Edit Article

Edited by Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy, Eric, Blabla96, Webster and 14 others

The advanced WoodGas or Smoke Burner Stove (not "wood stove") is new technology able to be safely used without a stove pipe or chimney, used properly. These are the most efficient good stoves because they can burn the smoke. There is the convenience of choosing and using different types of available biomass, on a day to day basis.



  1. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 1.jpg
    Understand how the smoke-burner stove works based on the design of the combustion chamber (its dimensions, primary and secondary air holes, and either air pumped with a fan or using natural draft without a fan).
    • If the stove uses a fan, then it is called a Forced-Air TLUD (Top lit Updraft)
    • If the stove uses only gravity air pressure, it is called a Natural Draft TLUD.
    • Follow the instructions provided for each model.
  2. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 2.jpg
    Smoke: There is a chance that your stove might sometimes generate too much smoke, for the following reasons
    • Chips of wood or shavings are wet.
      • A good water content ranges from only 10-12%.
    • Excess carbon (in the smoke) 30-40% of stoichiometric air (4.7kg air/kg biomass)
    • Insufficient air from the primary air source - blocked by the biomass material, or material packed too tightly, or biomass of different sizes (big and small pieces mixed), etc.
  3. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 3.jpg
    Kitchen environment: Always use a well-ventilated kitchen or semi-ventilated or fully open areas. If exhaust fans are available, keep them on during and after cooking until all the charcoal have turned cold or turned to ash.
  4. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 4.jpg
    Outdoors: shield the stove from the wind using a windscreen.
  5. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 5.jpg
    Fill correctly with your chosen fuel: There should be contiguity between pieces of fuel (no voids, but not packed too tightly -- there should be chance for flow of primary air). Homogeneous size of biomass pieces / shavings, Avoid wet biomass and bark of certain trees in the biomass.
  6. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 6.jpg
    Lighting the fuel: Use small pieces of wood shavings soaked (not too much) in any mild fire oil (kerosene / diesel / vegetable oil / etc.). Spread a layer of it evenly on the top of the fuel charge, light using a matchstick / lighter, then place the bowl / container for cooking, and switch on the fan.
  7. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 7.jpg
    Multigrade fuel: If using multigrade fuel, sort/sieve it and could classify it into two grades for use. Say 1 inch size fuel / 2-inch size fuel, etc.
    • If you want to use two grades of fuel simultaneously use the large size grade at the bottom and then the small size fuel at the top, see that this small size fuel simply does not slip downwards while burning. If it is true wood gas stove, the char-mass produced will have some brittleness / stiffness and the finer biomass will not move downwards. In quasi-wood gas stove the small size fuel might get too much air and be converted into ash from embers that might move downwards generating some amount of excess smoke, which is unexpected.
  8. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 8.jpg
    If a pot skirt is available, use it. It will improve the efficiency of the stove between 20% to 50%.
  9. Use a Woodgas or Smoke Burner Stove Step 9.jpg
    Kill the fire, when the cooking is done, if the stove will be unattended, empty the remaining fuel and charcoal into a tub of water or into an air-tight fire and heat-proof container to prevent burns, smoke, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
    • Avoiding steam injury: dump it into a "large quantity of COLD water". If you dump into hot water or a small quantity of cold water, a dangerous amount of hot steam may be produced which could cause severe burns to your hands or arms.

Add your own method


  • What to do when suddenly there is a lot of smoke and the stove is not burning because of several reasons like (more moisture / lack of primary air / different grades of fuel are used / leakage of the secondary air from the stove, etc.)
    • Switch off the fan immediately.
    • If you can see the flame rising completely out of the stove before it is extinguished and there is a lot of smoke, it means there are too much air from the primary holes and not enough air from the secondary holes and the smoke is rising faster than the flame speed. If this happens near the end of the burn then you should either reduce primary hole size of increase secondary hole size or reduce speed of rising smoke.
    • If the heavy smoke happens near the end of the burn, and most wood has been charred but there is still some wood remaining, it could be that the position of the primary air hole does not provide sufficient air to reach the unburned wood. Put the entire stove in a air tight container (put an inverted container over the stove) to put out the burning char. Once cooled, use a spoon or ladle to slowly remove the char to identify where in the stove there is unburned wood. Either add primary air to that location or place a non-flammable object (e.g. a metal cone or some char) at that location to displace the wood, next time.
    • If the stove were burning fine and the smoke occurred after you added more wood, it could be that the low temperature and moisture of the added wood put out the flame. If that is the case, then wait until the smoke becomes heavier then light the smoke with a match or lighter.
  • If the flame was put out by a gust of wind, usually you can put a match or lighter to the smoke and the flame will burn again as before.
  • If there is enough fuel and you would like to try again, use the kerosene soaked shavings and lit it again. Remove most of the charred wood on top of the unburned wood before add the shavings.
  • The last option is to have water ready and then take the combustion chamber into an open area, dump all the fuel, and extinguish with water.


  • In the forced air Models fans are used, there could be sparks generated during the cooking process, so please keep away the combustible or highly inflammable things away from stove.
  • Please keep the stoves away from children, since the stove also sometimes get very hot during the process of cooking.
  • The smoke generated by these stoves is low, still let all the smoke out from your kitchen, living area -- more important to remember before you go to sleep in the night.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

Article Info

Categories: Candles Lamps and Fireplaces

Recent edits by: BDP3300, BR, Gameplayer35


Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 26,169 times.

Was this article accurate?


to wikiHow!

Edit this article