Building a Fire in your Rumford Fireplace:

If you have a Rumford fireplace, you know that things need to be done a little bit differently in order to get a fire going and keep it going. It is not as hard as it may sound, and the results are worth it. Great, hot fires await! There are just a couple of tricks that are different than a standard fireplace.

Essentially, you want to build a teepee fire against the back of the fireplace. It needs to be built in layers, and it is really a 1/2 teepee leaning against the back wall. Start by crumpling newspaper in the long direction, not into a ball, but into long strips. Lean it up against the back wall similar to the picture below.

Next, lean kindling up against the newspaper. Kindling about 1" across works well, like split 1x material. This holds the paper in place for the burn, and exposes the length of the kindling to the fire as the paper burns. It should look like this when the kindling is set.

Next, lean four or five small to medium split logs up against the kindling. In a 36" x 32" fireplace, 20"-22" kindling and logs work very well. Line the logs up along the width of the fireplace floor, close together to support combustion. In a few minutes, the kindling will turn into the bed of coals, and you will need to push the first logs to the back and center of the firebox and add more wood. As the fire increases in intensity, add larger diameter logs. These will keep burning longer, and you will not need to manage the fire as often as is needed with smaller logs.

Most of the time, when looking at pictures of Rumford fireplaces, no grate is used. It really is not needed for a good burn. In this case, the ash dump is also a combustion air vent. If kept open about 1/4" while burning, air for combustion is drawn in from the outside. If the vent was not there, air for combustion would be drawn through the house, taking the air heated by your furnace up the chimney and drawing cold air into the house from sources farther away from the chimney. With a combustion air vent, the source is very close to the fire, preserving the air in the heated interior of the house. Anyway, the grate is in this fireplace because it seemed like the wood sat on the cover for the vent, closing it. We tried to select a grate that was very low profile with not much surface area. Now the logs sit above the vent, not on it. There are a few different styles of combustion air intakes, and some are not right in the floor of the fireplace. Some are located in the hearth outside the firebox, and have metal covers set in the hearth. Talk to your mason before building your fireplace to select the right setup for your fireplace.

Like stated above, a grate is not needed for a good burn. Neither is the combustion air vent. If the vent is installed, it can offer some options for temperature control. When the vent is open, the fire needs to heat the air that comes in, and this can reduce the amount of radient heat offered to the room. If more heat in the fireplace is needed, close the vent, and the fire will feel hotter because less energy is required to heat the air that comes in. The firewood can also be warmed inside to maximize the heat the fire can offer. I was concerned about taking too much air from the house with this fireplace, but after experimenting, the flow of air into the fireplace seems to be fairly small. A candle flame burning in front of the fire when it is burning will gently pull toward the fire. The flow of air out of the house and into the fire seems minimal. Experiment with your fireplace to get the effect desired.

Lastly, light the paper at the bottom. In a few minutes, the whole thing is ablaze, and more wood will be needed to fill the space left by the kindling, which will be coals already. This method of firebuilding causes the fire to have a beautiful, upright presentation, radiating heat to the room. With the logs standing upright, air currents within the fire are directed upwards toward the throat keeping smoke going where it should. Remember to get a good screen to cover the fire. If there is a knot that pops, embers can fly pretty far.

All that is left is to enjoy the radiating heat, the atmosphere, and good conversation by the side of your fire!