Finally hooked up and burning

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sharpclaws

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Aug 14, 2006
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We finally had the last inspection yesterday. We lit it up last night and what a nightmare. The fire alarms kept going off. We opened every window so of course now the house is freezing. How long does this last. The smell was bad.
This morning he fired it up again and made a bigger fire. The alarms went off again!! Will this ever stop. HELP
 
It will but burn small fires for short durations. remember as it gets colder your draft works better
 
How far from the stove are the alarms?
 
sharpclaws said:
We finally had the last inspection yesterday. We lit it up last night and what a nightmare. The fire alarms kept going off. We opened every window so of course now the house is freezing. How long does this last. The smell was bad.
This morning he fired it up again and made a bigger fire. The alarms went off again!! Will this ever stop. HELP
Click to expand...

This varies from stove to stove. What kind of stove is it? Assuming that this is just the oils on the stove or new paint breaking in, it will get better each time. My method is to open the windows first, then start the stove and burn a small fire. Windy days are the best. After about 3-4 burns the stove should stop smoking and you can start enjoying it.
 
The stove is a Hampton H300. I didnt see any smoke, I believe it was the smell that was setting the alarms off. We will light it again tonight and hope it isnt as bad. Should we have a bigger fire, will that burn the newness smell off faster?
 
Contact the manufacturer to get some assistance. They are the best there is at after sales service.
 
Open doors, put fans in doorways blowing outside (yes it will be cold, but part of the fun !) :) . Ours did this, no big problem, most, if not all operating manuals describe this burn off period, even my gas furnace did this at first.

Batteries can be removed from fire alarms during this period, but leave covers hanging down so you will remember to reinstall them, or put batteries in a place where you will for sure notice them soon after burn in.


This is annoying but well worth the problem of smelling it for a little while, at least to me.

When we lit ours, it smelled for a couple days and we ran pretty hot fires, then it slowly got less.


Robbie
 
Thanks everyone, the person who installed it came over today. He did say it would do it less and less. We did have all the windows open and we did have to disconnect the alarms. We will hook them back up. It was quite cold in the house last night. People driving by must of thought we were crazy. At least it's not the dead of winter so that was good. I am looking forward to relaxing in front of the fire and not freezing......
 
When my HI300 was installed I had a couple of interesting smells... as does everyone else. I burned very small fires for the first week, every day. Then I burned hotter fires for longer durations after that and after a couple of weeks it was all go. However, I'm not sure how cold it is where you are so you may end up with the smell for a while until the burning season is really gets under way. Don't rush this though. If you get it too hot too soon I hear that you run the risk of the enamel cracking and the refractory bricks breaking. Take that with a grain of salt, but a little caution and patience may save you big bucks even if you have to live with the smell for a few days.

I think the worst of the smell for me was from the refractory bricks. They wasn't pleasant, but it's all gone now.
 
Stoveguy said:
Contact the manufacturer to get some assistance. They are the best there is at after sales service.
Click to expand...
do you mean dealer? manufactures are the worst for after the sales service. Manufactures just tell you to call your dealer, unless you bought from a direct from manufacture like Woodstock, or a big box store stove like englander, where they, and others like them, choose to service the customer instead of requiring the dealerto do it..
 
MountainStoveGuy said:
do you mean dealer? manufactures are the worst for after the sales service. Manufactures just tell you to call your dealer
Click to expand...

I agree, I called Hearthstone and got twice. "Are you a dealer of ours? No, a consumer. I apologize, our policy is not to talk to consumers they need to be directed towards your local Hearthstone dealer. I did, they didn't know the answer. Please hold... what is your question sir? My question is .... please hold... okay I'll transfer you to the appropriate individual who will handle your question please communicate with your local Hearthstone dealer for any future issues". That was last year right before things really got busy for all manufactures.
 
I fired up my new Woodstock last year and I thought someone threw tear gas into the house.

On the third fire, I really fired it up. It was really bad... then it went away several hours afterward.
 
We bought from a local dealer in our town. He's been in business for 15 years and they are wonderful. I guess it will take practice on our part to find how
best to burn. Right now it's 80 degrees in the room the stove is in. But not really cold outside yet anyways. We just want to practice. We do notice that when we move the valve about halfway it seems to stay steady then we seem to lose the fire and it is just hot coals. Should we keep it wide open and keep putting wood in or fill the stove with wood and turn it low. Just going crazy trying to figure out the best way. I thought I would see more of a fire and not hot coals. The good news is the smell is gone that we had the first night.
 
patience grasshopper.

It will take more then a few practice runs to know your stove inside and out. the best way to tell if your doing things right, once the fire is established, if you choke it down to soon the flue will emit smoke. if the fire was ready to be turned down then the flue gass would be clear. It will take you a season to know every little in and out of your stove. Dealers can only help with so much with this becuase house dynamics and firewood play a large part. Remember, if the flue is clear your doing it right. Expect smoke at start up and when you add fuel. thats it.
A big mistake the new stove owners make is choking the stove down to soon, what happens is you plug the cap, and then its a early service call thats not free. So when in doubt, these first few months, burn with it wide open. You know your burning clean when its open.
 
I agree with a caveat... as long as one isn't overfiring the stove. Think of the air control as a valve. Generally, you want to gradually take the stove up to temperature, then burn hot (air valve wide open) for about 30 minutes. Then close down the air control until you maintain a comfortable temperature.

Do you have a stove thermometer? It can really help one learn about the stove and assist in regulating its output. If not, get one and place it on the top of the stove. That will help you watch for overfiring. The manual is a bit thin on burning details, but I would try to not exceed 600 degrees until you know the stove better or your dealertells you otherwise.

This method of burning is often is not condusive to lots of dancing yellow flames. Once the air control is dampered down, the flames will get lazier and often tinged with blue. But you'll get to enjoying the show nonetheless. I love watching secondary combustion now.
 
MountainStoveGuy said:
patience grasshopper.

It will take more then a few practice runs to know your stove inside and out. the best way to tell if your doing things right, once the fire is established, if you choke it down to soon the flue will emit smoke. if the fire was ready to be turned down then the flue gass would be clear. It will take you a season to know every little in and out of your stove. Dealers can only help with so much with this becuase house dynamics and firewood play a large part. Remember, if the flue is clear your doing it right. Expect smoke at start up and when you add fuel. thats it.
A big mistake the new stove owners make is choking the stove down to soon, what happens is you plug the cap, and then its a early service call thats not free. So when in doubt, these first few months, burn with it wide open. You know your burning clean when its open.
Click to expand...

Man that is well said. I thought I had it pretty well figured out with the first few fires, didn't see a lot of creosote, but was burning a little too choked down, thinking it conserves wood. In actuallity, I think it makes too "cool" a fire, and that you get less heat per cord this way. A fair amount of air with a nice clean burn and good secondary flame does good things, then use the thermal mass of even a steel stove to radiate for an hour or 2 before reloading. I found regulating heat output with how often and how much I loaded, as opposed to how much I choked the air supply, worked much better. Still learning and playing after several years.

Bri
 
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