starting to use my stove, new to cord wood heating

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ad356

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Dec 25, 2009
156
north java, ny
well I have had a couple of fires in it. all I can say is that love wood heat. I know its not really cold out yet but I think its going to do just fine. I had a face cord delivered and im getting another face cord Monday, 2 face cords should be plenty to hold me over all winter in my barn since im no living out there. right now I have been burning up some old pallets just to get rid of them and learn how to run the stove. it was 40 degrees outside so I was running the stove with the damper most of the way closed and the air inlet open just a crack. so how do I want to run this stove once it starts to get really cold out? do I want the air inlet most of the way open and the draft open a little more but not all of the way, if its all of the way open I would be letting most of the heat out of the chimney, am I correct??

I never ran a cord wood stove, so a little advice is welcome. right now im burning scraps but I have some wonderful hardwood 2 year seasoned that im going to be burning, this stuff smells awesome. not sure what variety of wood it, but if the smell is any indication its going to put out some great heat.

I was also wondering why my neighbor's stove produces smoke and I had no smoke. they burn with a much more expensive lopi stove, I currently have that us stove logwood 1261 which no-one here seems to like but I think it seems to be pretty good for barn heater. I don't need anything exotic out there. I would not want this stove in a living space as its not a sealed unit and I could see it leaking carbon monoxide. out the barn, it has to be better then a stinky, nasty, loud torpedo heater. those things are ok as a temporary source of heat in an emergency. not to mention those things aren't cheap to run. $25 to fill the kerosene can and your lucky if that lasts 4-5 hours of smelly heat.
 
what's the best thing to use for kindling if I run out of the small sticks I have collected. I would wondering if I were to lay down some pellets in the bottom of the stove? does that work, I mean just to get logs started. pellets are much easier to ignite. I usually use a torch to get my stoves going so that helps but it still isn't quite enough to ignite a larger piece of wood.
 
ad356 said:
what's the best thing to use for kindling if I run out of the small sticks I have collected. I would wondering if I were to lay down some pellets in the bottom of the stove? does that work, I mean just to get logs started. pellets are much easier to ignite. I usually use a torch to get my stoves going so that helps but it still isn't quite enough to ignite a larger piece of wood.
Click to expand...
Get some super cedars, you don't even need kindling when you use one, I bought a case two years ago and I have still have 3/4's left.
 
see that you stated that you just got a couple deliveries of wood. Well, if you do a bunch of reading here you find the mantra that what ever you buy this year likely won't be dry enough to properly burn until next year or the year after. So with that in mind keep bustin up those pallets as they are generally dry enough and mix the wood you just bought with that 50/50, other wise you will be back complaining about operation.
 
To run a new stove with burn tubes (non-cat) the quick and easy lesson on how to run:

1. Get dry wood.
2. Start fire.
3. Get the stove good and hot.
4. Start turning stove down slowly in increments letting it sit for a while at each stage. Do this until the air is turned almost all the way down.

At this point the fire should be pouring out of the secondary burn tubes. It'll burn this way for about 2 hours and then will stop coming out of the burn tubes and just look like a big pile of very hot logs. Let this go for 2 to 5 hours in this stage and then reload once you are down to just some hot coals. Don't try and reload every two hours.

This stove will not release any gasses into the room, they will all go up the flue. The term airtight is an older term that has been supplanted.
 
i bought firewood that is 2 years seasoned, its not like the trees came down yesterday; im an expecting it to burn great since it is not green.
 
If you managed to buy firewood that was split two years ago and kept around by a firewood dealer for two years, then you shouldn't play the lottery because you already used up all of your good luck. :) What kind of wood is it?
 
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not sure of the variety, he is cutting the wood right now but the trees were cut down 2 years ago. im not an expert at wood types, but i know its not pine. it also smells great. this guy has been selling firewood for a long time, nearly everyone around here that buys firewood gets it from him, i have yet to hear any complaints
 
ad356 said:
not sure of the variety, he is cutting the wood right now but the trees were cut down 2 years ago. im not an expert at wood types, but i know its not pine. it also smells great. this guy has been selling firewood for a long time, nearly everyone around here that buys firewood gets it from him, i have yet to hear any complaints
Click to expand...
Unfortunately if he just cut the wood and split it it's not properly seasoned, just cutting the trees down doesn't dry them out enough. I just picked up some maple rounds from someone that had the tree cut 3 years ago, he's had the rounds sitting on a pallet for 3 years, I split them today and water gushed out when the splitter first pushed into them. You won't get most of the drying done until the wood is split.
 
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ad356 said:
i have yet to hear any complaints
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Maybe your neighbor buys from them. ;lol
The biggest reason yours doesn't smoke is because that stove is as you know very leaky. It's letting in so much air that it can't really smoke and you are burning scrap wood. Your neighbors are burning cord wood, it's likely unseasoned and their stove is tight, so when they reduce the air too far, it smokes. You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to run a modern stove properly, they are really missing out.

Here is an example of wood that is "seasoned" The first pic was standing dead for 5 years, the second had leaves on it when it was cut the same day.
 

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aansorge said:
4. Start turning stove down slowly in increments letting it sit for a while at each stage. Do this until the air is turned almost all the way down.

At this point the fire should be pouring out of the secondary burn tubes. It'll burn this way for about 2 hours and then will stop coming out of the burn tubes and just look like a big pile of very hot logs. Let this go for 2 to 5 hours in this stage and then reload once you are down to just some hot coals. Don't try and reload every two hours.
Click to expand...

When the secondaries stop going off (stove top temp is less then 400) should I start to open the air a little bit to get the temp back up over 400 and the secondaries going again?
 
ad356 said:
not sure of the variety, he is cutting the wood right now but the trees were cut down 2 years ago. im not an expert at wood types, but i know its not pine. it also smells great. this guy has been selling firewood for a long time, nearly everyone around here that buys firewood gets it from him, i have yet to hear any complaints
Click to expand...

First thing you need to do is just enjoy that wonderful aroma of the wood but don't think that the smell has anything to do with how it will burn.

Second. If that fellow is just cutting up the tree, that wood is not seasoned, even if they were cut down 5 years ago.

Third. Unless you know what kind of wood it is, it is difficult for anyone on this forum to properly assist you.

Forth. I know guys who have sold wood for 20 years. They have "satisfied customers." They also have some very ignorant customers because they don't know what wood is what, don't know what dry wood is and don't even know what a cord of wood is. Consequently, this fellow just tells a story and they buy it. Many also have big problems and he has lost several customers because they simply got tired of the problems and quit burning wood. Had someone educated them, they no doubt would be very happy burning wood but first, you have to do the same thing you do with your vehicles. You have to put good fuel in them in order to get good output.

Good luck.
 
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NBABUCKS1 said:
When the secondaries stop going off (stove top temp is less then 400) should I start to open the air a little bit to get the temp back up over 400 and the secondaries going again?
Click to expand...
When it is real cold I sometimes will to speed up the burn. By speeding up the burn I'll get a new load in sooner that will produce more heat. This is if you have an undersized stove for your house and are trying to heat the place! If your stove is doing a good job heating the place, leave the air turned down to extend the burn time and use less wood.

The above is with my Enerzone not my blaze king.
 
aansorge said:
When it is real cold I sometimes will to speed up the burn. By speeding up the burn I'll get a new load in sooner that will produce more heat. This is if you have an undersized stove for your house and are trying to heat the place! If your stove is doing a good job heating the place, leave the air turned down to extend the burn time and use less wood.

The above is with my Enerzone not my blaze king.
Click to expand...


I just don't want to choke it down to the point where I could be creating creosote.
 
When the secondaries go off because you're at the end of a burn cycle and the temperature is drifting down, all of volatile gases in the wood which contribute to creosote have already been burned off. If the secondaries go off at the beginning of the cycle because the wood is either unseasoned and/or the air has been reduced too fast, then, yes, you want to open up the air a bit to get the temperature high enough to burn off the smoke still being emitted by the wood.
 
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NBABUCKS1 said:
I just don't want to choke it down to the point where I could be creating creosote.
Click to expand...
If you have dry wood you will make little to no creosote during an entire heating season. Assuming your flue is good. These new stoves are great....
 
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ad356 said:
well I have had a couple of fires in it. all I can say is that love wood heat. I know its not really cold out yet but I think its going to do just fine. I had a face cord delivered and im getting another face cord Monday, 2 face cords should be plenty to hold me over all winter in my barn since im no living out there. right now I have been burning up some old pallets just to get rid of them and learn how to run the stove. it was 40 degrees outside so I was running the stove with the damper most of the way closed and the air inlet open just a crack. so how do I want to run this stove once it starts to get really cold out? do I want the air inlet most of the way open and the draft open a little more but not all of the way, if its all of the way open I would be letting most of the heat out of the chimney, am I correct??
Click to expand...

well........I'd agree with the Others who said you don't really have dry wood, so you'll get less heat out of the stove than possible. I would also be wondering if you actually have enough wood.........

Now I just bought one of these, and the ONLY reason I bought it is to take the chill off, rather than to heat. My choice was between giving USSC $250 or the electric company $250, and I opted for being able to sell this stove as soon as I finish paying for a Jotul TL50.

So while I have used this size stove before I have some questions, also.

I'm assuming to start with stove flange damper open until good bed of coals established, add another stick or two, then shut down - it doesn't shut down far. Then close sliding plate air inlet, wait an hour or two, and repeat.

I've already got a fire brick covering the streaks for air intake in the sliding plate, as there are plenty of "not air tight" openings by the door bottom.

I placed fire brick horizontally across the bottom of the stove. Instructions called for fire brick or sand, which would result in two very different coverings unless the brick is cut to size.So right now I have an air gap under the bricks, slowly filling up with ash.

I am wondering if I would like to add some brick horizontally on edge across the back of the stove to slightly increase heat retention (I already have the fire brick, not looking to spend more money).

A possibility is adding a shelf on the inside - the removable top from an older version of the same stove. Goal would be to create a baffle to increase time that heat is inside stove, or at worst to simply add heatable mass.

I'm building all the fires in the front of the stove using my shortest pieces of wood.

Thanks !
  • ==c
 
NBABUCKS1 said:
I just don't want to choke it down to the point where I could be creating creosote.
Click to expand...

Choking it down could assist with the creosote but if you get creosote, the wood is not dry enough.
 
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