by kasiemcdonald1800

Before starting your first fire, you should have certain types of supplies. Certain wood stoves need supplies like a poker, a scoop, tongs, and fire retardant gloves. A poker is used to push around the logs in the fire and to stir up the coals. A scoop is used to scoop out the ashes if you don’t have an ash drawer that the ashes would fall into. Tongs are good to have since you can pick up logs and place them in the fire without having to stick your whole hand in the fire just to put a log in. If you are still worried about being burned then you can buy fire retardant gloves to use when placing logs in the fire to keep your risk of being burned at a minimum. You can also buy a wood stove blower to use with the woodstove. It can be very useful to a wood stove owner to help distribute the heat throughout the whole house and not just one area. Without a wood stove blower, it could be 80 degrees by the wood stove but 60 degrees in a different room. If you bought a wood stove blower, then all rooms will get the same amount of heat and you will be making the best of the wood stove. One recommendation to have with a wood stove is a log holder. A log holder could be placed right next to the wood stove so that you always have logs ready to be put into the fire. It will also help keep your floor clear of woodchips and saw dust that are on the logs. You could bring it over to your wood pile, fill it up, and then place it next to the wood stove and not have to worry about dropping pieces of wood on you walk over. If you have a fire place and are considering using it to heat your home then you should invest in a fireplace insert. This will keep the heat from going right out the chimney since fireplaces aren’t airtight. If you only have a fire in a fireplace for certain occasions then it is okay not to have an insert. Also, it is good to have a fireplace insert because it will make the wood burn slower so that it will let off more heat and all of the air will not be put right out the chimney. One caution with using wood stoves or fireplaces is doing a regular chimney check. Chimneys can have creosote buildup and start a chimney fire if it isn’t cleaned. It is more common to have creosote buildup if you are using a wood stove insert or fireplace insert but even if you aren’t using an insert you should still have the chimney checked regular for safety precautions.

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