Why won’t my Esse Bakeheart draw properly?

I’m posting this in case it might help someone else.

Our Esse Bakeheart woodburner was working fine until the chimney needed sweeping and the installers had not fitted a flue access door. They came to put that right and then the chimney sweep did her job and the fire has not drawn properly since. That was nearly 3 years ago.

The fire is not an essential piece of equipment in our house except in power cuts so this problem has not received my undivided attention. Google searches over the years haven’t helped even when I narrowed it down to the possibility that perhaps the firebricks had not been refitted correctly. The hint was that the sloping firebrick at the back could easily fall out.

Anyway the problem has now been solved I’m very pleased to say. It turns out that the fire bricks were in the right place but the two metal plates supporting them were the wrong way around. The one that was supposed to be at the front was at the back and vice versa. These plates look the same but on close inspection one has a slightly longer lip along one edge. This one needs to go at the back. With this plate at the back the sloping firebrick is held more securely and everything is working fine.

I hope this solves your problem. Please leave a comment if it has.

[Addendum 29-Dec-2025]
I’m adding this image in response to the first comment on the post.

This is what my “working” Esse looks like. My advice is that if your Esse Bakeheart is not drawing properly, and you’ve tried everything else, then remove those metal plates and refit them the other way around to see if that solves the problem.