Hi guys, I moved to Germany not long ago and rented a flat with one of these. Can I se it to burn whatever cardboard/ paper I have, or could I get in trouble for it?

by elias_powerhead

28 comments

  1. just don‘t burn plastic and you‘re fine. I mean you won‘t only heat your flat with waste paper, right? Right?!

  2. It is only intended for old car tires or biohazardous waste.

  3. I can’t tell you what the law is, but burning random crap can lead to chimney fires. You don’t want no chimney fire.

  4. It’s only for burning untreated wood / firewood. Paper and cardboard will produce a lot of ash, smoke and only little heat and is forbidden except for starting the fire. You’re also not allowed to burn trash, wax, oil and so on and that’s also dangerous.

  5. Paper and cardbord are fine to start the fire but for actual heat you’ll need wood.

  6. Firefighter here. These stoves usually only cause trouble if you burn stuff that´s not supposed to be burned in it (i.e. trash). There will be a buildup of soot in the stovepipe that, depending if and when it was cleaned last, might start to burn, which will put my colleagues on the plan, which will mean trouble with your landlord.

    Tl;dr: Do not use it to burn your trash (including paper packaging).

  7. Trouble.Theoretically… Legal is only throughoutly dried untreated wood or wood pellets (the larger ones You find in a Baumarkt, e.g.). This Kaminofen might also not be suitable for coal or Kohle- Briketts. The latter won’t harm but it will not warm much for their price tag… DIY cardboard or paper waste bricks are forbidden for decades now and just produce dust and cinders amass.

  8. You can use paper or cardboard to start the fireplace, but its only allowed to burn untreated wood products like log, sawdust, twigs and so on.

    Its not allowed to burn coloured, impregnated or treated wooden products.

    And of course its not allowed to burn plastic and other materials.

  10. Oh, the good ol all purpose burner! Yes it can burn everything like floor tiles, furniture, witches that live in candyhouses, annoying pets of annoying neighbours. Very useful. Have fun with it! 🙂

  11. Burning anything else than wood or briquettes is considered illegal waste disposal and can be fined with up to 100.000€ under German law

  12. Chimney sweeper here. Only untreated wood is allowed. As a firestarter u should use waxfilled sawdust balls. You can buy them in a hardwarestore. Look for Kaminanzünder mit wachs. Before you fire it up the first time i highly advise to take a look in the exhaust pipe. There should be an opemable part in it. Make sure theres not more than 1cm of soot on it from inside. If there is you need to let a kaminbauer clean it. You can watch him and do it yourself the next time. Also go down to where the chimney ends. Probably in the basement, youll have to figure that out. There should also be an openable part. Put a mirror in to look up at daytime and you will see light. If u dont, call your chimney sweeper. https://www.schornsteinfeger.de/
    Bevollmächtigter Bezirksschornsteinfeger. Put in your address and youll get the number of the official one from your area. The same guy probably will come to you at some point to clean your chimney. (not the exhaust pipe, thats your part) if he doesnt until same time next year, call him anyway.
    PS. Dont judt fire it up. Not worth the risk. You can mess up your whole apartment

  13. Only as a firestarter. These are for firewood only. Ask if coal is OK, if not do not use coal in there because it will destroy the protection bricks inside.

    Legends say it’s possible to turn on fire without paper, using extremely small bits of wood and the patience of gods.

  15. Additionally to all these responses which answer the question:
    The white device on the top is very likely a Carbon Monoxide Detector. I appreciate you have one. I recommend to put it near but not directly on top because the stove gets pretty hot there. Guess it would meld.

  16. Since it’s Germany, you aren’t even allowed to burn special kinds of wood. Anything else than wood is prohibbited, of course. But also oak, uncertified pine, most beech and similar. Only spuce is safe as long as it’s fulfilling the norms DIN-Holz-301 and -404. I’m making all this shit up of course

  18. I’d recommend you only use firewood. If you burn cardboard or paper it’ll produce very much smoke, maybe your neighbors will call the fire department

  19. Unpaid bills work really good! Allowed is only untreated wood, make sure it‘s very dry.

  20. Just burn everything you want.
    Dont listen to these pseudo ecologists.

  21. Also, learn to *propely* fire a stove up. Else it won’t heat up decently, stink and smoke like crazy.

  22. Check your manual – there ist a lot of wood possible. Real wood, compressed wood in different ways. Some can also use charcoal or even the little small wood (pellets) – but for sure you can use the wood, that’s looks like a part of a tree.

    But don’t try anything else, besides the dirt it produces in your chimney, neighbors can smell what you are burning – the Schornsteinfeger is coming for you 😉 and the bill.

    Edit: did forget. And there is a annual – if often used or two years – cleaning/checking appointment with your Schornsteinfeger.

  23. If you burn anything but well dried firewood, the Schornsteinfeger will know and will stillegen your Feuerstelle 😀

  24. For the sake of your neighbours health you should not use it at all…

  25. Use it only if you hate your lungs. No matter what you burn there the air quality at your home will be downgraded.

  27. I didn’t think an electrical outlet would be the most egregious thing about this post, but here we are.

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