A couple questions

You will burn through more wood that way and faster too. You would be losing a lot of heat up the flue.

chadd77 said:

I'm new to burning and have 2 questions.

My stove is on the basement and we use it to help heat the house. My question is... Is it bad for the stove to burn wide open? I can tell a difference when it is wide open compared to 1/4 or 1/2 way closed.

When our house was built a cap was never put on the top of our chimney. Is this recommended and if so how do you select the right cap?

Thanks for the help!

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What kind of stove do you have?

It very well could be if you are overfiring the stove.

Instead of running the stove with the air fully open, try adjusting the air to see if you can get stove top temperatures as hot or maybe even hotter with the air partially closed. The heat getting into the house depends on stove temperatures, not on how much wood you burn, so if you can keep the stove hot with less air burning less wood then I'd do it.

I think as long as you don't overheat the stove then you aren't damaging it, but I would keep an eye on the stove if you are leaving the air wide open. With my set-up I can leave the air fully open with a partial load, or at the beginning of the burn with a full load, but I can't leave the air wide open throughout the course of burning a full load or it will overheat, not to mention that I'll burn the wood faster than necessary to maintain hot stove temperatures. Also, with my set-up the draft changes depending on the weather and how hot the flue is, so sometimes I need to reduce the air setting sooner and set it lower than at other times.

The ability to get good, hot temps with the air control at lower settings depends a whole lot on the fuel. If it's good and dry, you can do it. If it isn't, it needs more air to burn.

So, what are you burning? How long cut, split and stacked? Do you have a moisture meter?

I would also guess that your stove manual states how hot is too hot. Air settings aren't as important as what the temperature actually is. Need a stovetop or IR thermometer.

chadd77 said:

oldspark said:

chadd77 said:

I'm new to burning and have 2 questions.

My stove is on the basement and we use it to help heat the house. My question is... Is it bad for the stove to burn wide open? I can tell a difference when it is wide open compared to 1/4 or 1/2 way closed.

When our house was built a cap was never put on the top of our chimney. Is this recommended and if so how do you select the right cap?

Thanks for the help!

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What kind of stove do you have?

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I have a qudra fire 5700.

I understand I'll burn more wood but I'll be using less propane to heat my house. I live in the woods and have enough wood to burn. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't hard on the stove.

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Chad, I have a 5700 as well. I agree, for the size of the fire box, the heat that comes off the stove is disappointing. I can tell you, being on my second season with this stove, I've figured out the best way to get heat out of this stove. Load it full. I then get the stove up to around 400 on the stove top temp, then shut the draft all the way off, maybe just have the draft open an 1/8 inch max. The stove will then go into a good secondary burn and reach temps of 700 on the stove top. Running the stove wide open or even half way seems like a waste of wood. You'll get more heat into your house damping it down with a good full load. Of course you need good dry wood or forget it. I too have an endless wood supply, but why burn more then you need to. Do you have the automatic start up draft or not? If you do I tell you what I do, works great.

I do not have a chimney cap and I don't think it is causing problems. It definitely makes cleaning easier.

chadd77 said:

Thanks for all the comments.

xclimber, I do not have the auto start up. My stove is a couple years old and it has the manual start up. I'll try loading it up again and chocking it back. I need to get a temp gauge so I can better monitor the stove temp. I'll have to check the manual but is there a certain degree the stove should not reach or it could cause damage?

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Pick up an IR gun if you can. That will show you the hottest part of your stove top. Then you'll know the best spot to place your surface temp gauge . Mine wound up being about 3 inches back on the lower shelf from where the stove bends up to go to the top shelf, lined up with the pipe. My manual said absolutely nothing about stove top temps. I called the factory and was told the 650-700 range is right where the stove will perform it's best. So I'd try slow and hot verses fast and hot. Fast and hot you'll be wasting heat up the flue. Slow and hot you'll keep a much longer even heat in the stove. Are you running a fan on yours? I have one and rarely use it. I think you get a nicer slower controlled burn with out it.

BeGreen said:

chadd77 said:

Thanks for all the comments.

xclimber, I do not have the auto start up. My stove is a couple years old and it has the manual start up. I'll try loading it up again and chocking it back. I need to get a temp gauge so I can better monitor the stove temp. I'll have to check the manual but is there a certain degree the stove should not reach or it could cause damage?

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Not to alarm you, but I think you are going to want to watch overfiring this stove very carefully. There was an issue with the secondary manifold welds on some of these units when run hot. Try to keep the stove top temp under 700F.

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My stove usually runs 600-650. The 700 temps have have maybe held for 30 minutes at most and then have stayed in the 600 range for the most part. I will have to take a look at the end of the season. Where did the welds fail, where the tubes are welded to the side brackets?

BeGreen said:

That is a separate issue. The weld failures are unrelated if I recall correctly. xclimber, top rear rack weld is what I recall. Search on 5700 weld and it should come up.

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OK, Thanks for the heads up BeGreen.

BeGreen said:

chadd77 said:

Thanks for all the comments.

xclimber, I do not have the auto start up. My stove is a couple years old and it has the manual start up. I'll try loading it up again and chocking it back. I need to get a temp gauge so I can better monitor the stove temp. I'll have to check the manual but is there a certain degree the stove should not reach or it could cause damage?

Click to expand...

Not to alarm you, but I think you are going to want to watch overfiring this stove very carefully. There was an issue with the secondary manifold welds on some of these units when run hot. Try to keep the stove top temp under 700F.

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Excellent point, I think you're living on the edge if you try and sustain stove-top temperatures at 700F. I shoot to sustain at 550-600F which means sometimes I go up to 700F on purpose, especially on on start up burn, but always cut back when I get there. I think most stoves or inserts like to run at 550-600F (stove top) for a optimal heat output/wood usage ratio. My stove-top gauge has the "best to operate" range that goes from a min of 400F to a max of 650F. Good advise to yourself, get a temp gauge, it will help you learn how to operate your stove/insert, I know it did for me. Of course not as much as this website does.

BeGreen said:

I think this was on the older models. Your stove may be new enough to have the fix.

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I know there was a problem with the sides of the stoves having cracks behind the heat shields, as I believe they made the metal brittle while welding the studs that held the fire brick brackets inside the stoves. Mine is a newer stove , outside that run of stoves. I looked anyways behind my shields, all was OK.