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Hi All ... Excited Nervous and worried ...
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chez



Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Welcome from an ex Welshie!

 
Katieowl



Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Posts: 4317
Location: West Wales
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

My Rayburn is oil...so can't help on that, but I can tell you that on some days the woodburner refuses to light, and billows smoke into the house because of the wind direction. So if you've had a one off it might be that.

Funnily enough it did it tonight, I peered through the kitchen window on the way in, and thought "God I must clean the windows this weekend" then opened the front door to discover the house filled with smoke, and the dogs sneezing. OH appeared then too....once the fire has some flame to cause updraft it sucks the smoke up and out (I usually bung some cardboard on!)

Welcome, BTW

Kate

 
Nell Merionwen



Joined: 02 Jun 2008
Posts: 16300
Location: Beautiful Derbyshire
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Hello from another displaces Welshie

 
NorthernMonkeyGirl



Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 4630
Location: Peeping over your shoulder
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 7:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Hello!
I don't have a rayburn, or live in Wales....

 
Rob R



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 7:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Midland Spinner wrote:
kalandshel wrote:
we will get a monitor though Also 3 floors between us and 'Ray' plus the place is so draughty we are practically living in a chimney lol


Great! - but don't rely on draughts (sister lost a good friend in a huge draughty barn, due to carbon monoxide from a portable bbq) monitor is safer!


We had a bad experience with a portable bbq once - they are lethal in anything but the wide open.

 
kalandshel



Joined: 13 Dec 2012
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 8:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I agree BBQ's defo an outdoor thing It was a kind of short sharp 'blast of smoke' which dissipated and was no more, plus the chimney was really belching it out so ... We're getting wood some soft and hard and all really dry (we've been assured) but I'm having a Turkey flap ... loads of people have said Rayburns don't get hot enough to cook seems odd ... as a cooker??? Also ours has a back boiler which isn't plumbed in and will never be so ... We're wondering whether to leave it or fill it with sand (we know not to cap it off) ... It hasn't been used for a back boiler for at least 3 years so is probably dry ... but hasn't been used for a cooker for as long either ... totaly confused as to what to do ... also I've looked inside and it doesn't seem to have any fire bricks in the side but it does at the very top back ... blimey this is complex ...

 
arvo



Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Posts: 3321
Location: Somerset
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Hi,

Cook everything for longer in a rayburn/aga. Assume slow and long for everything. If you're interested, buy one of those in-oven thermometer thingies. That will give you a more accurate idea of what temp you're getting out of it.

Also rayburns do the world's best toast and the world's best roasties.

And I second the whole CO and smoke alarm. Ask your landlord for a beepy CO alarm (I think they should provide one) but if they don't be prepared to get one yourself.

Good luck,

Welcome to the madhouse

 
chez



Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 9:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

If you have a bit of a google round, there is a chap who sells manuals for old rayburns somewhere. I think he's on eBay. They are very much a 'getting used to the quirks' kind of thing, I think.

Re not getting hot enough; with solid fuel, it's all about how much you are asking it to do, and when. You can get them to cook a Sunday roast, dry out your orphan lamb in the bottom oven (remembering not to shut the door), heat you a bath and run four radiators; but not all at the same time. If you cook the roast, THEN have your bath, then put the lamb in the oven and expect the rads to get what's left over, it all works fine.

I agree with Mochyn's Dead Buzzard Hypothesis - get it swept and take it from there. Also worth remembering that whilst the chimney is cold, the smoke gets half way up and then cools and sinks again. Once it warms up, it sucks up to the top.

And, just thinking outloud, is the chimney cowelled? I don't understand the mechanics of it; but our cowl is knackered; and the sweep who came out on Monday said you that if the cowl is gone, then the chimney is more effected by the wind - in our case, the wind had set the thing on fire.

 
kalandshel



Joined: 13 Dec 2012
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Chez wrote:
If you have a bit of a google round, there is a chap who sells manuals for old rayburns somewhere. I think he's on eBay. They are very much a 'getting used to the quirks' kind of thing, I think.

Re not getting hot enough; with solid fuel, it's all about how much you are asking it to do, and when. You can get them to cook a Sunday roast, dry out your orphan lamb in the bottom oven (remembering not to shut the door), heat you a bath and run four radiators; but not all at the same time. If you cook the roast, THEN have your bath, then put the lamb in the oven and expect the rads to get what's left over, it all works fine.

I agree with Mochyn's Dead Buzzard Hypothesis - get it swept and take it from there. Also worth remembering that whilst the chimney is cold, the smoke gets half way up and then cools and sinks again. Once it warms up, it sucks up to the top.

And, just thinking outloud, is the chimney cowelled? I don't understand the mechanics of it; but our cowl is knackered; and the sweep who came out on Monday said you that if the cowl is gone, then the chimney is more effected by the wind - in our case, the wind had set the thing on fire.



OK ... Cowelled ... Right ... love that you have faith I know what that is ... It has a top on it which looks like a T with holes in each end ... Is that a Cowl???

We are going to get the Chimneys swept, but probably not until New Year when cash will be a bit more plentiful ... well like we'll have some sort of thing lol ... Also we're going to bug the LL until we get CO Meter out of him ... We had one at last place above the very old and very rattly Glow Worm Boiler ... it went off at least once a week ... The 1950's gas fire in the living room set it off too ... We played 'lets see who goes Cherry Red first' last xmas ... So after that we had a CO meter installed in every room ... Our old LL's still said there was nothing wrong with Boiler ... So glad we're out of there our Gas Bill was �174 month

Oh PS ... Am I right in thinking I won't be able to burn Tailbrite etc without fire bricks???

 
kalandshel



Joined: 13 Dec 2012
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 12 11:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

pookie wrote:
kalandshel wrote:
BTW ... one of our cats is called Pookie ... She's a cutie



ooooooh


and Newtown is pretty near to Welshpool There's a few of us very near!


Great we can have a coffee club

 
Bungo



Joined: 21 Dec 2011
Posts: 354
Location: Wye Valley
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 12 9:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I filled the boiler on our rayburn with sand as it is not connected as there is a risk of burning through the boiler , which will subsequently let fumes out/air in . Who ever said rayburns are not hot enough to cook on was talking nonsense. We only burn wood, and have not cooked on our electric oven/hob since installing the rayburn , will a good fire in it it will boil a large kettle nearly as quick as an electric one , and the oven is refered to as the cremator it gets so hot.

 
Penny Outskirts



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 12 8:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

kalandshel wrote:
pookie wrote:
kalandshel wrote:
BTW ... one of our cats is called Pookie ... She's a cutie



ooooooh


and Newtown is pretty near to Welshpool There's a few of us very near!


Great we can have a coffee club


Oh dear, you may have to become a slut... I don't think they do coffee, but they do cakes,lots of cakes Welcome to DS

 
jamanda
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 12 8:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Gin - they do gin.

 
pookie



Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 4984
Location: Mid-Wales
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 12 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Penny Outskirts wrote:
kalandshel wrote:
pookie wrote:
kalandshel wrote:
BTW ... one of our cats is called Pookie ... She's a cutie



ooooooh


and Newtown is pretty near to Welshpool There's a few of us very near!


Great we can have a coffee club


Oh dear, you may have to become a slut... I don't think they do coffee, but they do cakes,lots of cakes Welcome to DS



Oh yes! we have a tea and coffee and cake club. We are the Montgomeryshire 'Domestic' sluts (not the other sort ) we meet fairly regularly and take it in turns to host


Jamanda wrote:
Gin - they do gin.


Do we? I've never been offered any..........must be going wrong somewhere....

 
jamanda
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 12 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Well, you should do gin. How about Limoncello?

 
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