How long for lime mortar to dry?

[Gervase]

dont try and heat your stove up until it glows, that just madness.

Yes it is and very, very dangerous if the stove is made of cast iron.
Dull red cast iron allows carbon monoxide to pass through it as if it wasn't there.
You won't smell anything (because cast iron will only allow the carbon monoxide through) but it will kill you.
The first thing you may notice is a headache.... and then you may discover that your legs are paralyzed so you and everyone else are trapped.

I've had a pot-bellied stove in the old kitchen up to a dull red glow many times, and not once has the CO detector (a decent one which paranoia compels me to test weekly) made so much as a squeak. I imagine that if the flue is drawing well and the whole caboodle is tight, all the combustion gases will go up the chimney - I simply cannot believe that the CO would more easily come through the crystalline structure of cast iron than vent up an open flue!
I know Zola died from CO poisoning from a stove, but I thought that was because something (or someone :shock: ) blocked his chimney.

 

[Tom]

yes ours does if you burn it very hot very quickly.

Thank you so much. That's put my mind at rest

 

[Tom]

dont try and heat your stove up until it glows, that just madness.

Yes it is and very, very dangerous if the stove is made of cast iron.
Dull red cast iron allows carbon monoxide to pass through it as if it wasn't there.
You won't smell anything (because cast iron will only allow the carbon monoxide through) but it will kill you.
The first thing you may notice is a headache.... and then you may discover that your legs are paralyzed so you and everyone else are trapped.

Thank you so much for this advice. I'll make sure it never gets anywhere near red then! I have just ordered 2 Carbon Monoxide detectors, too Thanks again.

 

[Jill]

....Within a week they had the woodburner going like a blast furnace (glowing dark cherry red, in fact)....

How did they do this? I got a roaring fire going earlier today, with flames leaping up the flue. All of a sudden I could hear 'popping' noises from the flue (both the black and silver parts). It sounded like really heavy, large raindrops on a greenhouse roof....I was soooo scared!! I thought the flue was going to burst into flames :shock: I shut the doors really quickly and closed all the vents. The noise got less and less over about a minute and then I could hear the stove itself 'clicking' as it cooled down a bit. Can you explain what was happening? And, if this happens so quickly, how on earth could I heat the stove until it was glowing? Was I just being a pansy? Was my stove actually behaving ok? Or was I risking a serious fire? It's never done anything like that before, even though I've had large, hot fires in there.

I would imagine Jaqy that you had too much air going in, as you found out by shutting the doors and vents, this reduced. You need oxygen as a fuel for the fire to work, too much and I expect what you saw is the end result, with the associated noise of the metal warming up as it expanded and contracted. I come from a town that has 4 blastfurnaces, i've never seen one glowing dark cherry red yet. The inside contents do get extremely hot and glow, but not the outside as this is protected with a refractory lining.

 

[Tom]

I think you're right, Jill. I was probably being a little too ambitious