Controlling burn on old Air-Tite

I've been lurking and reading, but still a newbie. We bought a house in the late winter and burned a bit while remodeling. However, by the time we actually moved in, it was spring and we really didn't have to rely on the stove for heat. Now we are into overnight lows of 30 (Western MA) and we intend to heat 100% with wood. The late 70s house came with what is likely the original wood stove. The chimney sweep was impressed -- called it a Sherman tank. Not the most efficient and certainly not EPA friendly, but it will heat the house (2300 sq. ft.). It's a massive thing -- firebox is 28" deep, 14" wide, 18" high. I've looked online to see who made it or to learn more about it, but I can't seem to find much information. The front of the stove has a raised tree on the door and the words "Air-Tite" across the front. It was two air intake valves on the front. So that's what we're dealing with, if anyone recognizes it.

Here's where I need some help from you more experienced folks. How do I keep a consistent temp in this thing? Granted I'm new to this, but I find myself checking the Condar stove top temp gauge every 20 minutes. The chimney sweep said to keep it between 550 and 650. We get the fire going with some Fatwood and kindling. We load about 5 splits (about 30% of the firebox capacity), keep the door ajar an inch or two for about 5-10 minutes, and since we're burning some good seasoned oak, it can get to well over 650 pretty quickly. We start closing the air off, and to keep it under 650, the valves are nearly closed. Is this OK? We're only burning in the evenings right now to take the chill out of the house, but I'm concerned about keeping this beast between 550 and 650 24/7 once winter arrives.

Open to any and all information you can share! Thanks!

Last night, this thing was roaring at over 700 with just a few pieces of wood. We nearly closed the air intakes to get it down below 650. We wanted to add more wood before we went to bed, but feared an overfire, since it was already burning so hot. What's the trick to being able to add more wood for a longer burn time without the fire getting too hot?

Thanks for the replies, guys. The gaskets are good -- the sweep checked those for us, as well as all of the other things we knew nothing about when we bought this house 8 months ago. We haven't been reloading since we're only burning in the evenings just to take the chill out, but it makes sense to reload at a lower temp. I think we've figured out that we are letting it climb too high before closing the air intakes. Once it hits 700 (ok, in all honesty, it's also hit 800+ a few times), it is nearly impossible to back it down. It hasn't started glowing yet, so I hear that's a good thing. At this exact moment, we are incredibly impressed with ourselves since we finally figured out how to get this thing from a cold start to cruise at 650 for a few hours without having to check it every 15 minutes. Our learning curve is steep, but we're trainable. Seriously, without hearth.com, I think we would have burned the house down by now. THANKS!

begreen said:

It sounds like you are doing pretty well. Is there a key damper on the stove connector pipe? There should be and it should be closed down once the stove is up to temperature. How far to close it will take a bit of experimentation. If the draft is strong you may be able to close it all the way (it will still allow some flue gases to bypass). Doing this you may find that you need to provide a bit more air with the front door knobs. Thicker wood splits will also burn longer and slower. Use them for your overnight burns.

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There is no access to the stove connector pipe. The beast sits on the hearth and is partially submerged in the fireplace. I picked up some Homefire Prest logs today for $1.29 ea. We're going to try them tomorrow during the day when we're home to see what kind of mileage we can get. Unfortunately, our dry splits are on the smaller side; the big guys are all oak and will need another year.

begreen said:

That is too bad, this stove would benefit from some flue dampering. Home Fires are a good product. A few of them at a time should give you a good long burn.

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Begreen - can I please ask a few more questions? Not sure if I should start a new thread or what the protocol is on this forum, so please set me straight if this is the wrong place to ask these questions.

I believe you tested the Homefire product a while back and posted your results in the Wiki. I ran my own test over the weekend and compared my results to yours. I'm probably comparing apples to oranges because of the difference in our stoves.

1. What is your optimal burn temp on your stove? I noticed you were burning around 400. We let it rip to 600, since we were told by the sweep to burn between 550-650. Do those rules apply when burning Homefire logs? Should we have closed the air intake sooner to extend the burn time?
2. We have been told and have read over and again -- never smolder! Make sure we are always burning in that 550-650 range. However, it took the Homefire logs 30 minutes to get to 600 (on 200 degree coals with Fatwood help), it burned at 600 for an hour, then started coming down about 50 degrees per hour. 5 hours into the test, the logs were intact and glowing, but stove top temp was down to 275. Is that a smolder? Is that dangerous on this type of stove?

Thanks!

fbelec said:

try your own test on the door gaskets with the dollar bill. check all around the door and not just one spot. all you need is one spot anywhere that is bad and that's your extra air. also close the stove door and let the stove come up to temp on it's own. start closing the air down at 300 and let the stove do it's work. see how that does for your temps.

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The stove passed the dollar bill test, so we now know it's not that. Thanks for the suggestion -- it was good to be able to rule that out. I will try your suggestion the next time we burn (it's been fairly nice here in western MA).

fbelec said:

you'll get to try out the stove again this weekend. suppose to be a nasty weekend. in my old stove i find the more i try to force things to go faster the longer it takes. when i get everything going i shut the door and it comes up to temp quicker. oh yah i almost forgot, i love tomatoes too.

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Holy fire-breathing dragon, Batman! You were right about letting it climb on its own. It extended the burn time and I have roasted us out of the house over the past 24 hours. I had no idea this dragon could put out so much heat. I am burning small fires and we reload on the hot coals around 300. Lower level library where the stove sits is 90 (with the sliding doors open). Upper level is about 78 with windows open. Way too hot! Now I need to learn how to monitor house temps to keep from cooking us all. I should have gotten the hint when the three dogs left the room, went upstairs, and laid down on the tile floor in the kitchen to cool off. I still don't know what the heck I'm doing, but this stove is amazing!