Before starting your Morsø stove, there are a few things which are useful to bear in mind.

The first couple of times you use the stove, keep the fires small to allow the paint to temper before making larger fires.

The air control settings, lighting methods and the firing intervals will vary depending on the chimney draught, the wind direction and climatic conditions, the heating requirements and the fuel being used. Therefore, it may take a while before you are completely familiar with how to operate your stove correctly under various conditions. 

Although you can fire your Morsø stove with almost all kinds of wood, you should not use wet or green wood. Wood should be stored under cover for at least 1 year, and preferably 2 years, and open to the air. Wood should be chopped as soon as possible after felling if it is to dry quickly. 

Never use driftwood as it usually has a high salt content, which damages both the stove and the chimney. Impregnated wood, laminate and chipboard may emit poisonous gases and fumes and should therefore not be used as fuel.

Logs with a diameter exceeding 10 cm should always be split. Split logs should be short enough to lie flat over the layers of embers, with a 1 to 2 cm air gap at either end. For best results, use pieces of wood about 25 cm in length and weighing approx0.5 kg with their ends facing the door.

The most environment friendly way to ignite a fire is so-called "Top-Down" lighting. Such ignition is done by kindling the fire relatively high in the pile of firewood placed in the burn chamber. This way, the gasses burn gradually as the fire works its way down and catches on.

The method is illustrated below.

Step 1 How to Light a Stove: As shown in the picture you need the following: • 2 fire lighthers (or 5-10 scrunched-up sheets of newspaper) • 1 kg of dry kindling • Approx. 1-1.5 kg of chopped firewood

Step 2  You should always have an insula-ting layer of ashes from previous firings in the bottom of the fire chamber. • 1" of ash is a suitable base for the wood. •  Start by placing a couple of logs, approzimately ½ kilogram, in the bottom of the burn chamber.

Step 3  Arrange the kindling Place approximately 1 kilogram of dry kindling wood on top of the logs. Place a couple of kindling bags just below the top layer of kindling wood.

Step 4  Lighting the kindling Light the kindling bags

Step 5 Before lighting, fully open the secondary air supply. The flames work their way slowly downwards from the top.

Step 6 Leave the stove door ajar After 5-10 minutes the heat will produce draught through the chimney, and the door can be shut.

Step 7 Embers After approximately 45-60 minutes, the last flames go out, and a good layer of embers has been formed. More wood should be added while there are still embers. Use a poker or ash scraper to spread the embers, but ensure that most of them are at the front of the stove.

Step 8 Re-fueling Place three pieces of wood of approx. 0.5 kg each and approx. 9,8" long over the embers in a single layer, with a distance of approx. 1 cm between each piece. When the air controls are opened fully, and the door is closed, the wood will ignite within 2-3 minutes.

Step 9 Optimal Combustion Finally, adjust the air supply control to the required position to give optimal combustion. Maintaining a good fire box temperature will ensure secon-dary combustion of the smoke and gases giving a clean and efficient burn. The stove should be refuelled before only glowing embers remain.

Your Fire is Lit. Enjoy!

How much ash should be left in the stove?

Keep a 1" thick layer of insulating ash. The ash layer insulates the bottom of the stove in the same way as the fire bricks or vermiculite board on the sides of the stove. This ensures a high combustion temperature which contributes to a cleaner more efficient burn. Furthermore, the ash layer protects the riddling grate against premature failure and increasing its life expectancy. Empty the ashpan as required. Store any hot ashes in a suitable ash bucket until all embers are fully extinguished, cold ash can then be disposed of with the rest of your household waste.