Preparing your wood-burning stove for the heating season: the checklist before lighting your first fire

• Remove the ash residue from the firebox, riddling grate and ash drawer. The ash extractor provides excellent support here.
• Lubricate all moving parts such as door hinges, door lock and door slide rails with a lubricating spray that leaves no deposits. We recommend lubricating the moving parts several times a year. Make sure that no grease gets onto the stove's coating. The paintwork can be covered using a cloth or household paper.
• Clean the glass ceramic pane of the stove using a glass ceramic cleaner. Do not spray directly onto the pane, but onto a cloth and then clean the fire viewing panel.
• Check the seals. If new seals are required, you can obtain them from your Attika specialist partner and have them installed.
• Inspect the firebox lining (fireclay/Skamol). The large temperature fluctuations can cause cracks in the panels of the firebox lining, but these do not affect the functionality of the stove. They only need to be replaced if they crumble out after years. If this is the case, have a new firebox lining installed by your Attika specialist partner.

Please note that the flue pipe/chimney system to which your stove is connected should be checked and cleaned once a year by a chimney sweep (recommended).

Once your stove has been prepared and checked, nothing stands in the way of firing it up for the first time. Use firewood and kindling wood that has been dried for many years and a firelighter. Read the blog post on "What characterises the perfect firewood". For the first firing after a longer break, use a little more kindling wood than usual to speed up the firing process. If the stove is not used for a longer period of time, odour emissions may occur. Please also read the useful tip "Lighting the stove made easy".