First year with Kuuma....chimney photos.....

We had a warmer day today so instead of getting home from work and doing the late afternoon load I decided to instead let the coals die down and remove the stove pipe and have a look-see at the inside of my chimney. This is the first time I have looked, seeing this is my first year with the Kuuma. I've been burning since November sometime and started out burning mostly 1.5 year seasoned pine. I burned maybe a little over a face cord of it early on and have since been burning mostly ~2 year seasoned red and white oak.

I was pleasantly surprised when I took a light and shined it up the chimney. The pics actually make it look worse than it is, but all there was was just a very fine white-gray powder. When I wiped it with my fingers it came right off and amounted to less than 1/32" in thickness. The stove pipe had more of a brown-ish powder, but there was no visible creosote anywhere in the stove pipe either. All I did was run my gloved hand down & around the stove pipe and it all came right off and fell to the ground. I'm not even sure it's worth having my chimney cleaned this spring. I may just buy a poly brush and run it up myself from the bottom. It's so light the little bit of natural draft may take most of it up and out on it's own. We have a 12/12 pitch metal roof, so I can't get to it from the top.

jebatty said:

What's been your experience with the different heat settings o the Kuuma? Does it have a coal build-up over time, or do the coals burn down well so that new wood may be added as needed? Any difficulties with the controls?

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I guess there's not much to say about the heat settings other than the more you turn the dial clockwise the more air the computer lets in meaning the more heat it makes and the faster the wood burns. Seems to vary from about 4-8+ lbs/ hr average based on time between re-loads. This is hard to say for sure though as I don't have a consistent level of coals I re-load on. Sometimes I have more than other times based on outside temps. I also just tested some splits of 2 year seasoned red oak I'm currently burning and it ranged from 21-27% on the face of various fresh splits. Not exactly as dry as I would prefer, but it seems to work. I have a 30+ cords being seasoned right now and lots more coming up, so my wood outlook will only be getting better as time goes by. Coal buildup depends on the wood. Some wood leaves more coals than others. Wood with bark will also leave more coals than wood w/o bark, in my experience anyway. I've had no issues with excessive coal buildup at all. If there are an abundance of coals at the rear of the firebox (where they will ALWAYS be due to the front to back burn) when getting close to the end of a burn, I just rake them forward and give it more time. My blower remains on pretty much the whole time I have coals and it's currently set to turn off at 90° (which it does like clockwork).

Our house looses a -TON- of heat when it gets below zero, so there are times when it's -15° out when the furnace is still blowing 90° air with a bed of coals near the end of a burn cycle but it's not enough to keep the house temp from dropping. In cases like this I try to re-load as soon as I feel it's ok to....which means raking the coals forward then pushing them a couple inches off the face and as long as the rear half of the firebox is coal-less I will re-load. When it's above zero I will let the coals burn down more as long as this heat-sieve of a house doesn't start to lose temp.

The controls are about as easy as it gets for a wood burning furnace. The computer takes all the guesswork out of it.

DaveH said:

Great news. My Kuuma ships this week or next and I am hoping the weather cooperates and allows an install. I am just as pleased to hear this was done burning so much pine, because I have unlimited amounts. What type of burn times were you getting with the pine?

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It's been awhile, but I do remember thinking how impressed I was with the results I was seeing. So much in fact I went from planning on using it up in the fire pit for camp fires to wanting to get more to use in the Kuuma during the shoulder seasons.

goosegunner said:

Hey whats up with the Pack AJ Hawk gone, you going to change your name?

Typical Ted Thompson, no value for Veteran players.

gg

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Actually, the Hawk in my name refers to -FIREHAWK- My plate used to read JRHAWK9 (Junior is my nickname, Firehawk and I have the 9th one made in 2000.

AJ was REALLY slowing down and I could see this coming. So did -HE-.