Even experienced folks can do some dumb things!

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Backwoods Savage

Backwoods Savage

Minister of Fire
Feb 14, 2007
27,811
Michigan
I just had to laugh and then figured I'd post this. As everyone knows, when you start a new fire or reload, you set the draft to full open. Well, last night I put in 3 splits and went to bed. Naturally that did not give too much heat but the house has been very comfortable. Now, the outside temperature is finally down below freezing again so I figured it was about time to get the stove going.

I put in some ash, soft maple and 1/4 of a super cedar. Lit the stove and left the door cracked just a little. The fire got going nicely in short order so I closed and latched the door. After about 10 minutes I looked and the danged fire went out. Hum... I cracked the door again and it came back to life. Another 10 minutes went by and no flame in the stove. What is going on here? This is not normal at all. But wait! I opened the bypass but for some unknown reason never opened the draft. Wow. Talk about a rookie mistake. lol

So now the stove is running nicely and it took very little time to get it roaring. Now the cat is engaged, the draft set on 1 and heat is coming. Can I chalk this one up to a senior moment?
 
Nah, it's your wood. :lol:
 
i know the feeling dennis. i did this about a month ago. i loaded some pieces in they caught really nice and i shut the door and it went to a lazy flame after about 25 minutes it got going ok then i look and the t stat was set at 2. yep. wasn't the first time and probably won't be the last.
 
You might be onto something there BeGreen.

Bobby, I hope you could laugh at it like I did.
 
I call those moments brain farts. Worst one I had this year was leaving the door unlatched.
 
Be careful. Brain farts around open fires can be mindblowing!
 
Geeze, maybe we should rename this thread to "Dumb thing's I've done." But that would probably overwork the software because there might be an overload. :lol:
 
Nah, I think we've all done them at one time or another. It happens.
 
Rookie mistakes; summer job home from college. They needed one guy to drive dump truck at the end of the job. Yours truly got the job. Loader operator drove me to where the dump site was in his POV. We came back, he loaded me up for my first run. Approximately one hour later, when I approached the loader on foot, Gene shut off the engine and said "you forgot to unlatch the dump gate didn't you?"

We had to drive the loader to the dump site and pull the front end of the dump truck back to the ground with chains and then dump the load. Only happened one time, really.

How about I keep it relative by saying I was hauling firewood? (was that a lie or a damn lie?)

Bill in the U.P.
 
why worry about senior moments. Just season your wood for 600 years like me. Working on 2650/2651 this weekend.
sorry couldn't help it.
 
Dennis, thats happens nearly everyday at my house and not by me. When I leave for work I have the stove loaded, hot and draft set fully closed and temps in the 500-600 range. At about midnight my wife will reload before I get home and she never touches the draft setting no matter how much I preach it takes air to support combustion she just shakes her head and says I don't have time to mess with your stove. You want more wood, I put it in for you! Lucky for me a 41' chimney can overcome her lack of attention.
 
Full moon.
Seems to amplify brain farts sometimes.
 
Dennis,

I am pretty certain wood split on horizontal splitter would have fired right up, even without the draft.......thanks for the laugh.
 
OK...my turn...well...

last night I loaded the stove, got the fire roaring in the fire box, set the t'stat to the normal overnight setting, watched TV for about an hour and went of to bed. Woke up this morning and noticed the house temp dropped about 6 degrees overnight and the cat temp was kind of low, but still active. So, I turned up the t'stat a little and turned on the fans to get the house back up to temperature, but the cat temp never rose...took me about a half hour to figure out I never closed the bypass last night so I never technically engaged the cat. I guess there was enough leakage around the bypass damper to get the cat temp up into the active range but not high enough to keep the house temp up.
 
Fdegree, will that create any issue with the cat? Plugging, etc...?

Bill in the U.P.

fdegree said:
OK...my turn...well...

last night I loaded the stove, got the fire roaring in the fire box, set the t'stat to the normal overnight setting, watched TV for about an hour and went of to bed. Woke up this morning and noticed the house temp dropped about 6 degrees overnight and the cat temp was kind of low, but still active. So, I turned up the t'stat a little and turned on the fans to get the house back up to temperature, but the cat temp never rose...took me about a half hour to figure out I never closed the bypass last night so I never technically engaged the cat. I guess there was enough leakage around the bypass damper to get the cat temp up into the active range but not high enough to keep the house temp up.
Click to expand...
 
Maybe your wood's too dry! Tough to get old, don't I know. Be safe Dennis
Ed
 
fdegree said:
OK...my turn...well...

last night I loaded the stove, got the fire roaring in the fire box, set the t'stat to the normal overnight setting, watched TV for about an hour and went of to bed. Woke up this morning and noticed the house temp dropped about 6 degrees overnight and the cat temp was kind of low, but still active. So, I turned up the t'stat a little and turned on the fans to get the house back up to temperature, but the cat temp never rose...took me about a half hour to figure out I never closed the bypass last night so I never technically engaged the cat. I guess there was enough leakage around the bypass damper to get the cat temp up into the active range but not high enough to keep the house temp up.
Click to expand...
With the by-pass open the probe will still show a decent temp ..it picks up the stove top temp also.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
I just had to laugh and then figured I'd post this. As everyone knows, when you start a new fire or reload, you set the draft to full open. Well, last night I put in 3 splits and went to bed. Naturally that did not give too much heat but the house has been very comfortable. Now, the outside temperature is finally down below freezing again so I figured it was about time to get the stove going.

I put in some ash, soft maple and 1/4 of a super cedar. Lit the stove and left the door cracked just a little. The fire got going nicely in short order so I closed and latched the door. After about 10 minutes I looked and the danged fire went out. Hum... I cracked the door again and it came back to life. Another 10 minutes went by and no flame in the stove. What is going on here? This is not normal at all. But wait! I opened the bypass but for some unknown reason never opened the draft. Wow. Talk about a rookie mistake. lol

So now the stove is running nicely and it took very little time to get it roaring. Now the cat is engaged, the draft set on 1 and heat is coming. Can I chalk this one up to a senior moment?
Click to expand...

Are you burning your wood vertical or horizontal? :coolsmirk:

zap
 
Backwoods Savage said:
I just had to laugh and then figured I'd post this. As everyone knows, when you start a new fire or reload, you set the draft to full open. Well, last night I put in 3 splits and went to bed. Naturally that did not give too much heat but the house has been very comfortable. Now, the outside temperature is finally down below freezing again so I figured it was about time to get the stove going.

I put in some ash, soft maple and 1/4 of a super cedar. Lit the stove and left the door cracked just a little. The fire got going nicely in short order so I closed and latched the door. After about 10 minutes I looked and the danged fire went out. Hum... I cracked the door again and it came back to life. Another 10 minutes went by and no flame in the stove. What is going on here? This is not normal at all. But wait! I opened the bypass but for some unknown reason never opened the draft. Wow. Talk about a rookie mistake. lol

So now the stove is running nicely and it took very little time to get it roaring. Now the cat is engaged, the draft set on 1 and heat is coming. Can I chalk this one up to a senior moment?
Click to expand...

I don't do stuff like that! :-S
 
BillsWS said:
Fdegree, will that create any issue with the cat? Plugging, etc...?

Bill in the U.P.
Click to expand...

I don't know for sure...my feeling is probably not. Although, if the wood is too wet, and the bypass is open too long (I don't know what would be considered too long), it may create a problem.

After closing the bypass yesterday morning, and a fresh load last night, it seems to be performing as usual. Last night, after reloading, the cat temp went up near the maximum point on the scale...BKVP (Chris) has mentioned that burning the cat hot does clean it. So, I think I'm OK. I guess I'll find out as time goes by.
 
It happens Savage. I'm not senior but am guilty as well.

Did a dumb one last week. Tried loading some logs on very low coals and didn't feel like using kindling for some reason. Wood sat there for a few minutes and hadn't done anything so I figured I'd crack the door open for a min to help give the coals some air (leaving the door cracked is something I just normally do not do)

As the fire took off I went up to the stove and started adjusting things as normal until the air was fully closed. Figured it was just a good draft, then came back another 10 minutes later to see the thing still ripping, and got to thinking WOW, what's going on outside and gave the stove pipe damper a bit of a turn (which I never do) and about the time I did that I realized that I never rememberd to latch the door tightly, it was sitting there just barely cracked.

doh. That'll teach me for trying to mess with a routine.

pen
 
pen said:
about the time I did that I realized that I never rememberd to latch the door tightly, it was sitting there just barely cracked.

pen
Click to expand...

Martini Monday perhaps? :lol:

Seriously though, that same thing happened to me once this year. (Now I don't feel as stupid since it has happened to some of my "Fire Idols" here).
I now try to stay in close proximity after I put wood in the stove, it is very easy to get distracted especially if you are in the middle of cooking dinner or doing laundry etc, etc. I usually use this time wisely...to clean up the rest of the mancave.. >:-(

Can you guess how many times I "check" to make sure the stove door is closed now before I leave the house in the morning? I ain't tellin....I am a lil obsessive.
You guyz don't even want to hear about my "ash removal technique." :shut:
 
You guys are silly, some of the best fires I have had was when I forgot to turn the stove down. :ahhh:
 
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