Wood stove with a rotary or sliding door? Smoke/ash problem

Hello everyone,

last week we visited two different stove manufacturers in the Stuttgart area (we want a tunnel wood stove about 56-70 cm wide with two panes, which is located through a wall between the dining room and living room). Since both unfortunately said almost the opposite, we are now a bit confused and wanted to ask you about your experiences.

- Swing or sliding door: Stove manufacturer A explicitly recommends at the spot where the stove is loaded with fuel, a sliding door that you slide upward to open ("with a sliding door upwards, you don’t have the problem that ash falls out and smoke gets into the room when opening – you only have that with swing doors") – stove manufacturer B recommended a hinged/swing door for the loading side ("the swing doors, where you open the glass pane of the fire chamber to the right or left, close better than the sliding doors." He said nothing about the smoke and ash problem when opening the swing door)
- Sizing / storage: only stove manufacturer B said you should put about 6 round storage stones on the stove before the exhaust gases go into the chimney. The exhaust gases are guided spirally through these storage stones and they store the heat a bit. It’s somewhat like a basic storage stove, but of course far from a traditional basic stove. We have a KFW 55 solid Poroton house and do not want overheating when stoking the stove. He said that due to the round storage stones the exhaust gases run through, you can reduce a 10 KW stove to 5 KW and thus have no risk of overheating anymore? Is that true? Stove manufacturer A wants to build something with fireclay bricks through which the exhaust gases are guided.

Primarily, I am interested in experiences with sliding or swing doors: is ash and smoke really no longer a problem with sliding doors? Or is it also not an issue with swing doors that you open to the right or left if the stove is properly designed?

Many thanks and best regards

A normal door causes no problems with reasonable firing. It also has the advantage that you can clean the door from the inside much more easily. I cannot judge whether the sliding door is as tight as the normal door. I can only say that the normal door is 100% tight.

We had our stove without storage stones. Just for optics. I wouldn’t do more in the next house either.

I would also prefer the revolving door option. The sliding door may appear more stylish or original, but in my opinion it is less suitable, especially due to the cleaning issue, as already writes. I consider the idea of ash falling out to be more of a little myth; at least I have not experienced that in many years with my fireplace. If some cold ash should fall out, there is a plate for that. For functional reasons, therefore, a revolving door; this can still be opened easily even after many years. A sliding mechanism is more delicate and therefore possibly more prone to problems. At some point, the sliding door will no longer run as smoothly, and I would be annoyed by that.

Thank you both. Yes, that also surprises me a bit.... after all, a very large proportion of wood-burning stoves probably have a revolving door.

Our ovens have hinged doors. When opening, some ash can always be sucked out, that's just how it is when these things are sealed. Therefore, we first open a small gap and then the rest. Just a habit. Smoke is not a problem if you have a clean burn - a good and well-installed oven, suitable and very dry wood, skilled lighting, and good air supply control (whether manual or automatic doesn't matter). Whether the door opens one way or the other is a matter of taste. Both variants exist in good and bad.

I would definitely recommend storage stones or something similar, otherwise you'll die when you turn on the 10 kW stove ... we also have a KfW 55 house and the masonry stove with storage / chamotte, and unlike relatives where you can't stand sitting at the table because it's too hot, it works great for us