

There must be traction

The main condition effective and safe work ovens– presence of traction. The draft is influenced by: the design of the stove, weather conditions and the cleanliness of the hearth and chimneys. Timely removal of soot and remaining ash from other compartments is the basis of long-term trouble-free operation of the Russian stove.

Once a year, you should perform the work of a chimney sweep and clean the chimneys from the accumulated layer of soot. If the chimneys have not been cleaned for years, and resinous pine, spruce, and birch firewood was used as fuel, a mechanical cleaning method using chimney sweep tools will most likely be required. Convenient for regular annual cleaning of chimneys use chemical cleaning method.

There is a range of chemical cleaning agents available for sale to remove accumulated soot, used in according to the attached instructions. Also used are traditional methods removal of soot by burning potato peelings and alder firewood. Before each firebox, it is recommended to check the presence of ash in the relevant compartments and remove it, cleaning the hearth grate.

So, it is properly prepared for kindling - cleaned, the valves are set to the maximum draft position. The draft should always be checked by lighting a match near the open ash door. If there is good draft, smoke from a lit match will quickly be drawn into the ash pit. When the smoke from a match is only partially drawn in and some of the smoke remains in the room, it means the draft is not strong enough.

If weak cravings are observed regularly and little depends on the weather, it would be correct to start kindling with a small amount of firewood. If the draft is weak and the stove is cold, you should not add a large amount of fuel at once, since as the flame spreads through the wood, smoke will be formed. will not have time to go down the chimney and will begin to fill the room, leaving the hearth. When, traction will always be good. However, if there is a need to increase traction at minimum costs, it is recommended to increase the height.

Read also: Stove for a cauldron from a gas cylinder

How to heat a Russian stove

Any stove requires some time in order to master the process of burning wood and. In a Russian stove, firewood, peat briquettes, pressed shavings and pressed straw in briquettes. But firewood is always used, at least at the beginning of the firebox, to generate heat from charcoal, on which fuel briquettes are then laid.

For the most comfortable and long-term operation of a Russian stove, the best firewood is hardwood - oak, ash, beech. When burning the mentioned wood heat release is maximized, and soot deposition is minimal. If you burn wood coniferous species, there will be less heat, and soot deposition will occur very quickly. An ever-increasing layer of crystalline soot forms inside the chimney, which reduces cross-section of the chimney and weakens the draft.

The same soot formation will occur if fuel briquettes are made from coniferous trees. Since firewood and briquettes from coniferous trees are much cheaper, burning the mentioned firewood and briquettes is much more profitable, but at the same time every third or fourth firebox must be burned. combine with chemical cleaning of chimneys.

Just add fire

Firewood must be dry before lighting. reduces the heat transfer of the Russian stove. Each log should be easy place across the hearth. To quickly light the stove and bring it to maximum heat output, it is best to use lighter fluid or gel.

If you don’t have commercial lighter fluid, you can use a mixture of four parts sunflower oil. oil and one part kerosene. For kindling you will need one or two tablespoons of liquid. One or two logs must be split lengthwise to obtain the semblance of bars with cross-section side 2 – 3 cm.

A sheet of paper should be placed on the bottom of the hearth of a Russian stove, without blocking the ash grate. approximately 40 by 40 centimeters. Place the bars on the paper so that they lie parallel and closer to each other, the length along the air flow, that is, along the hearth. Pour lighter fluid onto the bars. Then onto the bars across the hearth put 3 – 4 thin logs with a diameter of 5 – 6 centimeters. Or, instead of thin logs, put chopped logs on several pieces thick log.