Quote:
Originally Posted by Slickcraft
No wood burning smell with occasional exception of puff of smoke at time of starting a fire in the insert with a cold flue. Cure for that is to add crumpled newspaper on top of the what ever kindling you normally use. The quick hot flame heats the cold flue and gets a normal draft going.
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Our house had a fireplace, and before using it, we had a chimney sweep come out and clean it. He gave us a similar hint to Slickcraft's:
He said to set up the crumpled newspaper and then kindling on top, then put some smaller logs on the top of it all. Then crumple some paper into a wand. Light the paper under the kindling, then light the wand, and hold it up to the flue area. It would only take about 5-7 seconds for the flames to start to reach up into the chimney meaning the draft was created, at which point we put the wand on the top of the logs, and closed the fireplace glass. Never had smoke come back into the house.
With all that said, an insert is probably a better idea. If it is a small insert, put smaller splits in it until the fire is well established. And for easy start, a couple of pieces of fatwood.