how to use wood stove?

Usually you'll want to burn with your door closed unless starting the fire or loading. An outside air kit may help you some for you draft issue but you also have to consider natural air movement in your house. Basement installs work great for some people and others have trouble heating two floors. Keep the existing airflow of the house in mind when placing the stove. Having a stove installer come out and look at the specific installation and layout of your home would help you immensly. Maybe the next time you have your stove cleaned aske the sweep what their opinion is?

Your wood stove should be burned with the door closed, if it dosent burn well closed there is some other problem either green wood or bad chimney draft or something. A wood stove with the door open is nothing but a metal fireplace. If it has a blower than its still a fireplace just with a blower.

I think you have other problems.

A stove will run like a blow tourch with the door open and burn out in a few hours just like a fire place. You need to find your air control and limit the air into the stove to slow the burn down to allow a long burn.

You want to have a flue dedicated to the wood stove that is about the right size/diameter (probably the size of the pipe coming out of the stove) the whole way up, and without any leaks or connections. That is to say if the chimney flue is connected to another appliance or much larger than the pipe coming out of the stove, then you will have problems. The flue should be continuous and end at least 15 ft higher than the stove. Take a look at the flue to see if it is clogged. You can have accumulations of creosote, which is stuff from the smoke that condenses in the flue. This will look like a layer on the inside of the flue. if you see any noticeable accumulation you definitely should have the flue cleaned. You should probably do that anyway. Another flue problem could be regular old trash, leaves, birds nests, etc. The flue is the part of the system that sucks air into the stove and so the flue is very important.

When you say you are leaving the door open, do you mean the stove door or the door the room? You should definitely be able to close the door to the stoe and have a good fire with just the four holes in the door. You should probably have to close the holes part way to keep the fire under control. If you are having trouble with the room door closed you have tightly constructed house.

Firewood causes most wood stove problems. Oak is notoriously slow to dry and I bet yours isn't dry yet. You might try bying some of the compressed sawdust bricks that they sell in hardware stores, home depot, etc. and build a fire with those plus kindling. If everything is working right a fire with those bricks should be nice and hot even with the door of the stove closed.

Finally, not everyone can have an overnight fire due to the size of their stove. I can't. You should be able to get 4 or 6 hours even with a small stove, but I would not try to over-extend your burn. If your turn the air down too much you'll just smoulder the wood, you'll get creosote accumulations in the flue, and you won't get much heat. It is better to have a fire that is a little hotter, with at least some flames, and then just restart the fire in the morning.

lmei007 said:

Ok, it looks like it is not that simple to use a wood stove properly.

We have two chimenys with 5 flues. The one has three flues is used by two fireplaces (basement and first floor) and oil furnace (swtiched to gas and moved to another room, so this flue is not in use now.)
The one with two flues is used by wood stoves (first floor and basement). Basement wood stove is not in use, we only use the first floor wood stove now. we bought this house 4 yrs ago. we didn't inspect/clean this chimney before. we started to use this wood stove last year. The exhaust pipe (about 6") of the stove goes up about 3ft then 90 degree to horizontal and then turn 90 degree forward about 2ft goes into the chimney.

the wood is from an oak tree cut down in 2009 spring. Last year, we burned its smaller branches and some frames from basement. this year, i splitted some of its bigger branches in Oct. Before I split them, they are under the sun shine for a summer.

There are only four square holes (about 1.5") on the doors. if I close the door, those four holes are enough to provide air?

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Good info by others but I'll add that your oak is not ready to burn yet! You cut it down in 2009 but apparently did not split the wood then so the time between when it was cut and when it was split do not count as drying time. That wood needs to be split so it can release the moisture and oak releases it very slowly. You state that you split some of the branches in October so that means that wood has only 2 months of drying time! Around these parts we allow 2-3 years minimum for drying oak.

+1 for draft issue. The Atlanta isn't an airtight stove! If you can't get THAT one to burn, a new onw will never perform. Get a good chimney guy out there, and seriously consider a basement heater. There's just nothing better than walking around barefoot on a warm floor!! Keeps the mess out of sight, and solves the cold-air-moving-through-the-house problem too.

DID i understand there are 2 90 degree bends and 2 ft. horizontal before entering the flue??? Yeeeeeeesh.

Reading lmei007's second post he does have a dedicated flue for the stove - Its in a 2 flue chimney (correct me if I'm wrong lmei007)

As others stated I see at least two major issues, maybe more:


#1 Have ALL those flues swept and inspected by a professional sweep. You could have massive buildup from the previous owner, especially with that old smoke dragon stove. Its just a good idea to have a chimney inspected when you buy a house and yearly cleanings are a must - either hire it out or learn to do it yourself (Its easy and the good folks here can teach).

#2 Dennis knows his wood. That oak is NOT dry unless its been split for 1-2 years. You cannot split it right before you burn with any wood.

So its a combination of wet wood and a potentially too restrictive flue causing your issues. Fix both and that old stove will burn like a blast furnace with the door closed. Then we will talk to you about upgrading to an EPA stove for even better results While your at it running a full steel liner up the chimney wont hurt either.


BTW, how old/ big is your home. With that may chimneys I'm betting you live in a cool old house so of course I want to hear more....

lmei007 said:

Thank you for all your help. I learnt a lot from you guys.

Is it too late to do chimney sweep? Temperature is lower and the roof may be easy damaged by person step on it.

I will cut my wood early next year.

I found it is much warmer burning with stove door opened and the rooms can get more heat from the stove. If that is also true for you guys, why we need to close the door and let more heat lost via chimney?

My house is a 1600sqft ranch house, not that big. It was built in 1950. It is old but not that bad. I am making it warmer year after year via insulation, stop draft, ....

Happy New Year and stay warm!

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Never too late to do a sweep! Next year's wood should already be put up so please hurry.

By burning with the doors open, the fire will be cooler simply because so much air is allowed in. By closing the doors you will keep more heat in the house....so long as you handle the draft right. If you burn with draft full open or even half open, you are losing heat up the chimney.

Happy New Year to you too!

lmei007 said:

the wood is from an oak tree cut down in 2009 spring. Last year, we burned its smaller branches and some frames from basement. this year, i splitted some of its bigger branches in Oct. Before I split them, they are under the sun shine for a summer.

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This is your problem. Youre trying to burn oak you split 2 months ago. It wont burn in any stove. A fireplace yes, but it will smolder like it does for all of my neighbors when they burn green wood in their stoves.

Yea the door open is no good! YOur wood is not dry enough. Does this stove have a blower on it? If its a free standing stove point a fan on low at it to move air across it. Dont burn with the door open your wasting wood, and its a fire hazard, something pops out you not in the room and you burn your house down!