Diabel, I have to say your setup must be much different than mine. I take off my flue collar 1x per year to get the ash down in the back areas and it is the biggest PITA. As much as I hate ladders, Id rather clean 50 of my chimneys 32 feet up. The only way to get at this area, I have to remove the whole horizontal piece of pipe then trying to get it lined up again is a bear….....

Unless its been SPLIT, then STACKED OFF OF THE GROUND (another essential use for free pallets), and spends at least one full Summer air drying (preferably in the sun) then its probably not going to be dry enough.  Sometimes those unsplit bucked logs seem dry, but they really aren’t, which is why many only start counting seasoning time after its been split and stacked off the ground.  The moisture meter probably isn’t going to help, those things usually aren’t all that accurate.  The dirty glass and inability to burn hot or sustain an everburn is all pretty much proof that your wood is too moist.  There probably isn’t a whole lot you can do about that this year, you can try mixing in a lot of pallet wood, super drying your wood by carefully stacking it around the stove for at least a few days before burning, not burning at all, or burning with the damper open and just accepting the short burn times and frequent reloads.

Central_PA_Chris - 06 February 2009 03:03 AM

That long burn load technique, so it’s sorta like vertical (12”?) bookends of splits on both sides with (agian around 12”? long) splits stacked horizontally in the middle?

Almost - but I’ve just been doing the vertical split on one end (next to the side load door).  The main horizontal load is probably more like 18 inches (since I use my 18” saw bar as a guide when I buck the wood).  I’ll take a picture of it if I remember…

Central_PA_Chris - 06 February 2009 03:03 AM

Sorry, my bad on the firewood explanation, it was cut to length, not full logs, probably 30% rounds that didn’t need to be split and most of the rest just needed halved and that did just get split this fall. No really big, many splits from a round, wood. All piled as if dumped from a dump truck that was slowly moving forward, pretty much surrounded by a gravel lot, so not in weeds and briers, it’s the bottom of that pyramid of wood that I suspect didn’t get seasoned. Maybe you hit it dead on, but it split as if dry, weighs in hand as if dry, pop a chunk of bark off and it’s bone dry underneath.  I’ve got other wood that’s in full tree form that I’m cutting and splitting now (for next year) that’s been downed for six months to a year with bark on and that stuff is wet, you can really feel the weight difference and the bark doesn’t come off at all while splitting.

Well, I’ve been pondering your post for the last 12 hours or so and went looking for moisture meters, found ok looking ones for $20 so I ordered one. If $20 can get me piece of mind, I’m buying. I hope your right and my wood is just too wet, that would give me a bunch of hope for next year (and motivation to keep splitting and stacking now).

dtabor - 06 February 2009 01:19 PM

Diabel, I have to say your setup must be much different than mine. I take off my flue collar 1x per year to get the ash down in the back areas and it is the biggest PITA. As much as I hate ladders, Id rather clean 50 of my chimneys 32 feet up. The only way to get at this area, I have to remove the whole horizontal piece of pipe then trying to get it lined up again is a bear….....

I think its a total PITA also.  I only do it once a year (before or after the burn season).  And I didn’t start cleaning above the shoe until after 2 seasons, but that job is simple, takes 5 minutes.

tradergordo - 05 February 2009 11:36 PM

Central_PA_Chris - 05 February 2009 03:09 PM

I will admit there are some not-perfectly dry logs mixed in, though the majority seem really dry. Basically I had a log pile sitting for a couple years and stacked it this fall, so the wood with ground contact is less than perfect, but the rest is probably as dry as I expect wood to get without superdrying or a kiln.

Sorry man, but dead trees lying on the ground for a couple of years rarely make for good firewood, doesn’t matter if you stacked them last fall or last spring.  Also, splitting and stacking wood in the fall might be OK if you are burning it a year later, but its definitely NOT good if you were planning to burn it over the next couple months.  Most people don’t even count seasoning time until its split and stacked, that means your wood has been seasoned for about 3 months.  That right there is going to give you a bad experience with just about any stove.  I suggest you go out and find a big pile of free pallets, cut them up, and burn that for a few days to see what the stove can do   In a pinch, you can just mix in pallet wood 50/50 with your crap wood and hope for the best but even that might not work so well.

I tell you the truth - I’ve definitely grown to like this stove better over time, particularly this year with the colder weather.  Its about 10 degrees here right now (which is pretty cold for Pennsylvania) and the stove is kicking butt, the house is 76 and I’ve been getting easy 9 hour burns every day pretty much all season.  I got an 11 hour burn today while at work, even though it never got above freezing today the house when I got home 11 hours later was still above 70 and there were enough coals to get a new fire going quickly (I discovered a new way of loading the firebox for ridiculously long burn times - not sure if it only works well when load time temps are teens or lower but that’s when I’ve been doing it - basically I put large splits in a vertical orientation on the edge of the firebox which burn slowly as the middle load coals in the everburn action).
Everything that has been said about the long learning curve with this stove and the need for very well seasoned wood is true. 

My only real big complaint/concern is the deteriorating rear (totally out of sight) refractory material that I and many others have noted.  Until that issue is resolved I couldn’t recommend the stove.  Although technically that part of the stove is supposedly covered by the lifetime warranty for those that actually have a valid warranty.

Tradergordo, could you elaborate on this method for longer burn times, it sounds great. do you stand splits verticle on ends of firtebox? what do you put in middle of firebox? arte all splits verticle?  thanks Mike

tradergordo - 06 February 2009 01:25 PM

Sometimes those unsplit bucked logs seem dry, but they really aren’t, which is why many only start counting seasoning time after its been split and stacked off the ground.

Do you have a reputable source to back that up? 

I’ve personally had no problem splitting and burning wood in the same day IF its been cut to 18” lenghts and covered for at least a year.

Wood dries extremely quickly along the end grain and slowly across the grain.  When you air dry lumber, the rule of thumb is one year per inch of thickness.  If the drying was happening along the “split edge” of the splits then 4” splits would take 3-4 years to dry out. 

You also want to seal the ends of lumber with wax, thick paint, or something similar so that the wood at the ends does not dry out too quickly and shrink first splitting the lumber.  A few times I haven’t sealed the ends and they always check for ~1’ from either end within the first few months of drying.

dtabor - 06 February 2009 01:19 PM

Diabel, I have to say your setup must be much different than mine. I take off my flue collar 1x per year to get the ash down in the back areas and it is the biggest PITA. As much as I hate ladders, Id rather clean 50 of my chimneys 32 feet up. The only way to get at this area, I have to remove the whole horizontal piece of pipe then trying to get it lined up again is a bear….....

My pipe goes 6’ vertical at which point I have a 45 angle. This six foot section is a telescopic double wall pipe, all I do is remove the three screws & lift the pipe up about two feet & I am ready for cleaning. If this was all fixed I imagine it sure would be PITA!

I just had a thought….you can reach that area (back of the refactory) with a small flexible hose (say 1” thick, HD sell all kinds of these) through the firebox/damper area. Just attach the hose to your shop vac or vacuum hose even with duct tape. The suction might be somewhat weaker but it will work.

Thanks for the replies.

As was stated, lift the grate and the shoe easily pulls right out. Gasket came apart also. Super easy to do. I see no reason not to do it as regular maintenace.

I’ll pull the flue collar and vacuum the backside of the refractory over the weekend since a warmup is in the forecast. Probably run the brush down the chimney pipe too.

You will see, she will run like a champ!

Yeah, the chimney could never be too clean, when I clean the back of the refactory I always run the brush through the chimney.