How to light smokeless fuel

18 Oct 2026 · Lighting

Kindling and small logs catching light beside dark briquettes — Kindling and small dry logs first. The briquettes go on once there is a hot bed.

Smokeless briquettes do not catch from a match the way dry kindling does. They need a hot bed. The reliable order is kindling, then a few small logs, then the fuel.

Before you light anything

Have the chimney swept if you do not know when it last was.
Open the damper, the stove vents and any air control. A fire starved of air smokes and goes out.
Use a grate, or the stove’s own grate, so air can come up from below.
Have a carbon monoxide alarm in the room. One is required when a solid fuel appliance is installed, and it belongs on an existing open fire as well.
Use no petrol, paraffin or other flammable liquid. A natural firelighter or a twist of newspaper under the kindling is enough.

Lay the fire

A loose layer of kiln-dried kindling, with gaps. Air has to move through it.
Two or three small dry logs on top, still with gaps. Light the paper or firelighter underneath.
Leave the stove door, or the front of an open fire, open enough for the flames to take. Wait until there is a bed of flame and glowing embers, rather than a pile of smoke.
Add a few briquettes so they sit in the heat. Two or three is enough at first. Leave space between them. Large ovals want more room than the smaller Brazier or Oxbow pieces.
When those are alight, add more. Keep the bed shallow until the fire is established. A heap of cold briquettes on a new flame puts it out.
Once the fuel is burning, set the air for a steady fire. Shutting every vent at once will smoke the room.

At the end of the evening, let the fire burn down. Do not pour water on a grate indoors.

If it will not draw

Stop, and let it go out. A blocked flue, a closed damper or a very cold chimney is a sweep’s job. Adding more fuel, or a bigger flame, makes a smoky room worse.

Smoke control rules still apply. Use an authorised fuel, or an exempt appliance. Smoke control areas and what you can burn has the outline, and the council or the Defra map has the postcode. The fuels themselves are compared on the price board, and the size that suits a new grate is in what to buy for a first fireplace.