How to heat up a firewood samovar

In the firewood samovars furnace is meant for loading coal, small wood pieces or combination of them. But just to load fuel is not enough. One should know the order and rules of heating samovar. If you do things in a correct way a samovar will boil in 10-15 minutes. If you break the rules you can wait much longer for your tea – half an hour and more.

First you should choose a safe place to heat a fireplace samovar – only on the street and on the stand not higher than 30-50 cm (1-1,5 feet). If you use a table as a stand it will be difficult to load coal or wood. The constant flow of fresh air will create good drought and heating will go smoother and faster. After the samovar starts boiling the furnace pipe is closed with a cover and samovar can be brought to the house.

To avoid risk of coals falling on wooden surfaces and starting a fire it is better to put samovar on a metal or ceramic stand.

One should heat samovar up with warm and hot coals. They could be warmed up on a stove or in a grill beforehand.

Before loading coals you should put up the fire with kindling and birchbark. It is better to use birch-tree. It lightens up faster and burns stronger than other trees. Small wooden pieces are lit before loading to the furnace. As the strong fire appears wooden or stone coal is loaded. After that exhausting pipe is mounted. Fuel and wood are loaded gradually.

Difference between coal and wood heating up of samovar – the furnace should be cleaned with a hard brush after every tea-party if splinter was burned, and coals practically don’t leave and grime or resin.

Universal order for heating up of a samovar - wood chips or birchbark, coal, wood. Thin wood is used to lighten up the fire, carbonium gives strong heat from below, splinters keep the temperature and bring aroma to the tea. After boiling wood keeps hot water longer than coal.