Help please, before i freeze to death

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That is ridiculous. Where did he say he doesn't intend to correct those issues?

The fact that he hasn't once addressed how or if he's going to address the issues, and that he said I quote - "I don't care anymore" would lead most to assume he is not concerned or going to address the hazards. Also why would one concentrate on burn characteristics if they intend to move the stove and pipe out to proper clearances? That would change burning characteristics yet once again.
 
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Could it be that his air control rod came lose from the metal plate that chokes off the air supply and it is now stuck in the closed position?
If memory serves from seeing one in a farm store a while back, I think you can see from under the stove the rod and the flap that covers the air intake, and see it work as you move the rod.
As far as the "harping" on safety issues, these folks are just looking out for your best interest. If you burn your house down and your insurance company determines that the cause is improper installation, and doesn't pay, you'll have a tough time keeping warm without a house, even if your stove is working great. ;)
 
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I just watched your video on "damper", with a fire going that good when I change air control either full open or full closed I get an immediate response in flames and I don't seem to see that in yours. From the descriptions you've provided and all the things you've tried it seems like something is not connected correctly, or clogged from shipping/packing etc., as others have stated. Double-check, triple-check, or have a third party or sweep check it out for proper air control as you mention.
 
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That is ridiculous. Where did he say he doesn't intend to correct those issues?
He has yet to say he is going to correct any of the issues. Which is why i have not given any advice to him yet
 
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People keep mentioning it because he has not acknowledged the problems and said he was going to fix them. People can't in good faith give advice to someone to get their stove burning hotter when in doing so may cause an unsafe condition(ie fire).
 
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I tested some wood. Some 12%, some 18%, some 25%, some more, some less... All from the same batch! Some of the oldest, blackest, crackediest pieces once split will say 30%, while some fresher looking pieces say 11%. If these readings are accurate there is NO WAY anyone can pick out wood by eye!
This definitely confirms one of the potential issues. Wood doesn't dry until it is split, it just starts to rot in the round.
 
I think you should try it without the cap on once.
I actually did for about 10 minutes. the girlfriend said it looked as if the flames got even smaller.

That chimney is just short for a EPA stove to draft properly in anything but bone busting cold weather.
Originally I totally was hoping this was the issue. however its height is exactly what the manufacturer calls for, AND I added 3 more feet and didn't get a sliver of a difference. I'm not going to say this CANT be my issue, but I sure can't seem to verify it is.

Thank you Blazing! So refreshing to hear, especially after hearing how unsafe I'm apparently being. I'm trying to do the best I can with the conditions I have. I'm just here hoping someone will spot something I haven't already questioned. Some people don't realize I have been trying my best to find the answer myself before I even came here. Either way I really appreciate the kind words!!!

can't really tell from the video you posted. What was your impression, did the fire get more brisk with the air open?
My impression was that it didn't change at all. It did die down, but that was due to it being a piece of paper. I could record you guys a video of the same thing when its actually going, and opening and shutting the damper does nothing. Maybe if I can get it to proper operating temp it may, but with the puny little fire I have now, its useless.

As of now my next step is maybe more wood testing, and if that doesn't work, pulling the stove. I have spent mucho denero, and grown many grey hairs... I really want this to one day soon be worth the head and heartache.

thank you all for your suggestions! Keep em coming! =o)


I agree the fire did not seem to change really at all, especially for adjusting it as fully as you did. Maybe the air control is disengaged/unhooked somehow. Is there a way to check this with the stove right where it is? Does if feel "hooked up"?

Cracking a window would rule out a house that was too tight.

And yes great job trying to diagnose your issue. I feel we will all get it right soon!
 
Hmmm, I'm still thinking this is a wood quality issue, with a short chimney problem. I don't think there's anything wrong with the stove itself. 90% vs 10%, to the OP, do you life near a tractor supply? or near a lumber yard? I would try compressed wood bricks and see if that clears anything up, also before you do anymore tests, run a chimney brush down your flue, if its poor wood your burning you may already have some build up restricting what little draft you have.
 
my moneys on the air control lever being disconnected under the stove. Sure sounded loose in his video.
 
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I think the poor guy is just trying to make sure the stove is going to work before he sets everything up as it should be. At this point I would want to know that it worked before I spent a lot of energy and money on making the setup perfect.

Yes he should have done things differently when setting up the stove, most of us know that.

I started off with a Defiant 1A in my new house and after researching it found the side clearances were not met. I put Durock there all winter, and yes it helped although obviously it wasn't ideal. I needed the old stove and the heat, and money was tight. I was very careful. I bought a new stove with proper clearances- getting a lot of help from the people here- and couldn't be happier with it.

People here are extremely knowledgeable and a couple who have made their opinions apparent are some of the most knowledgeable from what I've seen. All I can say is many will try to help you if you hang around but be really careful.
 
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you know I'm starting to doubt joining this forum was the right thing to do...
*edit- never mind, not gonna let some idiots ruin it for me. thanks for your help people who are actually trying to help

The professionals on this forum are concerned, first and foremost, with your life. The last thing they want to do is contribute to you burning your house down, or worse, killing yourself or your family in the process.

Might want to put that in perspective and take their advice to heart.
 
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I'm no expert , I also have a small insert , it's the osburn 1800. This is my 2 nd season I'm starting with burning and had problems also , so my evaluation with your problems is that you have multiple problems. First it's not cold enough for a great draft to take place ! 2 nd :you need smaller splits , play around with pallet skids busted up , this stuff is supper dry , and 3rd: your wood is wet !!! Us beginners must use a meter !! No ifs or butts !!! And last thing , like others mentioned before , that stack looks to short ! But I would make that be the last on the list for now. Best of luck
 
I'm no expert , I also have a small insert , it's the osburn 1800. This is my 2 nd season I'm starting with burning and had problems also , so my evaluation with your problems is that you have multiple problems. First it's not cold enough for a great draft to take place ! 2 nd :you need smaller splits , play around with pallet skids busted up , this stuff is supper dry , and 3rd: your wood is wet !!! Us beginners must use a meter !! No ifs or butts !!! And last thing , like others mentioned before , that stack looks to short ! But I would make that be the last on the list for now. Best of luck
I accidentally added those faces. Sorry
 
I think everyone has missed one of the elephants in the room-

The flue pipe damper. I see this install has a key damper in the stovepipe. These have no purpose in an EPA certified stove install except as a potential tool for limiting a chimney fire or runaway fire (both might be controlled by covering the Outdoor Air Kit inlet though).
Absolutely correct. As stated in the 1st post it is not needed at all. However when youre new to something you tend to ask others for advice. This is what happens when you ask a store associate what all you need. The funny part is the second everything was finished, I looked at my new setup and smiled... until I looked on the kitchen table and saw the damper was still in the bag. chit! So two of my helpers had to lift and hold the chimney up while I removed the joint closest to the stove and installed the damper. After all that, I later saw it was not needed.

Also I do keep the damper open. I was also going to ask on here when its bed time CAN I close this any to maximize my burn (especially since the bottom damper does nothing)

As for the video, anyone experienced can say that wood simply doesn't change its burn state all that fast. You're going back and forth with that damper as if it should make a difference... It won't.
I don't understand this. If you close the only inlet, the firs should respond almost instantly. It does with the door, and it did with the stove damper (before I knew not to use it). Can you explain your thinking on this?

When that baffle, and the stainless burn tubes get super hot, they radiate intense heat downwards back onto the burning wood to help it sustain a clean burn and prevent it from smoldering
Absolutely! And I have seen it do its thing many times. However the key is getting a hot roaring fire, which sometimes I cannot do with apparently this wood. I normally hover around 300 with a lot of my wood, but ever so often Ill get lucky with a piece and the stove will hit 450-500. It gets so hot (probably normal, but new to me) that I turn on the blower to spread the heat. I also keep feeling the wall, and even when the stove hit its highest of 520, I could hold my hand on the wall. Point is at this temp the secondaries are firing like crazy. Beautiful!

Yea definitely something vbulletin needs

The way many of you are speaking towards him is extremely condescending and immature. If I were a new poster I'd probably not be coming back.
Very true! If it weren't for members like you man I would've peaced out a long time ago. The problem is you have these guys that are here everyday and they feel like some kind of authority figure, and they obviously can't handle that. Its not because of what they're saying, but how they go about getting their point across. And if you don't ACKNOWLEDGE that theyre right they keep on and on and on until you do. Kinda like children. These people can't handle not getting their way, so they pout and make comments until someone acknowledges them. This is why I'm done with their bullshit. They have mentioned the issues I need to address over and over and over, I have acknowledged that I see their concerns, but until I satisfy them with what they want they're either going to not help, make stupid comments, or both! Too bad for them I will be moving on without them and will be ignoring any more of their chit! Not because its wrong, but because we've already been there and done that too much already. (Not to mention I just don't like them). So moving forward I need all the people like you to help me and just ignore any more of their messages. Hopefully they will get pissed off and leave the thread. Right or wrong theres a way to talk to people and I just don't want that kind of attitude here. Now moving on

As I'm not experienced enough for the woodstove problem, my .02 cents is to suggest putting a dab of roof caulking on each nail head so snow/water will not rust out nail and penetrate roof causing a leak.
Thank you for your .02 cents. But may I ask how you got this opinion? I mean the only picture of my flashing shows the red silicone. You're not the only one commenting without noticing whats already written, but I want to make sure I couldn't do anything more to help cut down on them.

Thank you brotherbart for helping people see more clearly

Oh and another tip- Every time you open the door, you're cooling down at least part of the firebox. When I light a fire ...
That's a great point! However with my tiny stove, If I don't leave it open long enough to get a good fire, it will go out completely. One there are coals thats a different story, but when first making the stove thats impossible... HOWEVER now that you mentioned this I bet I can keep a fire hotter by not opening the door so often. Again GREAT advice!

Maybe it's just me but it seemed like his air control moved very easy and was very quiet. most of the time moving an air control sounds like a brick on a cheese grater. Could it be that his air control rod came lose from the metal plate that chokes off the air supply and it is now stuck in the closed position
I can definitely feel something hooked to the rod, but I can also feel there is alot of horizontal and vertical play in whatever it is. Its no where close to a seal, maybe an obstruction, but not much of that.

That's why we usually recommend to new members to dry their own wood. When it has been sitting for 2 to 3 years split and stacked in a sunny and windy spot, raised from the ground and top-covered it is almost surely below 20%. Testing a few pieces is then often enough to tell how dry the rest is
Thats a great instruction,but how to new members... Its kind of hard to know in advance that youre gonna be a stove owner until you are. My problem is I did it in September so I have to rely on purchased wood. Moving forward I will definitely be following this method, And great advice on your suggestions

I just watched your video on "damper", with a fire going that good when I change air control either full open or full closed I get an immediate response in flames
This is what I expect too, but some say it won't happen. I can't say for sure, but I know mine does nothing, and if you have to wait 15 minutes then who knows because then the amount of fuel is changed either way so you can't compare it.. or at least I cant.

This definitely confirms one of the potential issues.
I agree.

I agree the fire did not seem to change really at all, especially for adjusting it as fully as you did. Maybe the air control is disengaged/unhooked somehow. Is there a way to check this with the stove right where it is? Does if feel "hooked up"?
I agree with this too. It does feel hooked to something?!? One thing to note is alot of the reviews of this stove have people complaining that the damper is useless. Maybe a design defect.

Cracking a window would rule out a house that was too tight.
Great advice, and mentioned and tested earlier in the thread.

And yes great job trying to diagnose your issue. I feel we will all get it right soon!
Thank you for the kind words, Sure glad to have people like you around! Couldn't do it without you!

90% vs 10%,
???

I would try compressed wood bricks and see if that clears anything up, also before you do anymore tests, run a chimney brush down your flue, if its poor wood your burning you may already have some build up restricting what little draft you have
I will definitely be trying this just to verify its the wood. I'm thinking it is, even though it looks exactly like everyone say is seasoned. Do you really think I will have a creosote build up in 2 weeks?

my moneys on the air control lever being disconnected under the stove. Sure sounded loose in his video
definitely loose, thats for sure, but I'm not so sure its disconnected... I'm leaning towards poor design, but we will see soon enough if and when I try to get proper fuel to burn. HAHAHA Side note, when I was in college, my dog had its leg broke and I didn't have any money to get it fixed. I asked my dad for the money and he gave me his credit card. I took my dog to the vet and had its leg reset and wrapped. A month later he called me mad as hell and asked me why I lied to him about my dog. Puzzled I asked him to explain, and he said he got his credit card receipt and the money I spent was to a place called Kindred Spirits... He thought that sounded like a bar!!! Hahaha takeaway from this story is theres a veterinary office in orlando with your screen name! Hahaha (laughing at my father not your name)

I think the poor guy is just trying to make sure the stove is going to work before he sets everything up as it should be. At this point I would want to know that it worked before I spent a lot of energy and money on making the setup perfect.
DING DING DING We have a winner folks!

Again its NOT the message I have a problem with, Its the delivery of the message I have a problem with, Its the acting like my work is purposely shabby that I have a problem with, its refusing to offer other advice unless I meet your demands of a correctional plan I have a problem with, Its being an poophead and just making condescending and UNNECESSARY comments I have a problem with. Listen people, help or not, but I'm not going to discuss this crap anymore, i'm not going to defend myself anymore, and I'm not going to respond to anymore people trying to tell me that everyone here has good intentions,,.

I ALREADY KNOW ALL THIS THATS NOT WHAT I HAVE ISSUES WITH!!!!!!!!

Are we clear yet? Can we move on? Is the dead horse-kicking over yet? Doesn't matter because I know its not!
 
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I don't understand this. If you close the only inlet, the firs should respond almost instantly. It does with the door, and it did with the stove damper (before I knew not to use it). Can you explain your thinking on this?
So the door and the pipe damper make huge changes to the airflow of the firebox; door fans the flames with cool air (and a lot of it), pipe damper basically stops the whole airflow (except for a tiny bit that leaks through holes/gaps in the damper). Both of those would cause rather immediate changes in the wood's burn characteristics. They're both 12 pound sledgehammers so to speak.

The stove damper (primary air control down below) only makes changes to the primary air, which usually comes down from the top of the stove glass (the "airwash" that keeps the glass relatively clean) into the fire. What's not being adjusted here is the secondary air, which comes out of the burn tubes/holes in the top of the firebox, and EPA stoves are not meant to have that adjusted anyhow. So the change you're making with the primary air is more subtle (the rubber mallet), and you might not notice a huge change in the fire's appearance at first until 5-10 minutes later when everything's established a new "equilibrium". For one, air coming from the secondary tubes that is relatively cool (maybe the rear burntube for example) might be sinking down in the firebox to fan the wood similar to what primary air does, and with the primary air closed down there will be more air moving through the secondary burn tubes anyhow (same amount of chimney draft "vacuum" being pulled, with primary air choked off all the vacuum is being met with secondary burntube airflow). So it's more of a rebalancing adjustment, and only somewhat of a restriction.

To answer the other question about using the pipe damper later on in the burn, no, it won't help. Since it arrests the airflow by a large amount (primary & secondary airflow) it'll kill off any clean-burn features of the stove (these do depend on the coals & flame burning hot enough, and that is in part determined by how fast air gets pulled through the stove & wood) so the wood just smolders away, flames gone, creosote building up in your chimney (and a future chimney- and possibly house-destroying chimney fire in the process of being built). If it's all the way down to coals, sometimes you can get away with using one of those dampers but bear in mind you have a big mass of carbon monoxide-producing solid fuel in your stove with a tight restriction on its only way of getting out of your house. Not a good idea IMO.

Bear in mind with the primary air control closed all the way, there is very little air touching the coals anyway, just enough to keep them lit but only that. So closing the primary air control pretty much accomplishes that goal (of keeping the coals lit and extending the burn) anyhow. When you go to reload the stove on a still-hot coalbed, you rake the coals closer to the front and open the primary air all the way (so the airwash primary air fans the coals and gives them their vigor back).

The general procedure for starting a cold stove is to keep the primary air control open fully until the stovetop reaches 500F or so... then turn it back in increments, say 1/3rd of the primary air damper rod's travel at a time, giving 5-10 minutes between each adjustment to let the fire reach a new "equilibrium". With good secondary combustion happening, eventually you can close the primary air completely and it'll continue the light show with very lazy, ghostly-looking bluish-orange flames dancing around between the wood and baffles.
 
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So the door and the pipe damper make huge changes...
gonna read this 2 0r 3 times to get all this valuable information out!!! Thank you!!!

My post or woodys
yours, I was talking about the accidental smileys. I learned earlier in the post history that 3 !'s together are code that invokes those smileys you accidentally posted. I laughed because I to accidentally made smileys in a post when I didn't intend to
 
I dont see any problem with the damper as long as you keep it open but with the height of your chimney i don't think it will ever be needed. But it really will not hurt anything keeping it there and open other than the fact that it will make it harder to clean later. I do totally agree that the fire will not respond very fast in most cases to adjusting the air. In the video i am not surprised there was no change as fast as you changed it back. I will apologize if i came off to strong and offended you that was not my goal. But as a chimney professional i am obligated to tell people when i see a potential hazard. But i will let it go now i just hope you do in fact correct the issues. I would suggest taking the advice of one of the other posters and trying some compressed logs. If they do not work then you know it is not the wood and we can move on to another issue.
 
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The problem is you have these guys that are here everyday and they feel like some kind of authority figure, and they obviously can't handle that.
I do want to respond to that though it is not because i am here that i feel that i am a bit of an authority on the subject it is the many years of experience in the field and all of the training and testing i have done. I am not just some guy on the internet making this stuff up as i go along. If you choose not to heed our advise that is on you. But i am not going to loose my certification by not following the code of ethics. Which requires me to make you fully aware of potential safety issues. Sorry to bring it up again i just wanted to be clear on my motives
 
And if you don't ACKNOWLEDGE that theyre right they keep on and on and on until you do. Kinda like children.

Honestly what this whole aspect of the dialogue is reminding me of is teaching a young person to drive - they're focused on going faster, the instructor is trying to point out the TRAIN, and the student is the one getting mad.

Your post title seeks help from freezing to death, but if the help you seek works you may very quickly be threatened from the opposite problem. It keeps getting mentioned because, 'yeah - a train, big deal' is exactly how you're coming across...

If I'm not mistaken multiple responders here are in the field and if they sound like that driving instructor I don't blame them at all - it's what they do.

Best of luck, and OBTW my money is on a problem with the draft control, possibly just technique. It took me a while to gain "the touch" on my insert and for me there is good half to a full minute's lag between cause and effect - it's not like a gas knob.

Cheers,
- Jeff
 
Was that wood bought, too? In order to get it below 20% moisture content it needs to be split and stacked in a spot with lots of sun and wind. It is rare to find a firewood seller who has the time and space to do that. Still, they often advertise their wood as "seasoned" because it has been sitting in logs on their yard before being split sometimes at the day of delivery. A moisture meter will give you a final answer. I am also with jatoxico that wood still in rounds dries very poorly (at least in my hands). I now split everything down to 2" diameter branches at least once before stacking.

I would try BeGreen's suggestion of lumber scraps or go for compressed wood logs like Envi-blocks, BioBricks etc. That will help in figuring out whether the wood is the problem.

A moisture meter is an absolute necessity. In my experience, many sellers are peddling wood that hasn't been split and left to season properly, but they don't go out of their way to tell you that. The only reliable way to know if your wood is dry or not is to use the moisture meter. Otherwise it's too much guesswork. You'd be surprised at how "dry" your wood seems to be, and then the reading you get off the meter. This was a big part of the trouble I had trying to burn last year as a newbie.
 
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