GARDECO Mexican Chimenea User Instructions - Page 3

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SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR CLAY CHIMENEA

This is a genuine Mexican design handmade by craftsmen in Mexico. Use your clay chimenea for warmth and

outdoor cooking. It is beautiful to look as a garden decoration.

Clay chimeneas are like outdoor radiators, the clay is heated by the fire and gentle warmth will radiate out.

It is not necessary to make a large fire, one or two logs is sufficient.

You can cook on clay chimeneas. The belly acts like an oven, so barbecuing or cooking a pizza is quick and

easy, so is using any of the Gardeco long-handled tools. Gardeco offer cast iron pots specifically designed to

fit into the top of the funnel cooking stews and soups quickly.

Clay chimeneas are fragile, so care needs to be taken to avoid damage. Clay chimeneas may CRACK, CHIP

OR BREAK if dropped or knocked over or due to thermal shock or if left outside in the frost.

To avoid dropping or knocking the chimenea over, handle the chimenea with care at all times.

Do not "let go" of the chimenea, particularly on hard floors, but gently lower it so there as little

impact as possible. Dropping a clay chimenea, even from 5cm high may break, crack or chip it. If

Transporting it in the car, make sure it is not allowed to move around, and we recommend the addition of

blankets or bubble-wrap. High winds may tip the chimenea over, so be mindful of where it is situated and

how to avoid this. Similarly, do not bang into the chimenea with hard or heavy objects. Do not throw fuel

into a clay chimenea. The impact may crack the clay or tip the chimenea over which is dangerous. Do not

drag or move a chimenea on its stand: it may fall off and break. To move a chimenea, lift it off the stand,

re-position the stand, and lift the chimenea back on. Gardeco supply special wheeled stands for larger

himeneas, so they can be moved around without having to take them off stands.

THERMAL SHOCK is a technical terms used to describe clay cracking due to the heat of the fire.

The main principle to avoid thermal shock is no large temperature variations in a short period of time, and

not too large a fire. Here is some advice to help prevent it:

- Before lighting, put 50 mm (2 inches) of Gardeco LAVA STONES or sand/gravel in the bottom to protect

the base from direct heat. Failure to do this may crack your clay chimenea.

- Start the fire with balled newspaper, dry kindling or Gardeco OCOTE sticks. NEVER use petrol or spirit

based lighting fuels. They may crack your chimenea.

- Do two or three small fires at first. This 'cures' the clay, making it harder and more resistant to

thermal shock. The more your chimenea is fired, the harder the clay becomes.

- It is essential to allow the clay chimenea to warm up slowly by keeping the fire small for the first 20

minutes (even after initial curing). Add more firewood but do not build a large roaring fire which may crack

the chimenea and is dangerous.

- Never feed fuel through the funnel of the chimenea.

- Do not over-fuel the chimenea. You are over-fuelling the chimenea if flames come out of the top of the

funnel. If flames are showing out of the funnel, do not add more fuel until the flames disappeared and no

longer visible outside of the chimenea. You may space the logs in the belly to reduce the flames.

- Be mindful of the outside temperature. The colder the air temperature, the more likely the occurrence

of thermal shock, because temperature difference is a factor in thermal shock.

- ALWAYS REMOVE the lid off the funnel when firing the chimenea. Failure to do so will increase the

tem perature inside the chimenea and may cause the chimenea to crack.

- Never extinguish the fire with water, this may crack the chimenea.

- The tell-tale signs of thermal shock are cracks appearing on the chimenea. Any cracks can be repaired

with Gardeco CHIM-FILLER which is a type of fire cement and the chimenea may continue to be used.

- Thermal shock may make a 'pinging' sound, and vertical or horizontal cracks will appear. Large cracks may

render the chimenea unsafe and we recommend that chimeneas with large structural cracks not be used

for fires.

- Thermal shock is not dependant on the age of the chimenea or the number of times it has been used and

may occur on the first firing.